Look Before You Leap

After reading our last piece on food allergy, some of you believe your pet is suffering from this condition, and you want some forward progress. Yesterday. But if you rush to the store for a “different” diet—yes, even from the Expensive Aisle—you’ll still be treading water. Here’s why:

Allergic reactions to food generally happen on the interior surface of the gut. The offending particle, or allergen, is most often a protein. It’s recognized (much like a key in a lock) by the gut’s immune cells, and those cells crank up the alarm. The silent sound of it travels all over the body, and every detachment in the immune army gets to work, doing what they do best: redness, swelling, itching and burning. When the particle in question is actually dangerous (the surface of an infectious germ, for example), these actions help to push it out of the body, and that’s good. When the particle’s a harmless piece of chicken, we call this allergy.

We are seeking a food that does not contain the mystery particle that so offends our pet. But the first thing to know about pet store foods is that they are mostly made out of the same ingredients, in varying amounts and with different-sounding fine-print names. The second thing to recall is that very little regulation is exerted over the pet food industry. Ingredients not mentioned on the label have been detected in many pet diets. That’s highly important to a food allergic pet and her magnifying glass-toting owner. If the ingredients are not even accurately reflected on the little label, how can you hope to make an appropriate choice?

One efficient means of addressing this issue is the hydrolyzed diet. These are prescription recipes created by reputable veterinary food companies in which the proteins have been fragmented prior to packaging. Those keys that previously engaged the immune system to sound a whole-body alarm are thus broken in half and cannot effectively wreak their havoc. This kind of diet is not meant for long term use, only for a period of 8-10 weeks, so that the diagnosis of food allergy may be confirmed. 

Novel ingredient diets are another way to go. They rely on unusual components that your pet has hopefully never eaten. Some examples are kangaroo, duck, quail, rabbit, and bison meat. Food allergies take time to develop, so brand-new ingredients would be very unlikely to cause a problem. The new diet might not help if it’s too similar to the allergen (e.g., quail meat in a chicken-allergic pet, or bison meat used against a beef allergy). Novel ingredient food can be used permanently, if eating it relieves the patient’s discomfort.

There is a boatload of information out there regarding pet foods. You’ll want to evaluate the source thoroughly before you go spending a fortune on diet that won’t accurately test or treat food allergy. Don’t waste a boatload of money treading water: see a veterinarian for advice on this condition.
Dr M.S. Regan