I own a pet shop and work closely with a local veterinarian's office to provide products they suggest. Two of my better-selling dog foods are Taste of the Wild and Timberwolf (which I feed my own dogs when not feeding raw). The vets at this clinic don't care for these foods because of the "novel proteins" (elk, bison, venison, etc.). How exactly does eating a certain meat source "create" allergies to it? I have searched the Internet high and low, and what little information on the formation of allergies I can find seems conflicting.

I see SO many dogs (oddly, especially mixed breeds)that eat limited ingredient diets and treats, have to get Prednisone, and frankly look like Hell! Hot spots, bad skin, filthy ears, odor, you name it... I have an English bulldog, which is the poster child of cursed breeds, but mine eats raw bone-in chicken, beef organs, a raw egg, and some chopped veggies most days, only receives rabies vaccines out of the suggested vacs, and both of my dogs have great teeth, beautiful coats, come up heart worm negative every year, seldom get a flea, and even with their short noses can outwork most dogs I have ever met. Am I lucky to have gotten "good eggs?" Could all the exercise and hands on time be a factor?

I understand "being allergic" to a food on the surface. But what creates these and why isn't it more prevalent if it is only exposure?

Hey Chip!
This book really helps explain it all:
"The Allergy Solution for Dogs" by Shawn Messonnier, DVM
http://leerburg.com/971.htm

Actually, it would probably sell out in your store, you might want to consider carrying it to sell. Just something to consider.

Eating a novel protein can't create an allergy to it. But a strict "elimination diet" to test for allergic response generally begins with a novel protein--meaning a protein that dog has never eaten. Novel to one dog isn't necessarily novel to the next.

That's still no reason not to feed a dog a high quality kibble just because it contains an "unusual" protein (a better term, since once a dog has eaten it, it's no longer "novel.")

All that said, I don't think dogs have nearly as many "food allergies" as lots of people think--certainly not to meat sources. Much much much more likely that a dog with allergy symptoms is responding to an inhaled environmental allergen or a flea allergy. Sensitivity to something plant-based (corn, alfalfa) is much more likely than a true allergy to any animal protein. That's not to say there aren't dogs with an actual allergic response to chicken or beef. I just think that lots of dogs who've been diagnosed with a "chicken allergy" are actually responding to something else--some other ingredient in the diet, or, more likely, something like mold, pollen, or dust mites.

In addition to the info given by other posters, I think you might have run into a valid resistance on the part of the vets to what can amount to decimating the number of novel-protein sources.

As explained, an elimination diet is a strict limited-ingredient diet based on only foods the dog has never eaten. (You see how individual this is.) If the owner has fed the dog everything from ostrich to bison already, what is left to form an elimination diet around? My own suggestion is always to reserve a few exotic but available protein sources for just such a need. More than one poster here has expressed frustration at trying to compose an elimination diet for a dog whose history is unknown, who has lived with cats (and so has almost surely eaten fish, whether used or not), and who has now been eating the exotic-protein foods in a flailing-around but disorganized attempt to try new sources on him.

Of course, the information about food allergies being so much less likely that either flea hypersensitivity or environmental/inhalant allergies is spot on. Fewer than 10% of dog allergies are food allergies, regardless of what the "hypoallergenic" dog food manufacturers would like us and our vets to believe. (Ever notice how many owners, when they take their itchy, miserable dog to the vet, are given a suggestion of one of the specialty foods? How many of them know that the chances of it even being a food allergy are extremely slim?)

eta
Food allergies do exist, of course, and it's no help to the dog who has one to know that he's in a small percentage of allergic dogs. I would hate to have to contrive a limited-ingredient all-novel diet for a dog who had already eaten everything but human limbs.


Edited by Connie Sutherland (06/05/2010 10:55 AM)
Edit reason: eta

My vet and a proff from college and I had this conversation once years ago when the food industry started with the novel foods and my understanding of it is....if you start a dog on a novel protein and they develope an allergy to it (the novel protein) it limits your options for foods. They weren't so much against the protein sources as the feeding of them to start with with a non allergic dog. So their worry was that you would then have a hard time finding something to feed that they weren't allergic to. IF your dog already ran the gamut of corn/chicken/lamb....whatever then went to a novel protein that was another kettle of fish.

Sorry, I was typing as Connie was posting. She probably explained it better too. ;P

Thanks for all the information and book recommendation!

So, if I am understanding correctly, once a dog has eaten venison, rabbit, etc., there is no benefit to removing these item from the diet to "shelve" for later should a food allergy occur? Just having eaten it (with no allergic reactions), is all the exposure it would take?

I wish I had photo-journaled some of the dogs that have come through my shop. Many were eating decent foods (Iams, Science Diet, Eukanuba, etc.), and were messes. A few weeks on a much better grain-free food and they looked like new dogs. I always assumed a corn or wheat allergy, but perhaps it was just seasonal/chance?

 Quote: chip bridges

... So, if I am understanding correctly, once a dog has eaten venison, rabbit, etc., there is no benefit to removing these item from the diet to "shelve" for later should a food allergy occur? Just having eaten it (with no allergic reactions), is all the exposure it would take?

That is correct.

The first time the dog eats a protein food that triggers an allergic reaction, the immune system develops allergen-specific IgE antibodies against it. The NEXT time the food is eaten, those antibodies attack it. Histamine and other chemicals are released by mast cells, causing the allergic response symptoms. (Remember that dogs' histamine receptors are mainly in their skin, whereas ours are largely in our mucus membranes, like in the nostrils, lungs, throat, eyes, etc.) If the system has made antibodies against a food, that food is instantly "recognized" as an enemy to be attacked.

If the dog has tasted a protein source, that food is no longer useful in an elimination diet, which, again, is a limited-ingredient diet of novel (novel to the individual dog) foods.

 Quote: Chip Bridges

.... I wish I had photo-journaled some of the dogs that have come through my shop. Many were eating decent foods (Iams, Science Diet, Eukanuba, etc.), and were messes. A few weeks on a much better grain-free food and they looked like new dogs. I always assumed a corn or wheat allergy, but perhaps it was just seasonal/chance?

No need for a photo-journal here (but go right ahead! It's fine to post a link). It's a familiar story. They went from cereal to meat.

This isn't a board where you will find enthusiasm for any of those foods. I call them Crap in a Bag, but I stole that from Cindy Rhodes. Dogs are not designed to eat grain-heavy foods. Picture wolves sitting around the den with their bowls of cereal.


eta Waiting-room dog foods have a lot to answer for, IMHO.

I agree, and don't carry any foods with grains (except rice.) But it is really in the public consciousness that those three I mentioned are good foods. I try to steer folks to dogfoodanalysis.com, but some won't hear it. Why is Science Diet in practically every vet's office? Surely after all those years in school nutrition came up?

 Quote: Chip Bridges

Why is Science Diet in practically every vet's office? Surely after all those years in school nutrition came up?

Hills-Science Diet contributes to almost every vet school. Hills donates tons of free food to veterinary students for their dogs and cats. Hills gives lots of other goodies (emblazoned with their logo) to vet students. Hills funds a nutrition professorship in 40% of US vet schools. Hills employees authored a small-animal nutrition textbook and Hills distributes it, free, to students. Hills sends vets to seminars on making clinics more profitable. Hills offers a nutrition-certification program for clinic technicians.