I wondered if anyone who is feeding a raw diet experienced a new food allergy develop while on that diet. I'm posing this question on the off chance that someone may had had a related experience. Having dealt with allergy problems for years, I know that food (protein) allergies are just a small portion of the overall allergy picture. Here the situation: I have my current female GSD about 1-1/2 yrs and she's been fed raw almost since day 1, on chicken (primarily), beef, fish, veggie glop, eggs, yogurt, Omega 3/6 supplements, E, etc. In that time, she's had 5-6 bouts of 1-2 day itching/scratching flareups that went away without significant intervention. I attributed them to inhalant or envronmental sources.

In the last couple months, she's had fairly persistent problems that won't go away. The vet says since nothing's changed in the last year or so and the allergy season is past, it's probably a food allergy - put her on Science Diet z/d allergen free kibble. My response is (Dana Carvey as Bush), "Not gonna do it!" So far, tried Benadryl for over a week (which did nothing) and then prednisone, which of course works right away, but rules out a allergy blood test 'til she's off it for at least 4 weeks. I still think it's an environmental or inhalant thing.

I want to get it under control enough to get her off pred long enough to get the blood test, so will probably try some different antihistamines. I don't think drastic diet changes (as in z/d) are the thing to try right now, but I could switch to another primary protein source to see what happens.

Any experiences?

We have a male that has had allergies from day one.We did every test in the book, spent $$$ to know why.I am convinced to this day that they are born with it( immune deficiency) and it is genetic.I also noticed with mine that he does not get any sores from it and has a bit of dry skin but he eats raw, and we have tried to see all if any foods ,proteins he might be allergic too.We went as far as giving him allergie shots(waste of money) they were telling us that he was allergic to grass, tomatoes(he never had).
The next time I buy a GSD I am going to ask if the dam or sire itch alot.I wonder if mutts have that problem? Nothing has worked for us.It's been 3 years.
By the way we have done every diet test possible, to even put him on kibbles! I thought what ever it takes to have him stop the itch, but we quickly went back on the Raw with no results to why he itches!

QUOTE: I could switch to another primary protein source to see what happens. END

That's what I'd do. Maybe buffalo or venison or whatever you can get. You can probably even get ostrich where you live, BTW.

I know that you know a lot about allergies, Mike, and that proteins are generally the culprits in canine food allergies (if it is food, I mean).

One thing is that allergies develop with exposure, so indeed switching to a different protein entirely is a good test. Probably the best test (again, if it's food).

I'm not too thrilled with that response from the vet about inhalants, since, again, allergies develop with exposure, and this can happen with environmental allergies too.

I'd start washing off her paws and belly (pits and groin) with baby wipes or something else convenient after walks and grass-play, and make sure she isn't dragging in to her bedding and the carpet one of her inhalant allergens (if she has 'em).

As you know, skin tests have blood tests beat, if you can do it. The scratch (skin) tests are the gold standard, but even they are only about 75% accurate. Then the lab makes up desensitizing injections of that dog's particular allergens. I have had success with this, with a 33-allergy dog, but it took weeks to start seeing results with the daily (gradually decreasing) injections, and then months to see full results. At that point, her allergies were about 3/4 controlled. She needed Hydroxyzine in spring and fall, of course fish oil all the time, very occasional Pred (as opposed to daily, which she was on when she came to me), and keeping pollen, etc, washed off her feet and undercarriage when she came inside in certain seasons.

Yes, I agree 100% that it's genetic (and allergic dogs should not be bred), and that it's an immune response.

Unfortunately, many dogs are bred before the allergies appear.

And P.S., I too would love to hear first-hand accounts of a food allergy developing while on raw, and how it was resolved.

It makes sense to me that it can happen; why not? But I have never actually heard of it directly, despite all the people I've discussed canine allergies with.

We do pred once in a while just to give him some comfort on bad days.He gets fish oil, I really could never tell what realy triggered his itch, I had done a diary for a year and could not pin point one thing.It's like a big mystery to me.But yes like you said unfortunely a lot of breeders don't see it until it's too late or too some dogs that live in kennels, you might not see the extreme itching that goes on all day as supposed to us that live with our dogs 24/7
Good luck Mike I hope the itch does not produce any sores or abscess, just plain old itch.

 Quote: angelique cadogan

We do pred once in a while just to give him some comfort on bad days. . .

So far, it's just plain itch for us. And that's the way it was with my last GSD. Seems to me I did a blood test on him and didn't get any results that were helpful. You get torn between trying to decide if the tests might give you an answer or just be a waste of money.

Have you tried or considered antihistamines either alone or in conjunction with a lower dose of pred? I think that's where I'm headed. I can already rule out Benadryl, but there's a couple left to try. You can search "antihistamine" here and find it discussed in some older posts.

Even tho I keep the pred dose as low as possible, still don't like giving her something longterm that can have bad cumulative effects.

BTW, learned something of interest that was in a printout the vet gave me that I hadn't known before - actually, it's from veterinarypartner.com:

". . .Prednisone/prednisolone are commonly used for several weeks or even months at a time to get a chronic process under control. It is important that the dose be tapered to an every other day schedule once the condition is controlled. The reason for this is that body will perceive these hormones and not produce any of its own. In time, the adrenal glands will atrophy so that when the medication is discontinued, the patient will be unable to respond to any stressful situation. An actual circulatory crisis can result. By using the medication every other day, this allows the body's own adrenal glands to remain active. . ."

Interesting.

I have a dog thas had allergies from day 1 and on a raw diet

He is allergic to chicken and flax seed (I don't know if the flax is an allergy or he just can't tolerate it but it is a real bother as they put flax in just about every kibble nowadays).

I DID use the Z/D, not as a maintennace diet, but long enough to do an elmination diet and figure out what was causing his problems. It is very hard to get away from the allergens but, remember, they are to the proteins and not the fats and oils. So my dog seems to be able to tolerate chicken fat in his food just fine.

He is no longer eating raw but has been on a fish based dog food (and grains don't seem to bother him, go figure) for over a year now. I imagine, over time, he may develop allergies to this too but we can rotate out to something else new