Facts about Dog Food Allergies

Posted on October 12th, 2012

By Alfred J. Plechner, D.V.M.

Dog food allergies are becoming more and more prevalent every day. The day of feeding our best friend any kind of food whenever, has slowly come to an abrupt halt. Much of the dog food allergies come from the myriad of food ingredients that are used in present day dog foods.

Good nutrition is simple and the longer the list of ingredients in the dog food, the worse the food. Did you realize that the first 3 ingredients on the label of the dog food represent 90% of that diet? I personally have worked with dog food allergies for 50 years. I created the first non-meat commercial pet food in the world. I also created the first lamb and rice commercial pet food and after dogs had been exposed to this food for 10 years or so developed sensitivities which I had already been researching why this was happening.

There was the need then to create limited antigen diets for those dogs that developed further dog food allergies. The diets were called Innovative Veterinary Diet and contained just one protein like venison, duck, fish and rabbit and one carbohydrate which was white potato because many dog food allergies had developed to rice. Many of my diets have been copied by many of the dog food manufacturers which was good because my diets helped "clean up" the dog food industry. However, these manufacturers have now substituted sweet potatoes which are mainly there to appeal to the taste of the owner whether harmful or not for their dog. Unfortunately sweet potatoes are much higher in estrogen than white potatoes. The increased amount of estrogen occurring in the sweet potatoes can only lead to further problems for dogs with dog food allergies. I have seen this time and time again. Those patients with dog food allergies that are managed on duck and white potatoes have all their signs of allergy return when they are fed duck and sweet potato.

The reason for the development of dog food allergies over many years is due to the gene pool getting to close because of popular structure and not function, breeding practices. When this happens a hormone antibody imbalance is created referred to as Plechner's Syndrome. Once this syndrome is in place, it allows the deregulated immune system to make antibodies to all foods that are ingested after a given time of exposure. If your pet suffers from dog food allergies, it is crucial that you have this simple syndrome blood test performed by your veterinarian before there will be no food on earth that your dog can eat without having a reaction.

To read more about Plechner's Syndrome and the cause of cat allergies please look at other articles on this website as well as look at the books underPublished Works and on Amazon.com.

Copyright ©2012