Food Trial How to
The best way to rule in or out a food allergy is to do a trial, but it's worth doing correctly! A poorly-done trial means you may have to do it again and since it takes at least 8-12 weeks to rule something out, getting it right the first time will save you time and frustration!
Although blood and saliva tests are available, they are not as simple or accurate as the basic Food Trial. A Food Trial involves a change of the diet to a completely novel (new) diet with new ingredients. Animals will become allergic at any age (although it is commonest in young animals) and they only become allergic to food items they are, or have been, receiving.
To choose a new diet please consider the following:
1. Check the ingredients list, not just the front of the bag. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP
Watch for protein or carbohydrate sources (eg. oats, animal fats, soya etc) halfway
down the list. You ALSO want to avoid these in your new diet.
2. Find something your pet has NEVER had before.
You may need to find something very unusual. Nowadays, pet foods are available
with buffalo, duck, venison and kangaroo as protein sources. Hills offers salmon,
duck and venison options. Rayne has kangaroo as well.
3. Eliminate everything else going into the mouth.
No rawhides, dentabones, treats, table scraps, pig's ears, bullysticks etc. The food
itself can be used as a treat, or a MATCHING treat (again, check ingredients) can
be used.
4. Consider hydrolyzed diets
These foods are prepared in a way that makes the protein source unrecognizable to
the body, so cannot trigger allergies. They are more expensive than novel protein
diets, but can be used for pets who have tried almost everything or have multiple
allergies.
5. Continue the trial for 8 solid weeks.
It's a long time, but any less and we cannot rule out allergies as a cause of the
irritation. It is worth doing right. If it seems to work a bit, but not 100%, then go to 12 weeks.
Please remember that the food trial diet does not have to be the permanent diet after the 8 weeks; if the symptoms resolve during the trial, then we can re-introduce food items one at a time to find the culprits and get your pet onto a maintenance food that also does not trigger allergies. If the symptoms do not resolve, then we have eliminated food allergies as the cause of the problem and can move onto other diagnoses. Please remember that some pets may have improvement, but not entire resolution; they may have multiple issues needing addressing but without tackling the food allergy, resolution is not possible.
Although blood and saliva tests are available, they are not as simple or accurate as the basic Food Trial. A Food Trial involves a change of the diet to a completely novel (new) diet with new ingredients. Animals will become allergic at any age (although it is commonest in young animals) and they only become allergic to food items they are, or have been, receiving.
To choose a new diet please consider the following:
1. Check the ingredients list, not just the front of the bag. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP
Watch for protein or carbohydrate sources (eg. oats, animal fats, soya etc) halfway
down the list. You ALSO want to avoid these in your new diet.
2. Find something your pet has NEVER had before.
You may need to find something very unusual. Nowadays, pet foods are available
with buffalo, duck, venison and kangaroo as protein sources. Hills offers salmon,
duck and venison options. Rayne has kangaroo as well.
3. Eliminate everything else going into the mouth.
No rawhides, dentabones, treats, table scraps, pig's ears, bullysticks etc. The food
itself can be used as a treat, or a MATCHING treat (again, check ingredients) can
be used.
4. Consider hydrolyzed diets
These foods are prepared in a way that makes the protein source unrecognizable to
the body, so cannot trigger allergies. They are more expensive than novel protein
diets, but can be used for pets who have tried almost everything or have multiple
allergies.
5. Continue the trial for 8 solid weeks.
It's a long time, but any less and we cannot rule out allergies as a cause of the
irritation. It is worth doing right. If it seems to work a bit, but not 100%, then go to 12 weeks.
Please remember that the food trial diet does not have to be the permanent diet after the 8 weeks; if the symptoms resolve during the trial, then we can re-introduce food items one at a time to find the culprits and get your pet onto a maintenance food that also does not trigger allergies. If the symptoms do not resolve, then we have eliminated food allergies as the cause of the problem and can move onto other diagnoses. Please remember that some pets may have improvement, but not entire resolution; they may have multiple issues needing addressing but without tackling the food allergy, resolution is not possible.