Dogs & Food Intolerance Testing Your Dog For Food Allergies Could Your Dog Have A Food Intolerance? By Jessica Peralta in Nutrition And Diet Six-year-old, long-coated akita Nyoko had severe non-responsive inflammatory bowel disease, lost half of her body weight and her hair. She suffered from bloody diarrhea and demonstrated noise phobias of thunderstorms, fireworks and motorcycles. She also tested as having hypothyroidism. Her veterinarian was recommending euthanasia. . . Testing Your Dog For Food Sensitivities . . . Desperate, her pet parent learned about NutriScan – a saliva-based food sensitivity and intolerance test developed by veterinary diagnostician and thyroid expert Dr Jean Dodds DVM. The test was performed on Nyoko and it turned out she was reactive to chicken, corn, cow’s milk, soy, turkey, venison, wheat, white fish and millet. Once those foods were removed from her diet and her hypothyroidism was treated, Nyoko came back up to her healthy weight of 85 pounds and got back to her normal energy levels. While Nyoko’s story may sound like an extreme case, it’s far from atypical. According to NutriScan.org, while true food allergies (typically immediate and violent reactions) are rare, food sensitivities and intolerances are much more common and can result in a reaction over a longer period of time. And reactions can run the gamut of symptoms, from gastrointestinal problems like chronic diarrhea to skin issues like itching, skin lesions and hair loss. Take, for instance, 2-year-old Australian shepherd Socrates, who suffered from engorged, pink skin and chronic diarrhea since he was a puppy. After he tested reactive to beef, chicken, corn, cow’s milk and wheat, the foods were removed. He got healthy and he’s now a therapy dog for autistic children. And then there’s Jagger, a 1 1/2-year-old Gordon setter who had skin eruptions ranging from benign to infected lesions. His food contained salmon or salmon oil, and fish oil supplements. After a biopsy showing an allergy, he was put on a fish and potato diet and an antihistamine. His condition worsened within the week. At this point, NutriScan testing was performed and ended up showing reactions to corn, pork, venison, white fish, millet, peanut, rabbit and salmon (a strong reaction). His skin totally cleared up within days of taking him off the fish and fish oils. (Find out how you can help your dog’s allergies with food energetics!) How Does NutriScan Work? The test measures the levels of IgA and IgM antibodies in the saliva, according to the NutriScan website. These antibodies are produced by the body in order to fight food sensitivities, so they offer the perfect measure of a reaction taking place. In fact, a food intolerance can lead to one of these antibodies showing up in the saliva as early as five months before bowel disease shows clinical symptoms. And, sometimes these antibodies can show up in the saliva without even appearing in the blood. As opposed to food elimination diets that can take weeks and even months to attempt to figure out the offending food or foods, NutriScan requires only that a small piece of cotton rope (provided in a kit) be inserted in your dog’s mouth for a couple of minutes. Your dog shouldn’t eat anything for three hours before testing. After the kit is submitted by you or your vet’s office, you’ll have the results back in a couple of weeks. Nutriscan currently tests for 24 common food antigens. |
1 Attachment(s) If you would like to read about Turbo's food intolerance journey, here's his NutriScan thread: http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/yor...-test-kit.html Post #10 has his test results. He is doing excellent. Attachment 405010 Sunning b4 bath time. |
That test is not proven or even recommended by other vets. I have talked to several and they all say the only way to for sure what foods your dog is allergic to is by the elimination diet. |
BTW, I didn't need to go through my vet to order the NutriScan test...I ordered it directly from the website. |
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Very interesting. If it works it would be a godsend for dogs with food allergies as the elimination diet can take a while. What is the price? I saw another poster's opinion that this test may not be that great and is not vet recommended, but with knowing absolutely nothing about it seeing that Dr. Jeanne Dodds is involved with it gives me some reassurance. I know of her mainly through vaccination research. |
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This has some interesting things to say about saliva testing for allergy's. Integrating Myths and Nonsense with Standard Advice for Allergic Pets | The SkeptVet |
As far as this test being legit, I have no doubts about it bc Turbo tested for it. I avoided the foods he can't have, according to the results. He stopped vomiting. Started gaining his weight back. That's all I need as proof that it works. I'm not saying it will work for all dogs...Turbo had no underlying issues. His thing was simply food intolerance. Dr. Dodds has real clients/ patients, dogs that have greatly improved upon having been tested w/NutriScan. Food elimination was very difficult for him...as you can read in his thread, I totally got it wrong. I thought he couldn't have beef or eggs. The thing is, he would throw up, up to 2 days later, after eating the offending food. W/4 proteins that he can't have, 3 of which were regular foods in his diet, it would've taken a very long time to figure out. (I say 3 bc the other he can't have is venison. They've tried venison b4 & they all had soft poopies, so I stopped giving that protein.) Which means more vomiting, losing more weight & who knows what other ailments that would have lead to... Quote:
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I recent asked a specialist again about this test. I was told to save my $. |
I saw this test . . . |
I don't presently have a dog with allergies, but I did in the past. Some people here on YT don't respect Dr. Dodds, and that is their right and opinion. I happen to respect a great deal about what she has done. As for other vets not supporting this test, I'm not surprised because it's not unusual for many vets not supporting anything different from the norm. Giving this test would not harm any dog, so the only thing that could be hurt is my pocketbook. Had I known of a test like this when my Kiwi was alive, I would have tried it. We tested for environmental allergies, and I gave her shots for them. I tried seeing if some of her allergies could have been food related, but I failed at. I wouldn't have used the results as a definite result, but it could have been used as a starting point. I don't like throwing away money, but it would have been worth it for me. I happen to respect Dr. Dodds. We never did blood tests for food allergies because I know they're not reliable, but if there was a chance that this could have helped my little girl, it would have been worth it to me. She had terrible allergies and colitis, and although she was a happy little girl, they affected her quality of life and health. |
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