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.

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.

Yes but it's not recommended or used by vets.

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.

I would talk to your vet about it and see what they think. My vet doesn't recommended it.

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...

It's $280 to test for 24 foods: Order NutriScan

Maybe this is obvious but I wanted to ask anyway. Does your vet not recommend it b/c it's not proven? Or does your vet have other reasons for not recommending it?

If it was a legit test and actually trustworthy there would be other vets recomending it. That's is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on something that has no science to back it up.

It's not proven and there is no science to back it up.

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.

Respectfully, I don't think that vets don't support things because they are "not the norm". While I have not read much about this test, my guess is it just does not have the scientific proof to back it at this point.

People constantly complain about what vets charge. Imagine a vet suggesting someone do a test on a dog and then they find out there is no research to back it? I am not saying that about THIS test....just speaking in general. People don't believe educated folks and yet they believe just about anything they read on the internet.

I am lucky that I have never had a dog with food allergies or any allergy, but I am curious?? If you go the food elimination route do you have to keep going back to your vet during the whole process?

It is because, in spite of people's beliefs, food allergies are not that common.

I don't think you have to keep going to the vet during the food elimination unless you just want the vet's feedback.

My vet just roll their eyes when Dr. Dodd or Dr. Becker are mentioned. Their practices and beliefs are not based on scientific studies that have been proven.

Things are about to change for Homeopathic medicine. The FDA is about to hold hearings regarding this very issue. The FDA regualtions are not currently strict enough according to the medical community. This should be very interesting once the hearings are held and both sides of the issues have a chance to voice their arguments.


Homeopathic Product Regulation: Evaluating FDA?s Regulatory Framework After a Quarter-Century

I'm sure that Dr. Dodds is a wonderful vet, and her advice is good on most things. HOWEVER, there are no peer reviewed articles on saliva tests for allergy testing--I've looked and looked and LOOKED. It simply hasn't been put to rigorous scientific testing. Surely, if Dr. Dodds had rigorously tested her allergy test on control and test populations, she would have published on it by now in peer-reviewed journals. I'm curious why she hasn't. If anyone is in contact with Dr. Dodds, please ask her why, and let us know what she says. I'm sure that is why it is not commonly recommended by vets. Until a study appears in a peer-reviewed journal, all we have is anecdotal stories and testimonials--not a solid basis for a vet's recommendation.

There is no science behind the test and there are many false positives on the tests that is why vets are not recommending it. My vet and one of the other vets who works at my vets office are very open to new things but if there is no science to back it up there not going to stand behind it. The issue is we have many people who will hear about the test and think is an answer to all there prayers and issues but then it ends up not being and there down the big amounts of money they spent on the tests when they could have spent that money actually helping there dog. Dr.Dodds sells many products so keep in mind she is wanting to sell those products and make her money.

I personally can not wait! It's about time.

I'm guessing they would find out it doesn't work and when they did it would mean she couldn't make money off of it anymore. Thanks for looking I think it really says a lot that there are none on it.

I have found nothing on controlled studies on this test - I have known about it for 5years or more (I think).


How-ever if I have gone the Western Medicine Route - with elimination and other available treatment options and testings - and still my dog is un-well I would spend another $280 to do this test.


The test won't hurt and it just may help - how-ever there is nothing in science so far that says this should be the first option route.


And I am not sanguine about the majority of vets practising medicine based on the latest in medical research never mind the latest on AAHA guidelines.or AVMA guidelines


Following *newish* vaccination protocol just being one example.

I did a little more poking around, and I found several of Dr. Dodd's patents and patent applications, which explain the method, but without much research backing it up (despite the claims in the patents):

Patent US8450074 - Multi-stage nutrigenomic diagnostic food sensitivity testing in animals - Google Patents

Patent US7867720 - Food sensitivity testing in animals - Google Patents

Patent US20130183692 - Intolerance testing for ingredients in nutrients, flavorings and therapeutics - Google Patents

I also found this on her Nutriscan page (http://www.nutriscan.org/veterinaria...nalysis.html):

Since starting the NutriScan clinical testing in May 2011, Dr. Dodds and Hemolife's diagnostic team have compiled and analyzed 566 sequential canine case samples plus 29 other canine controls in preparation for formal refereed publication. This analysis compared results from 208 healthy control dogs, 289 suspected food intolerant dogs and 98 proven food intolerant dogs and unequivocally showed a progressive increase in the reactivities measured in each group, respectively. Statistically significant differences were found as would be expected based on the clinical classification of these three case cohorts. These data clearly affirmed the validation of our results and the clinical utility of the test. The team has follow up profiles now on 80 of these dogs, and is preparing the data for a refereed scientific publication.

Hemolife Diagnostics has tested nearly 5000 canine samples now. Since starting cats at the end of September 2013, the team has tested nearly 100 as of December 2013.

As with any new testing, there will be skeptics. This is especially when the existing serum-based food “allergy” testing is well-recognized to be fraught with errors both in the test systems used and their clinical applicability to human (or animal) patients.

So it looks to me like she is working on a refereed journal article, but hasn't submitted it yet. As a scientist, this seems to me to be a backwards way of doing things. If it were me, I would have published the results before releasing a commercial test--that would have resulted in less controversy and more acceptance of the test in the veterinary community.

I have a feeling the science is just not there so she maybe trying to fabricate it or just not do anything. Who knows.

True I would too - how-ever I would get my patent in first. This is a wildly burgeoning field - especially now - Dog genome fully mapped - pet owners really really interested in best wellness care for their pets. Multi billion dollar pet food industry, not to mention toys leashes and other related products and services including vet care.


So maybe a smart business decision versus a pure science one? IDK. I do know I have met her 2 or more times and she is exceeding articulate, passionate and bright. And she was the first or one of the first to provide and set up a blood donor bank - vs a vs her rescue greyhounds. This is a charitable organization. We now have 3 such programs in Toronto and all with-in the last 5yrs or so. I contribute my dogs blood annually - well at least my two biggies - as here the protocol is over 40lbs...


And she has earned my respect - for she responded personally to my emails about (2) of my dogs - and reviewed their medical results *free of charge* and sent me her opinion. That is hardly a money grubbing person.


This is one no cost way pet owners can help other pet owners - for who knows when our dogs might need a blood transfusion?

I agree that Dr. Dodds has done wonderful things, and I do have respect for her. I think that she should have handled Nutriscan in the following order:

(1) Patent, with a good review of the literature that supports her claims.

(2) Peer reviewed article proving that the test works.

(3) THEN release the Nutriscan test to the public.

That said, I HOPE her test really works--it would be great if it did. I'm just a little uneasy that she hasn't had a peer reviewed article yet.

I'm sorry but when it comes to this test with no science to back it and it being so expensive it would appear to be a money thing preying on people whose dogs have allergy's. I have read several things about her that I have not been thrilled with. There are several things she does that doesn't have the science to back it up and in my opinion that is a very extremly important thing for me.

Respect has nothing to do with whether a test is valid or not. Who cares if someone likes her or respects her, that's not the issue!