Just seen Alfie's vet as it looks like he's got an allergy to something (very pink chest).  Before any testing she recommended putting him on a hypoallergenic diet for 6 weeks to see if there is an improvement.  She has to order it in but has given me a free sample.  It's Waltham Royal Canin hypoallergenic dry food DR21.  His usual diet is Natures Menu organic chicken, lamb and rice sealed pouches mixed with James Wellbeloved turkey and rice kibble (yes, I know they're both complete).  Well, James Wellbeloved is hypoallergenic and Natures Menu is organic chicken 35% min, lamb 20% min, rice 10% min, seaweed extract, minerals and vitamins.  Seems a pretty good, natural diet to me, what could he be allergic to?  Is it a waste of time doing the Royal Canin diet?  Should I go straight to allergy testing do you think?  He loves his food and I'd hate for him to have to eat dry food for the rest of his life - no offence to anyone who feeds their dogs just dry, but looks so boring!  Thanks for any advice.

You would be better off in the long term allergy testing; this way you find out exactly WHAT the dog is allergic to and just remove it from his diet; although the initial outlay is high you will not then have to buy overpriced "hypoallergenic" foods which contain sometimes the allergens but they have been hydrolysed so they do not produce a reaction; so if, for example, your dog turns out to be allergic to chicken you can just buy food that does not contain chicken or any poultry by products or poultry fat etc.

You may well find an improvement on the hypoallergenic diet, but you will STILL be in the dark as to what it is that he is allergic to; a fact that appears to have bypassed most vets and owners!

HTH

We did the allergy test and it showed up housedust mites ( which seems a fairly common one) but were advised to do a food trial as well just to see if it made any difference.
We too were on Royal Canin Hypoallergenic (extremely expensive) but there was a HUGE improvemnet in him. His itching and licking stopped.
Since then we have swopped onto a natural diet of meat, vegetables, pasta, bones etc and he is doing brilliantly. I am so pleased with it and would recommend it to everyone.
I would try the RC Hypoallergenic even if just to rule it out but as I say  it worked wonders for us :)

(By the way - Gus does seem to have a sensitivity to chicken and maybe rice- )

Thanks both of you.
Lel, do you feed the meat raw or cooked? 
Also, out of interest, how much did the allergy testing cost?

We feed both raw and cooked- the raw is meant to be the better as it can lose nutrients etc during the cooking process.

Now for the costs -Are you sitting down ?
The allergy test was actually covered by our Insurance and thank heavens we had it.
Gus was kept in for just over half a day while they did- for the test itself , skin scrapes, the boarding charges (believe it or not they "charge" to keep them there while they did the tests) and  the bag of RC that they supplied for the food trial all came to £389 ( for just one day).
But this was in the Small Animal University hospital in Liverpool and he was treated by Tim Nuttall.
They ruled out grass pollens, tree pollens, various mites, demodectic mites, various moulds and fungis etc.

One thing to bear in mind though is that they shave a piece from their side ( about the size of a half folded A4 sheet of paper)  just incase you show. 
But of course getting to the root of the problem is more important :)

Good luck and if you need any more info just PM me and I'll see if I can help :)

Blood tests that are done for food allergies can obvioulsy be done in a quick visit; the blood is then sent off to Yorktest it costs around 200 quid, skin scrapes are not necessary to determine food allergies.

Lel, I'm curious as to how a vet can diagnose a dust mite allergy?  It is difficult enough to prove asthmatic conditions/dust mite allergies in children - apparently, just curious is all - did they have a sample of mites that they exposed the skin too??
Sarah

Hi Sarah
they shave a patch on the dog and then stick a contact pad to the skin with 52  different possible allergens and leave for a set amount of time. If anything comes up as being sensitive it is given a number from 0-4.
0 being fine and anything upwards as being indicative of possible sensitivity to a particular contact. Gus was given a 3 for house dust mites and there was a 1 for fleas- everything else was 0.

Aaaahhhh!  How unfortunate for you both, house dust mites are b****y everywhere - poor pupster.
Thanks for explaining though lel
Sarah :)

How on earth do you cure a dog of dust mite allergies(desensitization jabs)? Is there anything else on top of vacuuming that can help get rid of the little buggers?

christine

Link below explains allergy testing. Steam cleaning machines will get rid of most dust mites :)
[link]http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1587&articleid=504[/link]
Christine, Spain.