In my last blog post I wrote about how many more family members than I had previously thought were affected by food allergies.  But what about the non-humans in the family?  Yes, there are pets with food allergies.

When my food allergic daughter visited my sister in Calgary in July, one of her favorite things to do was to play with and walk their golden retriever, Kobi.  But while she was there, Kobi was not himself.  He was shedding far more than normal, losing hair behind his ears and in clumps from his haunches.   My daughter was concerned as she thinks he’s the best dog in the world and with mom being allergic to fur-bearing animals, Kobi is the closest thing she gets to a dog.

Well, we now have our answer:  Kobi is suffering from wheat and beef allergies.  He immediately required a change in diet.  My sister found the pet food easy since it already had no wheat in it but all new pet treats were in order.  The change was also very expensive (as we all know from human specialty food) because the new treats are all gluten free, organic and much less processed than the cheaper dog treats.

Apparently some breeds of dogs are more prone to allergies and this includes golden retrievers.  One of our local clients introduced me to her new dog who has corn allergies.  Hmm.  Is this all because they are purebred and getting no genetic diversity?  Or are our pets simply reflecting the overall issues that we are seeing in humans?  Maybe it’s just one more piece of the food allergy puzzle that bears some research.