Pet allergy home testing kits

[Myfirstcarwasamini]

Hi everyone. I wondered whether anyone has any advice or personal experience of using a pet allergy home testing kit? I've found one from a manufacturer local to me. It tests allergens to 161 different things ranging from food to environmental stuff (cleaning products etc). It costs £89 and the results are back in 4 weeks.

My little 2 year old Cavapoo has always suffered with itchy ears and paws. We've tried supplements. There is no infection in either his ears or his paws and I keep them clean. I only use natural cleaning products so I'm feeling that maybe he is allergic to something in his food.

My vet does allergy testing but atm due to Covid it is not on their list of things they are doing which I totally understand. I expect allergy testing through the vets will be much more expensive so that is another factor why I've looked to do it myself.

The testing kit tests the proteins present in saliva. If anyone has any experience I'd really appreciate anything you can tell me and whether it has given you the information you needed (or not).

Thanks, keep safe everyone.

I have no experience of those tests but have seen a leading canine dermatologist about allergies and testing in my own dog. Here's what he said:

• saliva testing is not accurate enough to be useful
• blood testing can be used to indicate environmental allergies, but not useful for food (he sent off two lots of blood to two labs for allergy testing, so he could compare the results and have a level of confidence in them)
• food allergies can only reliably be determined through an elimination diet

Sorry OP. Allergies in dogs are a pita and take a lot to accurately diagnose, from what I can tell.

Saliva testing virtually useless.
Blood testing good.
Intradermal skin testing is gold standard.

Diet trials are necessary for to look for food allergies.

Looking at the pattern of when the licking is worse can help. Winter environmental like house dust mites, fleas and storage mites more common.
Spring tree pollen is more likely.
Late summer/ autumn grass pollen likely.
But then many dogs have complex allergies with multiple allergens.
Most dogs I have blood tested have at least 4 allergens, but I have seen a couple who are allergic to everything

Thank you for the responses, that's really helpful. I think I may give the home kit a swerve on this advice and refer to the Vet once they're willing to do other things. Take care all.