Grain free food?

[dizzyupthegirl86]

I have a bulldog / beagle mix, and she’s been itching for a while. The vets prescribed a medicated shampoo initially and when that didn’t do anything, apoquel (I’ve posted about this before), which reduced it slightly but not a huge amount.

following suggestions on here, I’ve taken her off the apoquel and done an allergy test which I’m hoping to have the results back for in the next two weeks. I’ve also switched her ( gradually) over to grain free food.

Ive been to the vets today for an unrelated reason, and he was quite disgruntled about me doing an allergy test because he said there’s no scientific basis behind them, but he also said grain free food is quite bad for bulldogs because it can cause heart issues.

This is news to me, but I just wondered if anybody else was aware of it really… everything I’ve read says grain free is usually better suited to them!

I’ve no idea what to do now in terms of reducing the itching, the vets said they can try steroids which might help if the apoquel hasn’t. A big part of me would rather resolve it by changing food (If its food related) than having her on medication, but now he’s got me doubting the accuracy of allergy tests!

There does appear to be a link between grainfree diets and cardiovascular disease; studies are currently underway.

For atopic skin, if you want to do an exclusion diet trial you'd be better off with something like Purina HA or Hills Z/D - hypoallergenic veterinary prescription diets. The culprit is usually a protein rather than grains - these foods use novel proteins or hydrolysed protein.

Home allergy test kits for humans are regarded as pretty inaccurate so I doubt canine ones will be particularly reliable unfortunately.

If you have insurance/ funds, a referral to a veterinary dermatology specialist is usually worth pursuing. The consult fees are higher but they are so much more targeted in their approach (its like the difference between seeing a GP vs a human dermatologist).

Thank you, that’s really helpful!
Is the link a relatively recent thing then? I had a bulldog before (going back 4-5 years now) and the vet suggested grain free food, as it was thought to be easier to digest. I just took that moving forward with this dog!

She used to be on a food for sensitive skin/stomach and from what i can remember, she didn’t itch much with that. I’m just loathe to keep chopping and changing as it’s not too good for them (unless this is something that doesn’t hold much truth either!)

There has been a study in 2019 that showed that 75% of dogs in a specimen group diagnosed with DCM were on a grain free diet.

Since there more studies have been done and the results do show an increase in dogs on grain free diets but not all studies are equal so no clear cut answer but I would be wary in dogs that have heart issues in their breed.

However as grain free diets are becoming more popular is it actually just that ore dogs are on grain free so the numbers of dogs would increase.

FDA article

I agree that your dog is just as likely to be intolerant to protein than grain.

My dog allergies stopped when I gave him a raw diet

He had very itchy ears and paws.

Personally I wouldn’t feed a grain free diet due to the potential link to DCM.

As a PP poster said I would start with Purina HA and add in proteins after a diet exclusion trial.

It depends on the company doing the allergy trial, I would trust a blood test or interadermal skin test result. If it’s a mail order type thing I would take the result with a pinch of salt.

She used to be on a food for sensitive skin/stomach and from what i can remember, she didn’t itch much with that
In that case, I'd probably try switching back to that - if the itchiness goes away / significantly reduces, you've got a good indicator it's diet-related & it might just solve your issue.

I’m just loathe to keep chopping and changing as it’s not too good for them (unless this is something that doesn’t hold much truth either!)
Switching should be done gradually to prevent stomach upsets, & there's no benefit to feeding multiple brands / regularly chopping and changing for the sake of variety, but it's not harmful as such.

I don't have any educated information other than the fact one of my bitches was the same from a young age. At 6 months a vet wanted to prescribe her apoquel so I changed vets. She's now on Prednisolone one tablet per day and is fantastic. We were advised grain free etc but we feed them all Skinners sensitive and I've not had any bother with her at all. She often gets pyoderma depending where she's walked and I just bathe in hibiscrub and she's fine. We did an allergy test and was also told it wouldn't be accurate. She showed a true allergy to cows milk which was worth the test. The rest was basically external seasonal and some proteins but not grains.
Good luck, it's awful seeing them chew their paws and scratch the ears red raw. Xx

Thank you all! I’ll get some of the sensitive food she was on before and start gradually changing it to that.
she doesn’t chew really, she licks her paws sometimes but not hugely so, but she rolls on her back and sort of shuffles along the floor. She also likes to launch herself on gravel paths and the like to do the same!

You can get more accurate allergy tests from a dermatologist.

I'd highly recommend raw feeding. If you're interested I have some links you can research.

The test results came back today, and say she has a strong intolerance to sunflower oil and plant fungus. Mild intolerance to household fungus(?) and rosemary!

so essentially, nothing useful for me! Im
armed with the AVA sensitive food now and will gradually introduce that. With any luck she’ll stop the itching!

My Labrador puppy was quite itchy until I swapped him to a fish-based food. Previously it had been chicken-based. He's OK with lamb too. Apparently sensitivity to chicken is quite common. Not sure if it would show on an allergy test though. They are unreliable in humans, let alone dogs.