What is an elimination diet?
This means feeding your dog a diet from your vet or carefully made at home that contains only a few ingredients that your pet has never been fed before or that are hydrolysed (where the proteins are broken down into very small pieces so that they can ‘hide’ from the immune system).
These diets tend to be very processed which makes owners turn to raw meat diets as they tend to have no additives, but are packed full of bacterial toxins as all meat should be cooked!
The use of raw feeding or any meat is NOT recommended, as it is usually the meat/animal protein that dogs react to the most!
Hydrolysed prescription diets are normally recommended by vets as an elimination diet to be fed as the only food or treat to go into your pet’s mouth for at least a 4 – 6 weeks. If your pet’s signs dramatically improve during the trial, then to confirm a food allergy, your pet then has to go back to the old diet again.
Some vets recommend kangaroo (read about how Boris' vegan diet has worked wonders instead of using kangaroo), or shark meat (!) Just digressing here, but did you know the shocking fact that an estimated 100 million sharks are killed by humans every year, which averages to roughly three sharks every single second?!
In reality, we are the species decimating ecosystems and biomes to add to our food or even worse, our pet's food! Sharks on the other hand, have inhabited and contributed favourably to Earth’s oceans and ecosystems for over 200 million years before the first dinosaurs emerged in the Triassic period.
Anyway, back to hydrolysed diets......a sudden relapse during the elimination diet period proves an allergy to an ingredient in your pet’s previous diet. It is difficult for any of us to maintain as your vet will tell you to only feed the prescription food and offer no alternatives for treats or homemade food.
The biggest positive with a plant-based diet, is that dogs cannot be maintained on a hydrolysed prescription diet indefinitely as they tend to be low in protein and highly processed (yes one even has the addition of pure sugar or even chicken feathers as shown below), but they CAN be maintained on a balanced plant-based diet for the rest of their lives and have a very good quality of life as there are so many options and healthy treats available.
Royal Canin Anallergenic™ INGREDIENTS:
Corn starch, hydrolysed poultry by-products aggregate (chicken feathers!), coconut oil, vegetable oil, natural flavours, powdered cellulose, dried chicory root, sodium silico aluminate, potassium chloride, monocalcium phosphate, L-tyrosine, fructooligosaccharides, fish oil, choline chloride.Purina ® HA Hypoallergenic INGREDIENTS:
Corn starch, protein, minerals, coconut oil, sugar (!), rapeseed oil, cellulose, soya oil, fish oil
Hills Derm Complete INGREDIENTS:
Brewers’ rice, dried whole egg, digest (made of chicken intestine or fish), soybean oil, rice protein concentrate, flaxseed, minerals, dried beet pulp, fish oil, coconut oil, animal fat, dried tomato pomace, dried citrus pulp, spinach powder, vitamins, trace elements and beta-carotene.
Hills Prescription Diet Z/D INGREDIENTS:
The ingredients as stated on their Hills official website, show many animal byproducts that sensitive dogs react to - Meat and animal derivatives, cereals, derivatives of vegetable origin, oils and fats, minerals. Carbohydrate source: Corn starch. Protein source: Chicken liver hydrolysate.
Taken from this article by Dr David Bentley (Leicester Skin Vet), he shows that:
Surveys, using DNA testing, have found a many as 80% of so called “limited protein”, “single protein“, “restricted protein” or “hypoallergenic” diets contain undeclared proteins which could be considered allergens in the very food that is sold as 'safe' for allergic dogs! (Ricci et al 2018)
Another survey of 40 different pet foods including both wet and dry novel protein diets and even hydrolysed protein diets, showed that only 10 of them contained ingredients that correctly matched the label! https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/
WHAT ARE THE INGREDIENTS IN OUR PLANT-BASED FOODS?
Solo Vegetal
Composition:
Micronised rice, potato and pea protein, white oats and hulled oats, einkorn wheat, buckwheat, spelt, vegetable oils and fats (including evening primrose oil and borage oil), potato flakes, dried beet pulp and chicory, isolated vegetable protein, hydrolysed vegetable proteins, wheatgerm, micronised dried carob flour, dry brewer’s yeast, minerals, flaxseed, dried carrots, tomatoes, apples, spinach and herbs, fructo-oligosaccharides, yeast hydrolysates.
Analytical Constituents:
Crude Protein 24.0%, Fat Content 11.25%, Crude Fibre 3.7%, Ash 5.2%
There are NO genetically modified ingredients and although the ingredients do mention wheat (known to be an allergen in dogs); buckwheat is in fact a seed and it contains many beneficial nutrients.
Einkorn wheat is chosen for its antioxidant properties as well as being loaded with the essential nutrients zinc, iron, potassium, riboflavin, and vitamins B6 and A. All very important for heart health. It also contains added Taurine, Methionine and a pure plant-based source of Vit D3.
(We highly recommend Solo Vegetal as it is very tasty and our own family dog Ruff LOVES it!)
Green Crunch from VegDog
We promote and highly recommend Vegdog’s Green Crunch as it is made up of lentils, sweet potatoes and peas that provide the essential healthy proteins. Added algae oil contains the necessary Omega-3 and-6 fatty acids that contribute to a soft coat and healthy skin; and the addition of an adapted mineral powder, provides the vital nutrients for a healthy heart, such as Vitamin B12, D3, Taurine and L-carnitine.
Vitamin-packed fruit and vegetables such as pumpkin, carrots and blueberries, provide large amounts of natural Vitamins A, C and E while also being high in fibre to support a balanced gut microbiome for immune-friendly qualities.
Blueberries are loaded with antioxidants and all contribute to a very palatable and fully hypoallergenic balanced food for your lucky plant-based dog.
INGREDIENTS 35% sweet potato, 18% peas, 15% lentils, minerals, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, linseed, carob, brewer's yeast, carrot, 0.1% blueberries, pumpkin, 0.1% algae
ANALYSIS Crude protein 23%, crude fat 7.5%, crude fibre 3.3%, crude ash 6.3%, moisture 8%, calcium 0.8%, phosphorus 0.4%, Ca:P ratio 2.0:1 Purine content: 40mg/100g
MicroBell Innovative Biotic Protein
MicroBell innovative biotic protein dog food is very high in one amino acid called glutamic acid that gives an umami flavour that dogs crave, but it also supports the gut lining compared to animal proteins which is what makes it unique!
Ingredients: Dried Sweet Potatoes, Peas, Microbial Protein (10%), Dried Potatoes, Pea Protein, Coconut Oil, Dried Beet Pulp, Flaxseed, Yeast Extract, Sunflower Oil, Inulin (source of FOS).
Analysis: Crude Protein 23.0%, Crude Oils and Fats 10.0%, Crude Fibre 3.5%, Crude Ash 7.7%, Calcium 0.9%, Phosphorus 0.6%, Moisture 8.0%, Usable Energy 3,495 Kcal
At the end of the day vets are only human and like the rest of us, they will use what is familiar to them and advertised to them the most.
Therefore most vets will recommend doing a strict elimination diet for 2 – 3 months by feeding your dog ONLY hydrolysed diets such as hypoallergenic or anallergenic Royal Canin that they are familiar with. Or a vet might suggest you try a novel protein such as duck, deer, ostrich or fish.
Unfortunately all of the above foods still contain proteins in one form or another that can trigger allergies!
This makes it very difficult for owners to understand what is really causing their dog’s allergy. Most owners still need to give their dogs medication and end up spending a lot of money on expensive dry foods and medication without ever resolving the issue long term.
Additionally dogs cannot be maintained on hydrolysed prescription diets indefinitely as they tend to be low in protein and very processed (Purina HA contains pure sugar as one of its ingredients as shown below!), as well as processed hydrolysed soya possibly with pesticide contaminants as there is no mention of using non-GMO soya so it would be the same soya used to feed livestock animals that is fully genetically modified to withstand pesticide spray that kills weeds in the field!!
Sadly vets do not have the wealth of nutritional knowledge we wish they had however things are changing! More veterinary practices are learning about alternative, more effective diets which is why there is a growing demand for brands such as Solo Vegetal, Green Crunch, Greta, Give A Dog A Bean, MicroBell - all plant-based diets formulated by vets and fully hypoallergenic for itchy dogs!
