John was taking Bob, his Labrador Retriever, out for walk one evening. John noticed that Bob was rubbing his head against his leg. He thought this was a rather odd behavior, but then kept walking. As they continued to walk, he attributed the head rubbing to the fact that Bob was on a new harness and perhaps he was trying to get it off of his face.
After they returned home, John took the harness off of Bob and let them run around the house. John picked up a good book that he was trying to finish and sat down for a good hour of relaxation. Before long, Bob stopped by and once again started rubbing his head on John’s leg. Now John knew something was up and he bent over to take a closer look at his good friend.
After further inspection, he noticed that Bob was starting to lose some of the coat around his eyes. He wasn’t sure why this was happening but it was a cause for concern.
The next morning John woke up with the thump, thump, thump, next to his bed. He leaned over the edge to find Bob scratching away. It wasn’t the first time he had seen Bob scratching, but it was rather unusual. John thought to himself that he would need to get out the flea spray again when he got home that night.
That evening when John got home, he found Bob chewing on one of his paws. He walked over to him and rolled him over on its back as he examined his chest and belly. His chest seemed somewhat inflamed with red spots on it. After a longer examination however, he did not find any fleas or flea dirt.
John decided it was time to take Bob into the veterinarian. He scheduled the appointment for the next week. Over the next few days, Bob’s condition worsened. He was scratching more than ever. In general, the poor dog just seemed miserable.
When the time came for John and Bob to meet with the veterinarian, they had a rather long session. The veterinarian ha lots of questions about how long Bob had been rubbing his face and scratching and licking his paws. Since allergy season was mostly over and the problems had lasted for quite a while, he doubted it was a seasonal allergy. He had also spent a great deal of time going over the dog and could not find any fleas or flea dirt.
Photo by Per Ola Wiberg ~ PowiWhat intrigued him more than anything else was the fact that Bob had recently switched over from his puppy food to an adult dog food. Most dogs start showing dog allergy symptoms around 11 months if they have dog food allergies.
The vet spoke with John about putting Bob on a novel food diet. “This is a special diet that normally lasts 12 weeks and involves feeding the dog an entirely new type of protein and carbohydrate.” He knew it will probably take a few weeks to notice any real difference with dog food allergies.
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