throwyourdogabone

Guest blogger: Kristen Campbell of Gluten Free Fox, on her journey with her dog Waylon’s food allergies

When we met Waylon, a 15-month-old German Wirehaired Pointer at the Human Society of the Ochocos in Oregon, about nine hours north of our San Francisco home, we fell in love instantly. All it took was one swift nose kiss, a wag of the tail and smiles all around for us to know we’d found our boy.

Waylon was not in the greatest condition at the time of his adoption, which was just a few days after he’d been brought to the shelter. He was severely underweight and had several completely bald patches, but to Taylor and I he was still the cutest pup we’d ever seen.

The day after we returned home with Waylon I set out to find some of the best dog foods available to help our new boy gain some much needed weight, but it didn’t take long for the vomiting and diarrhea to begin.

The vet diagnosed him with giardia and prescribed three pills in all that he was to take for his recovery. I hated putting his poor little body through that, but figured the vet knew best. Weeks later Waylon was still having loose stools and the itching just seemed to grow worse.

I had already sought out a gluten-free dry food for him, since I am severely gluten intolerant and I had heard that handling his food could compromise my own health. So if he wasn’t sensitive to gluten, what could it be?

When his first vet insisted we put Waylon on steroids for his itching, and assured us it was safe, it took just one week for Waylon to develop a stomach ulcer. By then we were horribly worried about getting him healthy, at which point I was very grateful to get an appointment for Waylon with one of San Francisco’s most renowned vets.

Dr. Lee Morris spent two and a half hours with us that first day. He tested for mange and put Waylon on Revolution flea treatment since it is one of the few that also fights mites, but was open to the idea of food allergies and left the door to communication open on the subject.

At that point, I sat down and made a spreadsheet listing every food that Waylon had tried and its ingredients. I noted his reaction to each: stools and itchiness. And then I went one step further, using ELISA Tek’s EZ Gluten Test Kit to test Waylon’s “gluten free” foods for gluten. Every single dry food that I tested came out positive for gluten—with some even registering high levels.

So then we knew, Waylon was not on a gluten-free diet, so an allergy to gluten was still a real possibility. Thinking back, he had always done best when he was fed chicken, brown rice and cottage cheese to settle his stomach at the worst of times. With this in mind, I was finally able to truly eliminate gluten from Waylon’s diet and his giardia went away. The first vet had treated the giardia for months and months with different medications, but it was Dr. Morris who suggested—solve one problem and it may solve another.

While I tested new gluten-free foods for Waylon, there was one food that had proven negative for gluten, Newman’s Own Grain Free wet food, which I occasionally mixed into his homemade meals. But every time I did, his stools came out black—this meant that he was most likely still suffering from intestinal bleeding.

I then went back to my spreadsheet and realized that any time that not only was the Newman’s food completely beef based, but also that every time Waylon had eaten a meal, treat or chew with beef in it, this problem had persisted. So not only was Waylon allergic to gluten, but also to beef.

For the first few months I relied on Primal Pet Foods Raw Duck Canine Formula. Their quality was tops and their foods were not contaminated. Waylon was the healthiest he’d ever been. But after moving cross-country to North Carolina, Primal was harder to find and the expense was great for our big dog, so we switched Waylon to a local brand of raw pet food.

It wasn’t long before old symptoms crept right back up, at which point I finally gave in and began making his food myself. Finally I know just what Waylon is getting, what he may not be getting enough of, and that it is always beef and gluten free. And I am also grateful that he can enjoy his Biscuits by Lambchop treats, since finding healthy treats for him has been otherwise impossible.

Kristen’s journey is not unusual. Many pet parents have had similar experiences and difficulties in solving their pet’s food allergies. It is all too often that heavy hitting medications, like steroids, are prescribed as a first defense. In Waylon’s case, as just a puppy, this could be extremely dangerous, as steroids will weaken bones over some time. Their story reinforces what can be accomplished when a pet parent is proactive, does their research and goes with their gut, never taking no for an answer because it’s the easier route.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Gluten Free Fox, Allergies, Canine Food Allergies, Biscuits by Lambchop, Fresh Whole Foods Diet, Nutrition, Practical Puppery, For the Love of a Dog, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.