Pet Food Bad Reactions

Food Sensitivity in Dogs

Depending on who you talk to, food sensitivity (some call them ‘hypersensitivities’), where a dog develops an ”issue” with food over time, usually occurs the first few years of life. It often happens after antibiotics. I find that even if dogs test negative to food sensitivities/allergies, their level of itch can often be helped, even a little, on a really good raw diet, rich in omega-3 fatty acids. 

Why is food sensitivity level so high in dogs? It’s due to disruption of the microbiome. A paper written in 2020, by Dr Allesio Fasano in Boston, Massachusetts, goes so far as to say that ”All disease begins in the (leaky) gut”. It goes on to link, in humans, Leaky Gut syndrome to ageing, ankylosis spondylitis, ADHD, IBS, multiple sclerosis, obesity and schizophrenia. Phew. Scary stuff. 

Tight Junctions

How does the wrong food get implicated in all these diseases? It’s all to do with gut tight-junctions and the leaking of food and bacterial protein into the intestinal wall and the bloodstream. 

Gut permeability is essential because we all need to absorb goodness from our food, but keep bugs and toxins in the gut to be eliminated—a tricky process at the best of times. When the gut biome is in good shape, it goes a long way to keeping this permeability balancing act in balance and food sensitivities in dogs at bay. 

Gut Bugs

So it comes down to anything that disrupts the gut bugs, the microbiome, can lead to all manner of nightmarish things happening in the gut, skin and beyond. Disruptors come in the shape of antibiotics, obviously. Less noticeable are the pesticides we put on dogs for fleas and ticks, the anthelmintics we use for worming dogs (most adult dogs don’t have worms – you only have to do a worm count to tell!), and of course the food we feed. 

Ultra-Processed Food

There is not a human nutritionist on the planet who would recommend ultra-processed food (read dry kibble and tinned pet foods here) to maintain and encourage a good microbiome. And yet, the food corporations extol us to feed precisely this to our dog for their entire lives. Is it any wonder that 70% of dogs are overweight or obese? Is it any wonder that diabetes, autoimmune disease and bladder stones are rising and have been for thirty years? 

Summary

In a way, food sensitivity, even though it is most complex of our three food ”issues”, is, at its heart, the most simple. There’s one rule: maintain a good microbiome (with species-appropriate raw food!) and avoid disruptors like pharmaceuticals where possible. 

Do this, and the body is much better able to look after itself. You are, after all, what you eat. 

Next, we’ll look at food intolerances in our pets.