[Dailydrool] Allergy issues

[Pam McQuade]

Changing food is a good place to start when you're discovering just what's 
causing itchiness, but it's not the only solution.

First, I would ask myself if the problem is seasonal. Our Abner gets itchy 
in the spring and fall. Obviously, that means it's not a food problem--the 
food won't suddenly stop bothering him two seasons of the year. It's 
probably an inhaled allergy issue. This year, even in August, Abs started 
with a bit of itching. Maybe your hound doesn't have a problem then, but is 
terribly uncomfortable in the summer. It might be that whatever irritants 
are around at that season are the cause of the itching.

On the other hand, our Belvedere is terribly allergic to corn. It took us a 
long time to figure out just what the problem was, until I fed him a number 
of corn chips and suddenly his underarms were red, bumpy, and itching to 
beat the band. That's when the light dawned on Marblehead! Have you had 
outbursts of allergies just after you've fed your hound a tasty piece of 
steak, bits from a lovely chicken dinner, or a corn tortilla (or whatever)? 
Then you know where to start. Eliminate the offending food, but be sure you 
eliminate ALL of it. Bel kept on having itchy spells until I realized that 
cornstarch, another ingredient in dog treats, was lower on the list of treat 
ingredients. When anything with even a trace of corn was taken out of his 
diet, he improved completely. Trying to get dog treats that are totally corn 
free was hard. Finally the dog food industry realized that dogs were 
sometimes allergic to corn and came up with corn-free treats . But since I 
was spending a small fortune on dog treats, I started making my own. Hounds 
are happy, and so am I, as long as I have time to make a batch in the 
morning.

Since Abner seems to get an itchy mouth when he has wheat products, the 
hounds are actually on a corn- and wheat-free diet. Rye flour makes great 
dog treats (though you may have to use more of it than the AP flour most 
treat recipes call for). Our last foster, Tyler, didn't much appreciate rye 
treats' sharper flavor until the other hounds were scarfing them up. He 
started chomping them down, and I'm sure if we'd had him for more than a 
week, he would have ended up liking them.

Allergy issues may take patience to work out, but it can be done. And you'll 
all be a lot happier once your dog no longer itches!
Pam, food slave and treat baker to the Dashing Bassets (who sometimes share 
their treats to raise moolah for rescue)