Food allergy in canines: A review

Abstract

Food allergy is an immunological response to the ingested allergen present in food like artificial food additives, beef, canned foods, corn, cow milk, dairy products, dog foods, dog biscuits, eggs, fish, and food preservatives, meat of different species including pork, mutton and horse meat, oat meal, potatoes, rice and commonly occurs in dogs and cats. Among all canine species, Labrador and German shepherd were found to be more prone to food allergy and symptoms are similar to other pruritic skin diseases. These food allergies are broadly classified into two categories (1) IgE-mediated food allergy (2) non-IgE-mediated food allergy. Diagnosis can be done by accurate clinical history, parental observations, and laboratory tests: Skin scrapping, bacterial/fungal culture examination, thyroid test, fecal examination and skin biopsy, allergic tests: Patch test, Skin Prick Test, Intra-dermal test and Radioallergosorbent test. Management of these allergies can be done by antihistaminics like Hydroxyzine and Chlorpheniramine, antibiotics like Cephalexin, Enrofloxacin, antifungals like Ketoconazole, Griseofulvin, Amphotericin-B and glucocorticoids like Prednisolone, Methyl prednisolone.