Cat ear infections & skin issues: Hypoallergenic diet or biopsy first?

A biopsy of the skin should have given a better answer than the teeth were a problem. It can tell if it is an infection from an allergy or an immune disease. I would worry about a food allergy and consider changing foods to a hypoallergenic diet and see what the biopsy results suggest for further medicine

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Sage. Most over-the-counter foods are contaminated with ingredients not listed on the label. For example, if the diet lists the main ingredient as salmon, there could be small amounts of chicken in the food. This makes it very difficult if a patient has a food allergy. Prescription veterinary diets such as a hydrolyzed or a limited ingredient diet will be most successful for a food allergy. They are more expensive, but in the long run typically end up saving you money. If she is not constantly seeing her veterinarian for exams and medications due to skin disease, this will save you money. Hydrolyzed diets have the protein source chopped into such small pieces that the body's immune system does not recognize and react to it. Examples are Royal Canin Veterinary Diets Ultamino, Purina ProPlan Veterinary Diets HA or Hills ZD. The same companies make limited ingredient diets with one protein and one carbohydrate source. It can be some trial and error to find the best food. I hope this information helps!

Hi there. This is a good question! When we do a food trial, we're normally using one of two types of diets - either a hydrolyzed protein diet, or a novel protein diet. A hydrolyzed protein diet is specially processed so that the protein molecules in the food are too small to trigger an allergic response. A novel protein diet, on the other hand, contains unusual ingredients that your cat has never eaten before - often the main ingredient is something like kangaroo, rabbit, etc. that isn't in most over-the-counter diets. Having a food allergy requires previous exposure to the ingredient that's causing it, so it's impossible to be allergic to something you've never eaten before. So with either one of these types of diets, it's essentially impossible for your cat to be allergic to them. So when we do a food trial, we're looking to see if there is improvement in the allergy symptoms after switching to the prescription diet. If so, then that's pretty good evidence that your cat has a food allergy! If not, then she probably doesn't. The diet trial doesn't tell us *what* she's allergic to - only whether she has a food allergy, or not. If she responds well to the diet, you can either choose to just keep her on it indefinitely (many clients choose this option, since it's easier!), or cautiously start re-introducing specific foods one at a time and watch for a recurrence of her symptoms. This is how you would go about determining what specific foods she's allergic to, if this is something you want to pursue. But you can also just feed the prescription diet long-term if she does well on it.

Hi there. Recurring ear infections, or persistently itchy, irritated ears, are indeed a common sign of allergies in dogs. This can be due to environmental allergies, a food allergy, or both. Apoquel is usually effective at treating environmental allergy problems - so if it didn't help much, I agree that a food trial with a prescription hypoallergenic diet would be the next logical step. If she responds well to the prescription diet, you may be able to cautiously switch her back to an over-the-counter limited ingredient food for long-term maintenance.

That is good that you are looking into food allergy. It is important to rule out all causes of allergies. You should not expect to see any changes in his behavior for AT LEAST 4 weeks minimum. A food trial is a full 16 week event and you will not know the full effects until then. Make sure you are conducting a proper food trial and keep your veterinarian updated. Don't stop the diet without talking with your vet. If Jorge seems uncomfortable, your vet can provide medications to make him feel better. I hope this helps.

Poor Mitchell! I'm glad to hear that his infection seems to be improving with a course of antibiotics. Since it seems to be moving in the right direction, it may be worth asking your vet if the antibiotics can be continued for a longer period of time in the hopes of avoiding more extensive diagnostics, such as a biopsy. However, if the antibiotics do not fully resolve this type of lesion within 2-6 weeks, a biopsy and culture are the only available options. Steroids may decrease inflammation, but they could also delay healing of an infection and provide false results if a biopsy is needed after steroid treatment. Again, discuss a longer course of antibiotics, but if that is unsuccessful, it sounds as though a biopsy is the only other alternative at this point. I hope that all goes well for Mitchell! He's a cutie!

Hi there. It does sound possible that Birdie could have some type of food allergy or intolerance. In general, there is no harm in switching to a hypoallergenic diet to see if this helps - this is really the "test" for food allergies, since we don't have a reliable way to diagnose them through lab work. I would recommend using a prescription hypoallergenic diet such as Purina HA or Royal Canin HP to ensure a reliable result.