As you may remember, last month we used the Affordable Allergy Test to try and figure out what Norman might be allergic to. Or at least what his intolerances are. If you’d like to read that post first, you can check it out here.
As I mentioned before, the test was super easy and we received the results back in less than a week! (And yes, I realize it’s taken about a month for me to post this follow up). Below are his allergy testing results. The first two pages are food related intolerances and the last page is environmental. The most severe are in red (Level 3) and they get less severe as it goes to yellow and green.
As it turns out, the food we had been feeding Norman actually contained quite a few of the ingredients listed in Levels 2 and 3. So that’s not good. I was surprised though how few proteins are on the list. But we changed his food immediately to something with very few ingredients on the list (Canidae Limited Ingredient Bison). It’s almost impossible to find a food with zero intolerances, but we made sure it didn’t have any Level 2 or Level 3 ingredients.
I’m not expecting the new food to cure all the itching. But it would be amazing if we could take him off Apoquel, or even reduce the dosage. So if you want to give allergy testing a try, I would definitely recommend it. Here’s a link to the Affordable Allergy Test.
Interesting!
Also- Ants show up as a level 3 AND a level 1? What does that mean?
The accompanying letter says that if an item shows up in more than one level than you should definitely remove it from the environment. As opposed to an item in the green, which is only recommended to monitor and possibly remove.
Hi Jennifer, Sorry to hear Phoebe is not eating very well, I think if you read back all Norman’s blogs that he went off his food for only a day I think. My Pixie is a chihuhua x foxie and was a rescue dog as a pup but only started this itching from 6 years, now she is 7, has been on and off apoquel for 6 months and now on cynopoint for 2 months so she has had 2 injections but is now overdue for her 3, she seemed better on it but never had a reaction from it… Read more »
Hello. Glad Norman is doing good. I have 2 English Bulldogs, LuLu and Phoebe, both 4 years old. I purchased LuLu from a good breeder when she was 8 weeks. She is very healthy(knock on wood). She does not have allergies, never had an ear infection and only goes to vet once a year for shots. I know- never heard of with a bulldog! Now Phoebe is a different story. I rescued her from the Tampa Bulldog Rescue when she was 2 1/2 years. When I got her, she had a severe ear infection(Rescue said it was treated and healed-NOT)… Read more »
Jennifer – Yes Norman is on his normal eating habits. It’s not uncommon for them to get a little out of sorts when they start a new medication. There were definitely some days when Norman didn’t seem that interested in eating. But it usually didn’t last long. Have you stayed on the Cytopoint?
Hi, Glad that Norman is less itchy and lets hope you are on the right track now. I copied down some of the allergy test results too and will check Pixies food as she is now overdue for her cynopoint but she is doing alright but still itchy and I have changed her food as from today. But we have an Ant problem in the house with tiny ants, they are now getting on the bed and am sure she is super allergic to them, am madly spraying everywhere but here in Australia where we are, we have been in… Read more »