Dixieland Dancer: food allergy question

Well, Kobie's mystery cough has gotten suddenly worse in the past few days. She was better and cough-free through most of February and was on the tapering-off phase of her prednisone, but this past Saturday morning she coughed for over two hours and even had a little blood in the foamy mucus she was spitting up. The vet put her on another round of antibiotics and continued the pred, but now she's having another coughing attack (3+ hours and counting). She'll have a chest x-ray later this morning, but frankly I think the vet's stumped.

You had mentioned that one of Dusty's siblings had a turkey allergy from the Innova, so I'm interested in that. How was it that turkey was determined to be the problem? What were his symptoms? And finally, just how common are food allergies? (from what I hear, not very common). The vet hasn't suggested changing Kobie's food, but we just might do that if nothing else will work for her.

Thanks for listening, and for anything you could tell me!
-Amber

Amber,
First realize that a serious cough is probably not caused by a food allergy. I am not a vet so you consulting with the vet is the best thing on this subject.

Actually food allergies are very common in dogs, but usually not recognized as a food allergy. They usually display symptoms such as hot spots, excessive shedding, flakey and itchy skin and dull coat. There are some who think that certain foods found in the poorer nutritional value of food are the reason we are seeing so many more instances of cancer at younger ages in our furry friends. Personally, I think the preservatives that are put in foods to perserve them are what is harmful. Before anyone jumps on me for this statement, please realize I believe the jury is still out on this though.

My friend's dog was never diagnosed medically as having an allergy to turkey. It is our guess because when they switched him from Nutro to Innova, within weeks, he broke out with several hot spots. Turkey was the only protien source that was changed. They have him on California Natural and he has the most beautiful coat you can imagine and has never had another hot spot.

When I recommend people switch to super premium foods, it because of the outward signs of food allergies that are displayed. In your case it is an inward sign and I have never heard of a dog coughing as a symptom of a food allergy.

I know you already feed your pups Innova. You may want to switch to California Natural Lamb formula. The ingredients list is very short and sweet and very healthy.

I still strongly encourage you to follow through with your vet on this. Aunt Jazz had the vets stumped too and it turned out to be cancer and she was only 7 1/2 years old. My friends ended up taking her to Ohio State University School of Veterinary medicine (kind of like the Tuft's in our region) when the diagnosis could not be determined by the regular vet. They diagnosed her in less than 3 hours with cancer and within 3 days she had to be put down. I'm not saying your dog has cancer. I'm saying specialists usually can diagnose things much faster when it comes to something challenging and out of the ordinary.

I hope I answered your question. Please let us know how things are going and I will be praying for kobie and you. It is a very trying thing to not know what ails our babies. :(

Thanks, Dixie! Your answer was so thorough and logical, and it confirmed what I was thinking: that food allergies wouldn't show up as coughing like what Kobie has, but instead as skin/coat problems mostly. I'm pretty sure we're not going to switch foods on the basis of her coughing alone, although if the Cal Nat has such a simple list of ingredients we might give it a try sometime in the future.

We just got back from Kobie's latest vet visit. Her chest x-rays showed dark constricted bronchials, which we're told is a sign of irritation in the tubes--as if she's allergic to something she inhaled or encountered some other way. Now she's on a brochodilator called theophylline; I swear now every time she sees a pill bottle she looks so depressed, like "Not ANOTHER drug, Mom!"

What most freaked us out, though, was a light spot on her right lung. The vet said it's hard to tell what it could be, maybe a fatty mass, but that it most likely has nothing to do with her breathing and coughing problems. I almost fainted seeing that--Kobie's only 2 1/2 years old! (I'm even afraid to mention the C-word. My last dog had terminal cancer and died in 1996 at barely 6 years old. Like your experience with Jazz, it was horrifying.) We're hoping like crazy that this is just a bad allergy....

Thanks again :)
-Amber