My boys have Corn Allergies, Anyone know why?

[Bonny]

I am currently looking to change over to a different dog food for my dogs. This late summer & early fall I used the stuff you were talking about on my dogs & one of them received the dose twice. Both dogs were fine after the treatment but the itching didn't stop & there were sores where they itched there skin with their claws. They were being treated for ticks, lice, & mites because the veterinary didn't know either at the time what was causing it?

What I understand the ground corn is a filler they put into the dog food. I live on a farm & this fall the dogs would grab a cob of corn out of the field & chew on it. Corn is a vegetable just like peas, beans, carrots, etc. All the supplements they put into the dog food makes me wonder too? Are they allergic to the supplements?

Humans & animals can all recact differently to their environment & what is in it. Today with all the chemicals in the air, water, & food it makes you wonder? I can understand where your dogs are family & I hope you find out what is causing their skin problem.

[LokiDog]

I just don't know the cause or reason, and I may never know. But if you are looking for some information on corn free dog food, I started a thread the other day and got so much good information that I am still wading through it all. If you want some help in deciding on what food to switch to, the info there might be a good place to start. It's under the dog health threads under dog food questions again...

Hope you find out the cause of your allergies/reactions. But I do suggest that you try getting them off the corn for a while and see if it helps

[Karen]

What I understand the ground corn is a filler they put into the dog food. I live on a farm & this fall the dogs would grab a cob of corn out of the field & chew on it. Corn is a vegetable just like peas, beans, carrots, etc. All the supplements they put into the dog food makes me wonder too? Are they allergic to the supplements?

Humans & animals can all recact differently to their environment & what is in it. Today with all the chemicals in the air, water, & food it makes you wonder? I can understand where your dogs are family & I hope you find out what is causing their skin problem.

Trust me, one can be allergic to the actual vegetable - I am not allergic to corn, but of the ones you happened to mention, I am allergic to beans, peas and carrots! Doesn't matter how organic they are, I am just allergic to them. Our St. Bernard used to love munching corn cobs, thankful she didn't have any allergies!

[Catlady711]

Animals, or people for that matter, can develop allergies at any time. Either a critter, or person, is born with the allergy, or they will develop it after a peroiod of exposure to the substance.

For example I used to be able to walk barefoot, in shorts, through poison ivy, not wash my legs and never get a rash. Now I can pick up a rash from a clients dog if it's been around the plant.

It's possible that because of the fleas it can cause some problems. I highly doubt the flea meds, of any type, could cause a corn allergy. Flea bites can cause an allergy all their own called flea dermatitis, which would look identical to a contact dermatitis, just with a different cause.

It's possible that your dogs got a few flea bites that caused that reaction (it can take just one bite from a flea to cause this reaction in a sensitive animal). From there, their systems were just hypersensitive to other things that their bodies had been fighting off up until that point. The other scenario is it was just flea dermatitis and you happen to change the food at the same time their bodies were recovering from the flea bites, thus it would seem that corn was the problem not fleas. I can't prove either theory and I'm no dermatalogist, but either would be a likely scenario.

A true food allergy trial goes like this. Change food to one without the most likely ingredient causing the problem, but change nothing else with the food, treats, environment, laundry etc. Each trial goes on for 2-3 months. Once the suspected ingredient is narrowed down, a true test is to re-introduce that ingredient to the diet. If a reaction re-occurs then in fact is it a true food allergy, if not then there is a different ingredient, or something else causing the problem. Although most clients decline that last part, prefering to just use the new diet food as long as things are working.

Since your dogs are all related, they all were exposed to the fleas, they may all have the same allergy and the same thing may have set them all off at the same time. This is when it's a bummer that dogs can't talk.

There are allergy tests that can be done on dogs, the accuracy isn't perfect, but gives a ballpark idea of possible causes. I do believe they have to be off all medication for allergies first before being tested, don't remember the time span on that though.

Hope that was of some help to you.

[kokopup]

i spent a small fortune on dermatologist bills and had scratch and blood test that revealed allergies to dust and mites but i don't believe there were any foods found or maybe the test were not that comprehensive. On my own, after studying allergies online, I decided to eliminate corn. It turned out corn was my Koko's problem all long. I did go back to a food with corn and sure enough the allergies returned. I now feed Koko NUTRO NATURAL CHOICE Chicken rice and oatmeal, that is also good for her sensitive stomach. I tried a number of different limited ingredient dry foods that were either not good for her stomach or she just refused to eat them. I believe the more expensive the food the less she liked it. She would not eat any brand of food that had lamb, venison, or salmon as the meat protein. I'm just glad that Petco takes back food that your pet will not eat.

Koko was on frontline since she was about 5 months old but was at least 2 before she developed allergies to corn. I also think that she first had Dermatitis on her belly caused by possibly scratching fleas. It was shortly after that that her back started scaling and having sores. This was not because of fleas. The Vet said that skin allergies can be caused by what
the dog breathes. It turned out it was what she ate. We still have dust and I'm sure there are mites in the dust. Koko is fine now on a corn free diet.

[Bea]

Allergies are caused in three ways, inhaling, ingesting or by contact. But what brings them out is a low immunsystem! And Vitamin C and minerals and also Brewers Yeast Vit B for skin, missing in diet, plus antioxidants, feed more fresh meat/bones, green leafy vegetables, yolks, and lots of fruit.
Start by giving them Silver colloid, an ancient natural anti-biotic available in health stores. It also strengthens immune system.

But do remember to check their yard for contact dermatitis. Are there any poisonous plants? Do they lye on concrete with petrol? Does your wife use a lot of disinfectants? Air sprays, Washing detergents, toilet cleaners, all are toxic to dogs! Their nose is so much finer tuned then ours.
And 99% of all dermatitis is caused by fleas! So if you have fleas you need Frontline, it kills life fleas. You also need to spray your car, your carpets, their lying place outside, anywhere your dogs are, with simple fly spray, again in one week, and again one week later. So three times, one week interval. Other places you can hose down. Inside tiles or lino would be good to have one of those floor steamers, the heat kills eggs in grout etc. I use one called the shark, fantastic machine. Carpet you need fly spray again. Wash everything else like bedding, yours too, LOL.
You can also wash your dog with Malaseb by Dermacare. Make sure you leave it on for 10 Minutes! On the biggest sores put some liquid antiseptic solution like Betadine, but don't let them lick it off while wet!

After all that you should all feel so much better, LOL.

[kokopup]

I treat Koko with frontline but I also spray the house and yard with Precor. Precor breaks the egg cycle so eggs that are laid do not mature.

quote by Bea

Start by giving them Silver colloid, an ancient natural anti-biotic
available in health stores. It also strengthens immune system.

I guess since Koko is a pretty brown color I do.t have to worry about her turning blue, which can happen with Silver. The term blue blood came about because royalty ate off of silver and over time enough leached into the food to give their skin a blue color.

There was a guy on a TV special that took so much Colloidal Silver he had turned blue.

[Bea]

If the silver colloid is not properly prepared/mixed that is what can happen. People used to make it themselves, but not right and they turned silver. But these days with machinery, there is fat chance of that happening, my dear! I have been using it for years and not turned silver, haha. But it works well, without killing the good flora or bacteria!