Commercial low allergen dog foods

Author: VioVet
Published: Tuesday 15th January 2013

Our customer asked:

I am having problems obtaining Royal Canin Anallergenic dog food due to manufacturing issues, do you know of any other dry food which is of the same mix?

Our reply:

There is currently a manufacturing problem with this food and we have not been advised of when it will be back in supply. This is a unique diet to my knowledge, but there are a few other diets which might work equally well.

I am not sure how much you know about these things, but the anallergenic diet is manufactured from bird feathers. The protein from the feathers is processed in a way to make it digestible for dogs (normal feathers are not really) and this process means that no protein molecules which can stimulate an abnormal immune response (food allergies etc) are present in the diet. There are a couple of other "hydrolysed" diets available which are probably just as good for your dog, though the base protein source is not feathers. Hills http://www.viovet.co.uk/Purina_Veterinary_Diets_HA_Formula_Dog_Food/c542/">Purina HA diet. Both are processed so that they do not contain any normal protein molecules at all.

One other option would be to try a commercial diet which has not been hydrolysed (so it does contain proteins in their normal form) but the ingredients are carefully chosen to be different from any proteins normally found in dog foods. For instance Eukanuba Dermatosis dog food is made with fish and potato and shows extremely good results for many skin and digestive problems.

I would ask your vet about one of these options, but they are quite likely to be equally good.