Travelling with Kota

Kota and I are travelling and it is difficult with an older dog who has food allergies as well as plant and pollen allergies. It’s hard to find his food — I have to order it. He has a chronic running nose. He’s had incontinence a few times and has to lie on a big sheet of plastic with a few towels on it. It seems as soon as I wash the towels, he’s incontinent again. If I leave them dirty, he stays clean! Other than these troubles, there is not much to report. His health is otherwise fine and the tumors and lipomas have receded to small pebble size and seem to stay that way.

I think  a life of organic natural food and exercise is the best medicine for anyone — dog or human.

Sulfites and tumors

There is evidence from the government that sulfites can cause tumors. Rats that breathed sulfur dioxide had an increase of non-cancerous lung tumors. http://epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/inorganicsulfites.pdf p.7. Oral tests were not done. Sodium metabisulfite has a lethal toxicity level in rats. [same document, p.6]

Most doctors are in agreement that inflammation is in close association with cancer development. Allergies cause inflammation. Some doctors agree that those with other allergies, especially “hay fever” are more susceptible to sulfite problems, such as an allergic reaction or asthma like symptoms. Therefore, those with lots of allergies, such as Kota has, to foods or pollen, are more at risk for allergy to sulfites.

I think that older dogs and allergic dogs are more susceptible to lipomas (fatty tumors) if eating sulfite containing foods. But my last dog had no allergies, could eat anything, did not have the inflammation problems that Kota has, ate food with sulfites in it all her life and still developed lipomas and less than a year after that died of cancer. The preservative BHA also has been known to cause tumors in rats. http://www.enotalone.com/article/8134.html 

It is wise, then to avoid these preservatives in your dog food. Kota has not had any sulfites in his food for 4 weeks and already his lipomas have shrunk, even the lump in his throat which I am not sure is a lipoma.

Canine allergy tests & Kota’s allergies

As I had written a while back, Kota had some allergy tests done of the blood serum variety. It has been helpful in pinpointing his allergies, but now I am sure that the tests are not accurate. Also, there are many things not on the test that a dog could be allergic to, and a dog could develop allergies to foods that were ok.  For instance, Kota is now allergic to buckwheat and it causes the same severe problems that barley does — inflammation, red itchy skin which can become raw and bleeding and very sensitive, and gut problems due to inflammation such as colitis and diarrhea.

But, at the same time, I’ve discovered that some of the things on the test that he is supposedly allergic to, he has no reaction, even if the scores are the same as ones he’s allergic to. In this case, all the grains, except barley which scored higher, scored about in the 50 range, yet due to buckwheat (not on the test and one I tried as an alternative) causing problems and there being no other alternative since he’s very allergic to potatoes and sweet potatoes and because when I used to feed him just lamb & rice food without any treats or pieces of my chicken or when he had colitis and I fed him cooked oatmeal, he was ok. So, again, I experimented and feel positive that he is not allergic to either rice or oatmeal despite a score the same as wheat which he does have symptoms of allergy to.

I’m also unsure of lamb. We ran out of venison and the stores ran out of the overpriced canned venison (95-98% venison depending on brand, but only 10% protein!), I was forced to feed him lamb. I got real lamb from the food bank (for myself, but I shared for 2 days) and mixed it with cooked oatmeal and “rice & shine” — all of it cooked and he was fine. His skin cleared up as did his colitis. Then I was able to feed him venison from someone who had packets of ground venison in her freezer that she didn’t want and mixed it with oatmeal and the ground rice, again all cooked and he has been ok.

Now, I’m trying a new brand of dry dogfood, Natural Life Venison & Rice, that is more affordable. It has no sulfites like their versions of lamb & rice or chicken, for some reason, but it also has flaxseed (on his allergy test with a score of about 50, also) and salmon — fish is on the test with a high score, of around 100. But, so far, 4 days later, he is still ok. His fur is really nice & soft (but he did go swimming in a lake which washes off dirt and pollen allergens), his ears and skin look fine, still — the best I’ve seen them in a long while, not due to this food necessarily, but to the longest running period of him having food that he’s not reacting to. Perhaps I’ve finally figured it out.

So, an allergy test is only a diagnostic tool. The only real thing you can count on is how a dog reacts to a certain food. I hope this is helpful to those having to deal with canine allergies.

In Transition

Kota and I have moved and are camping out for the summer and in transition. It’s hard to cook for a dog with allergies camping out, but he’s doing ok. His skin problems have cleared up, his fur feels soft, and his lipomas have disapeared completely. His balance is still a little off and his hearing is getting bad (he is 13).

Jaw spasms

One of the odd things that has happened to Kota these past few months, along with the second vestibular disorder, was a strange jaw spasm mostly when he ate. When I searched Google, I found that many other people’s dogs have had this problem. There seemed to be no veterinarian information on it. Jaw spasms can accompany very serious diseases such as distemper or rabies, but those aren’t Kota’s problem.

    There is a phenomenon that he used to do when he was sniffing pee-mail. He’d move his lips real fast with the tip of his tongue stuck out towards his nose. It is called flehmen and usually cats do it more than dogs. They don’t have to move their lips or tongue rapidly but the mouth may be open a bit and saliva drools out. It is done to get a better smell on something. Flehmen is completely controlled by the animal. But that is not the same as what occurred this spring. These jaw spasms are rapid and involve the whole jaw, moving uncontrollably from the jaw joint. Sometimes his tongue gets in the way and the edges looked bitten. The only way for me to stop them was to massage his jaw on the underside of both joints and in the middle of the lower jaw where there is no bone. I had to dig my fingers in firmly around the bones and loosen the muscles. Massaging the sides of the jaw did not help.

It began in mid- April and contined past this last vestibula disorder in May, but seems to be tapering off now. Perhaps it is related to the allergies and now that I’m finally feeding him food he is not allergic to, it seems to be getting better.

Perhaps it is related to the vestibular disorder and was some indication of a nervous disorder, so it preceded it and then is diminishing as he improves from the balance problems. In fact, his balance is much better and his head tilt is gone. The nystagmus disappeared after only a few days. The jaw spasms seemed to happen more severely when he was excited as do the balance problems now.

Canine Allergies

Copyright 2009 Kota’s Catch Blog and http://kotascatch.wordpress.com  All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.

There are many allergens that your dog could be allergic to – food, pollen, dust, dander, mites, insects, perfumes, smoke, etc. Dogs have even been known to be allergic to human dander. There are even allergies to hydrolyzed proteins and various gums — gum arabic or guar gum (both in the bean family) which are in prescription diets used for dogs with many food allergies or to diagnose food allergies if the usual elimination diet doesn’t work because of allergy to one or more of the foods available commercially. Usually an allergy to hydrolyzed proteins begins in puppy-hood with an allergy to cow’s milk because of formula feeding, but it could develop anytime. Gum allergies may be because of similar allergies to plants such as Acacia.

This web-site talks about a protein-induced enterocolitis in human infants but I think that is what happened to my orphaned dog: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/931548-overview. These individuals usually grow out of their protein intolerance but they may re-occur as adults. I think my dog’s chronic colitis was allergy induced.

Allergies are either to proteins or to pollens (hay fever or rhinitis) and sometimes to carbohydrates (usually some kind of sugar chain such as are in guar gums). In fact, one can develop an allergy to almost anything. Certain individuals are more susceptible than others due to genetic factors or history such as early infections, orphaned before getting enough antibodies from mother’s milk, etc.

Most canine allergies present themselves as skin problems, but food, pollen or perfume can cause rhinitis. Food allergies usually manifest as ear problems (either ear infections or itchy, red ears without infection) and gastrointestinal problems, from vomiting to colitis, diarrhea or constipation (bloody diarrhea or bloody constipation, also). There may not be much skin problems or itchy skin if the main manifestation is gastrointestinal.

This web-site explains canine allergies the best, I think: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfmc=2+1664&aid=143

It may be hard to determine if your dog has an allergy or some other problem, but if you’ve gone to the veterinarian and tried other remedies or there are no other diagnoses and there are either unexplained skin problems or digestive problems, suspect allergies. This was my problem: Many times I took my dog to a veterinarian and would point out the same old problems (skin problems, redness and itchiness, turned to sores with scratching or biting; and pooping problems with occasional vomiting). Sometimes, they do the same old fungal and bacterial skin tests and poop parasite tests, but when I said they’d been done before and weren’t the problem, I’d get a shrug. That’s all, no discussion, conjecture, nothing. Otherwise, I got a lot of useless and expensive tests on unrelated things. Or else a prognosis of “atopy”. Atopy is allergic dermatitis, not usually associated with food in the veterinarian’s mind. Atopy is suppose to be a contact dermatitis, like a perfumed hand lotion that would cause a rash on the user’s hand. I don’t know too many dogs who use anything. They can get pesticides and herbicides on their skin that cause atopy or shampoo might cause it. But skin problems are definitely a sign of food allergy, also.

I think most veterinarians are not really knowledgeable about allergies, or feel there is no good way to diagnose them. There are arguments that skin testing is not accurate and only blood serum testing is and there are arguments that blood serum testing is not accurate and only skin testing is.

There are 4 diagnostic methods:

1. Elimination diet. This means you put your dog on one meat protein and one grain or vegetable protein that they have not had before and stick with it for about 12 weeks. Right. Its pretty hard to do, even if you can find a dog food with new ingredients. Since lamb & rice have been added to lots of dog foods, they are out, usually. Lots of dogs are allergic to potatoes, too. My dog has been on a lamb & rice food since puppy-hood because of allergies. I didn’t get a test then, but switched at the recommendation of my vet. He is also allergic to potatoes even though he’s rarely had them (and I didn’t give him anymore after he vomited them.)

2. Skin prick test. Not too many veterinarians do this. It requires anesthesia and is usually only good for environmental allergens such as pollens, and does not include perfumes or smoke or vehicle pollution (dogs can be allergic to these things beyond the merely irritating quality of them).

3. Blood serum IgE test. This test can be used for food, environmental allergens, insects, yeast, etc.

4. Blood serum IgG tests. This is for delayed reactions that might take over 24 hours to manifest and usually involves inflammation such as in the skin or the ears or mouth and intestines. If you’ve tried the IgE tests and nothing shows, the IgG tests might be helpful if you’re sure that it is a food intolerance or allergy, especially if your dog has colitis problems or other gastrointestinal problems.

If your veterinarian does not do any allergy testing, you can find one that does or show your veterinarian these web-sites for allergy testing:

http://greerlabs.com/  They send skin prick tests to your veterinarian or do IgE blood serum tests, which the vet sends in. The IgE food panel costs $120 and the IgE standard environmental is $280. They have 24 foods on their canine list:       

milk, potato, kangaroo, fish, venison, lamb, chicken, duck, pork, beef ,liver (beef), turkey, rabbit, egg, pinto beans, barley, corn, oats, rice, wheat, soybeans, flaxseed, brewer’s yeast, beet pulp.

UPDATED NOTICE: But, I can no longer recommend this company. They don’t do any customer service, nor do they back up their work if they make a mistake. They don’t have a list of the items tested for the customer. They have a general list on their web-site but it is not accurate. I thought my dog was getting tested for things they have removed from the test. Other things are listed as “28 pollens, 10 molds” (I got 9 molds on my list and one doesn’t know what 28 pollens you are getting until the test is done and results are back). They don’t use scientific names, so what is listed as “Russian thistle” the vet said was a kind of Russian olive (which is also on the test) but web search shows that Russian thistle is tumbleweed (Salsola sp.). I’ve, also,  heard that their tests are not very accurate. There is  incidence of false positives and of false negatives. (There is also a high incidence of false positives in skin testing.) The items I suspected were on the list, but so were so many others that seemed to have no affect, but show a score. Its hard to say, but if they could validate their tests somehow….anyway, there are many other labs out there that do IgE or IgG tests for dogs. You’ll just have to search them out.

This one does IgG testing 1-4. They will do canine testing if you tell them so they can send it to a different lab that uses a special buffering enzyme conjugate. They quoted panel one as costing $350.   http://www.foodallergytest.com/programTest.html 

I really wished I had done this years earlier instead of going back to the vet’s over and over or trying different vets for a different opinion because I’ve spent much more than that by postponing and by trying many expensive foods. I used the Greer labs IgE blood serum test. I was right on all the suspected allergens, but he is allergic in varying degrees to so many things and some of his responses are different. For instance, chicken gives him colitis, barley has a more immediate effect with vomiting and rhinitis. Both could be causing some of his skin problems which are isolated in small places that he aggravates by licking or scratching. He has allergic colitis and allergic proctocolitis which is inflammation of the lower bowel and shows bloody poop with bright red streaks from the distal large intestine. The usual tests for high clostridium bacteria usually don’t show anything. The allergy causes lesions in the intestine which bleed when feces are passed. These symptoms are also a sign of food allergy, although not often recognized by the vet. If your dog suffers from bowel problems or colitis or has bloody feces, you might suspect food allergies.

Already, just in a few days of avoiding all the allergens on the food list, my dog’s belly rashes and lesions have healed over. There is still scar tissue, but no scabs or suppurating like before, and this was without avoiding any of the environmental allergens that I got tested at the same time, but came back days later than the food test. Even the food test took 2 weeksto get back — very slow. I did not receive a list of what he was tested for, only what he was allergic to. He’s supposedly very allergic to grasses, but has been lying on the same grass for days without any problems. It was the food that really caused problems, especially the higher scored ones (potatoes, barley, lamb, beef, chicken, pork, rice, milk, other grains to a lesser extent). Already, his gut inflammation is healing, too. Dogs can heal very rapidly if the correct cause is found.

After all this, what was the diagnosis for Kota? He can eat venison and eggs or maybe rabbit and that’s about it. The prescription Purina “ha” diet looks like Styrofoam and tastes like garlic popcorn. It is white. I can’t imagine him living on that. I live in a hunting state, so I was able to raid my parent’s deep freezer for wild meat. There’s quite a few there from a few years back. I bought quinoa and buckwheat both unrelated to other grains. Kota can’t tolerate a lot of vegetables, but I’ll try some steamed greens, and give him a vitamin supplement along with enzymes (focusing on amylase for carbohydrates) and the vegetarian glucosamine that I found at the health food store (in case he’s allergic to shellfish, too). I cook the venison or antelope rare by boiling it frozen with the grain and cut it up afterwards. It takes about twenty minutes or less to cook and is easy to do as a one pot affair. I might have to add bran or give psyllium separately because of the higher meat content, until his gut can tone up from all the allergen causing laxness, but his current constipation might be from the “ha” diet or the allergenic food he was eating along with it ( to acclimatize his gut).

But he loves it! (of course, what crazy dog wouldn’t?) His breath smells good – better than when I tried an expensive commercial venison and rice before I got the test results (he’s allergic to rice). He seems pretty happy these past few days since we started this and his vestibular disorder is disappearing, too. His own personal hunting days are over, however. He was looking wistfully at the marmots that have colonized along the ditch, but decided not to make an attempt this year.

P.S.  His hunting days are still over, I’m sure; but this morning he was looking down the marmot holes anyway. Instead of running after them, he walked over to their dens! He’s not going to give up so easily!

SECOND UPDATE:

Here’s a site that really explains allergy testing (for humans, but most apply to dogs, too) the best:

http://blue.regence.com/trgmedpol/lab/lab01.html

It is odd — supposedly my dog and I had the same kind of allergy tests — blood serum IgE, I think both were the ELISA type (from different companies). I had no positives at all on my test despite a reaction to crab and beets (organic  beets– other reactions to food have been found to be to the residual chemicals in them, such as hormones or antibiotics in non-organic chicken or eggs). My dog has had almost all positives yet I felt sure that his basic food — lamb & rice — was ok — that it was, perhaps, the chicken meal or flaxseesd also in the food that was the problem (they were, too). The only way to tell now is to avoid all the foods for awhile until his skin heals completely and then introduce one item at a time.

False positives result when one is allergic to one thing, such as peanuts, but show positives to similar type proteins such as peas or soybeans. If one is allergic to milk, one might show an allergy to beef, also, but not really be allergic to it.

I don’t know why false negatives happen. Perhaps one is taking a lot of vitamin C or taking some cortisone. Perhaps it is a different type of reaction, like my beet reaction (which might show with an IgG test). It happens about an hour after eating beets (and to a lesser extent, chard) — I get a severe headache and stomach ache and dark circles appear under my eyes. But my crab and crayfish reaction is the typical hives and that was negative on the test, also.

Despite supposedly severe allergies to pollens and grasses, Kota’s skin lesions have healed over (the ears are the slowest) with his venison and buckwheat diet (and a vitamin/mineral supplement). The quinoa didn’t work and caused a flare-up and 3 days later soft stools; it is related to lamb’s quarter, which he is also allergic to.

Anyway, I’m sure he would be depressed if I switched him back to a non-allergen dry dog food if I could find one.

sufites in dog food and thiamine deficiency

 

Lots of dog foods have sodium metabisulfite as a preservative (although they also say it is a source of vitamin K activity). Some dogs as well as people are allergic to sulfites and usually have an asthma type reaction. There are plenty of web-sites you can search to read about this. BUT…  

What are the long term effects of daily sulfite ingestion to one not allergic? I have an older dog who lately has been having some strange problems that mystify veterinarians as to the cause. The worst have been two incidents of idiopathic vestibular disorder, about 6 months apart. This last one was just last week. Idiopathic means the cause is unknown. Vestibular means affecting the inner ear (however, it could just be a guess that it is the inner ear — two other causes are toxins or brain lesions). What it really means is that one loses one’s balance to the point of just falling over or wobbling a lot when one walks. That is called ataxia. Nystagmus, rapid extreme movements of the eye usually sideways, is also a symptom.

Read these two articles I found:

http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v05je19.htm   This one is on sulfites and the biochemical effect on the body. Look at the part that says “Effects on thiamine”.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/116930-print  This one is on Beriberi, otherwise known as thiamine deficiency. After reading the symptoms, scroll down to causes.

Sulfites can apparently deplete the body of thiamine within a week of wine (and sulfite) consumption. My dog obviously doesn’t drink wine, but he was eating dog food daily for all his meals that had sulfites in it. I was putting nutritional yeast on his food for the last three years which counter-balanced that depletion effect to some extent, without my realizing why I felt the yeast was needed. But I quit the yeast due to allergies (whether he has a yeast allergy I don’t know yet. I finally was able to afford allergy blood serum tests but haven’t gotten the results yet) and I wonder if years of eating this sulfite laden food has been causing some of his coat and skin problems, occasional limping problems, stiffness of joints and legs, chronic colitis, and finally two very scarey “idiopathic vestibular” events.

It sounds like my dog had a form of “dry” thiamine deficiency that affects the nervous system. Vomiting is also a symptom and he’s had chronic vomiting problems for the last three years also. Is it as yet undiagnosed allergies or is it thiamine depletion due to sulfites in his food? He’s no longer eating any sulfite dog food (and never will again). He is still recovering from this last vestibular disorder. He may have brain lesions because of it, or lesions elsewhere.

It does not help his thiamine levels if the diet is high in thiaminases such as milled rice which his food was (one of the more commercial varities of lamb & rice — it had only white rice, but had other grains, too).

Good News: If it is true — abstainence from all sulfites and a good, natural, healthy diet can probably restore his health and balance and maybe even make the lesions go away.

Bad News: No one is going to believe me or take me seriously, most especially the Medical community or the Veterinarians. Hence this blog .

©Kota’s Catch Blog and http://kotascatch.wordpress.com, 2009. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.