Last Updated on September 29, 2024 by admins
Yorkie food allergy is one of the serious conditions that you have to beware of as it may cause death. Although it affects only 5-10% of Yorkies, neglecting the case causes anaphylactic shock that is a severe deadly allergic reaction. Keep reading to explore more about yorkies and allergies and how to prevent
Table of Contents
What Is Yorkie Food Allergy?
Yorkie food allergy is a hypersensitivity to certain foods that trigger the Yorkie’s immune system. Doctors suspect that the condition is genetic-related. However, signs appear just when your Yorkie consumes food that triggers the immune system to produce antibodies. Additionally, food allergies can occur after long exposure to one brand, type, or form of food.
Food allergy is different from intolerance. Food allergy is immune reaction-related condition while intolerance is the inability of the intestine to digest and absorb certain foods. Yorkie with intolerance has digestive distress, gas, bloating, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea however, in allergy you will notice itching and skin rashes.
What Causes Yorkie Food Allergy?
Any type of food can cause food allergies however, you must explore what exactly causes the condition because it differs from a dog to another. Generally, there are common food triggers cause allergies and most of them are proteins. Furthermore, low-quality dry food can have some mites when being left for a long time, mites then multiply and when ingested, it can cause allergy.
What Are Yorkies Allergic To?
- Beef
- Lamb
- Pork
- Rabbit
- Fish
- Chicken and eggs
- Soy or gluten (from wheat)
- Foods with artificial color, flavor, and preservatives
What Are The Signs Of Yorkie Food Allergy?
There are several signs of yorkie food allergy however, your dog can experience one or more than of the following symptoms;
- Skin symptoms: itching, skin rash, hair loss
- Gastrointestinal symptoms: vomiting, diarrhea, gas
- Other: weight loss, hyperactivity, lack of energy, aggression, chronic ear inflammation
Treatment Of Yorkie Food Allergy
If your Yorkie suffers food allergy, the vet will give it some medications to treat the symptoms such as antihistamines. However, the best treatment to avoid recurrence of food allergy is the elimination diet. Make a food diary in which you record the food your dog eats.
Notice which food would trigger the allergy then eliminate it from your Yorkie’s diet. Additionally, try to change the diet to be free from preservatives and coloring, opt for homemade food if you can do it. Otherwise, choose another food product that does not contain food allergens such as soy or gluten.
How To Prevent Yorkie Food Allergy?
There are many tips you can do to prevent yorkie food allergy. For instance, keep a food diary in which you write down every food you give your Yorkie to be able to distinguish the allergen to eliminate it. Then, give your dog an elimination diet for at least 6-8 weeks.
Serve your Yorkie a diet that contains prebiotics, Omega-3, and Omega-6. Prebiotics will improve the natural gut microbiota thus improve Yorkie’s immune system to be less susceptible to allergies.
Best Dog Food For Yorkies With Allergies
In this section, we have three varieties from which you can choose. They are homemade food, limited ingredient diets, and hypoallergenic dog foods.
1. Homemade Dog Food
Homemade food is a safe alternative that is free from preservatives or coloring. Also, it has another advantage that you know each ingredient included in the recipe, unlike commercial products. In commercial products, sometimes manufacturers do not write every ingredient on the label that could cause allergy.
Before going for homemade food, ask your vet to give you some advice on how to prepare it and the appropriate ingredients. Unfortunately, not every dog owner can prepare well-balanced home food for their pets. Try to serve your Yorkie a high-quality protein that it did not eat before, this is called “novel protein”
Novel proteins could be non-typical meat, such as venison, buffalo, ostrich, salmon, or duck. To complete the recipe, add some vegetables and carbohydrates. Do not forget to add a supplement or prebiotic to the meal.
2. Limited Ingredient Diets
As you can guess, these food products contain limited ingredients. This makes life easy for you while you are figuring out the cause of the allergy.
Wellness Simple Limited Ingredient Diet Turkey and Potato
This is a grain-free limited product that contains only deboned turkey, turkey meal, potatoes, peas, dried ground potatoes but it is suitable for just adults.
Nom Nom Fresh
It is a fresh human-grade recipe that suits all life stages. It is grain-free containing ground pork, russet potatoes, green beans, squash, kale.
Canidae Pure Grain-Free- Real Salmon and Sweet Potato
The ingredients of this product are salmon, salmon meal, menhaden fish meal, sweet potatoes, peas. It is grain-free that only fits adults.
Merrick Limited Ingredient Diet Healthy Grains- Turkey and Rice
Merrick Limited Ingredient formula is grain-inclusive (brown rice, oatmeal) that fits only adult Yorkies.
Hypoallergenic Dog Foods
The goal of manufacturers when producing hypoallergenic foods is to break the protein down to back again to its simple form “amino acids”. These simple amino acid blocks hardly produce allergies.
Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets HA Chicken Flavor
This product is excellent for sensitive dogs, the main protein source here is hydrolyzed soy protein isolate. The basic ingredients are corn starch, hydrolyzed soy protein isolate, partially hydrogenated canola oil preserved with TBHQ, coconut oil, powdered cellulose. It is grain-free that is suitable for adults only.
Royal Canin Veterinary Diets Hydrolyzed Protein Adult HP
The Royal Canin does fit all life stags, adults, and puppies. It is a grain-inclusive (brewers rice) formula that contains brewers rice, hydrolyzed soy protein, chicken fat, natural flavors, dried plain beet pulp.
Conclusion
Although yorkie food allergy is a critical condition, it is easy to be managed. If your dog suffers the condition, go to the vet to give it the appropriate medicine then search for the food that triggered the allergy. Once you figure it, do not include it again in your Yorkie’s diet then feed it an elimination diet for at least 4 weeks. Finally, choose a food product that doe not have allergens such as homemade food or hypoallergenic or limited food products.