Today we start a series of blogs regarding human foods that can be harmful to dogs and cats. Milk and dairy products such as cheese, butter, yogurt, different forms of cream, and ice cream are common triggers for food allergies in pets. They can induce a variety of allergy symptoms like irritation of the skin, redness, itching, and GI upset. The two main proteins in milk that can cause an allergic reaction are casein and whey. Your pet may be allergic to only one of these proteins or both. Even if dairy products do not cause an allergy, you must remember that they are high in fat, and feeding with these products can lead to obesity and pancreatitis, which is a serious illness for pets. Separately from allergy, pets can be Lactose intolerant because they do not have substantial amounts of lactase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose in milk). Signs of lactose intolerance are abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, vomiting, bloating, or another digestive upset.
Pet Preferred Diagnostics has the newest technologies for allergy tests for dogs and cats as well as a unique food intolerance (IgG) test that can screen a serum sample for 54 harmful food ingredients. We require less than 1 ml of serum for the largest 100 allergen panel and less than 0.5 ml for all other tests.
