Can a meat or poultry product in your pet’s food be harmful?

The answer is YES! Meat proteins that sometimes cause severe allergy and/or intolerance in your pets, are ingredients of almost all pet foods, treats, chews, table scraps, eggs, and bones. Signs of meat protein allergy or intolerance include itching, redness of skin, hives, vomiting, and diarrhea. If your pet displays some of these signs, please, look at the ingredients listed in the pet food carefully. Ingredients that can cause allergy/intolerance include animal fats and oils, animal proteins, bone meal, animal derivatives, meat meal, poultry, and poultry fat.

Aside from the protein allergens, raw meat and raw eggs can contain bacteria such as Salmonella and E. Coli that can be harmful to your pets. Raw eggs contain an enzyme called avidin that reduces vitamin B absorption, which can lead to skin and coat problems. Pets with seasonal allergies or with an allergy to molds or insects are at high risk for developing an allergy to meat proteins.

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.