Gluten is a protein found in grains such as wheat, barley, and rye and can trigger an allergy/intolerance, or other serious health problems in your pet. This protein is also found in other cereal grains like oats, and buckwheat. For pets suffering from severe allergies or intolerance to gluten, an oat-based gluten-free diet can be recommended. You should be careful with this transition because oats are regularly grown and processed next to wheat and other grains that contain gluten. Thus, those who suffer from a gluten allergy might be allergic to oats as well. Apart from cross-contamination with gluten, oats have a gluten-like protein, avenin, that can cause the allergic reaction itself. Remember, grains such as corn, rice, and quinoa can also contain some gluten and can also cause allergies or intolerance. Symptoms of a gluten allergy may include obsessive chewing or licking of feet, skin redness and itching, and GI problems. If your pets have any of these symptoms, please be careful and do not feed them cookies, granola bars, cereal, and other products containing gluten.
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.
