Dear Suzanne, Unfortunately, food allergies in dogs are not uncommon and can take a good deal of commitment and patience to work through. Dogs can manifest food allergies with signs ranging from skin problems, recurrent ear infections to vomiting and/or diarrhea. Assuming that your veterinarian ruled out the many other possible causes of vomiting and excessive saliva production, including diseases such as pancreatitis, renal disease and gastrointestinal parasites, your dog may have food allergies.

While serum tests for food allergies in dogs are nice because they are fast, relatively non-invasive and not very expensive, they can be unreliable. Skin testing for food allergies is also not reliable. The best method for evaluating whether your dog has a food allergy is a food elimination trial. Dogs can be allergic to one or more components in a dog food. Allergies to starches (e.g. corn, rice, gluten) or proteins (e.g. chicken, beef, lamb) are most common. It is also possible, but less common, for a dog to be allergic to one of the other additives in foods. So the plan with a food elimination trial is to put your dog on a novel protein and starch source - that is a protein and starch that he has never been exposed to before and would have no allergic-type immune response to. (This is one reason it is unfortunate that lamb and rice diets are so commonly available in stores now, because most dogs have been exposed to this protein and starch and we cannot use them as an "allergy diet" any more.) The food elimination trial should consist of your dog eating only the special dog food for a 12-16 week period. Your veterinarian can help you choose a food that is likely to work. There are special "allergy" diets available for dogs made with venison, duck, egg, lamb, fish, rabbit and other uncommon protein and starch sources available. Many dogs show improvement in 6-8 weeks, but some dogs can take as long as 16 weeks. Your dog should have no treats, no meat flavored medicines, nothing but the special diet for 12-16 weeks. Most dogs do well on a commercially formulated diet, but occasionally a dog will need a home-cooked diet before its symptoms will resolve.

Even after 16 weeks if your dogs symptoms have resolved, you still cannot be sure it was the change in diet, or if some other factor was involved. To confirm the diagnosis of food allergy you need to do a dietary challenge by returning all of the things your dog used to eat: treats, rawhides, bones, foods, flavored medicines. Usually within 1-2 weeks, dogs with food allergies will have their symptoms return and a food allergy is confirmed. The dog should return to the "allergy diet" until their symptoms resolve again. If you are interested in finding out what specific components of foods your dog is allergic to, contact your veterinarian for details on that procedure.

It is important that you have a consult with your veterinarian and/or a veterinary nutritionist on your dog’s diet if you continue with a home-cooked diet. It is difficult to create a well-balanced diet at home alone for your dog, and it is easy to supply deficient levels of important vitamins or minerals. One dramatic example is of a dog on a table-food diet suffering a broken bone from low calcium levels. I strongly urge you to speak with your veterinarian about this.

It takes patience and much work when your pet has allergies. I wish you the best of luck!

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