Case Study

Mrs Bellingham noticed her eight-year-old poodle, Bella, had red patches around her ears, in between her eyebrows and under her chin and paws, and she was scratching a lot. Initially, Mrs Bellingham thought a pollen allergy might be the cause, and so would wipe Bella’s paws and her coat, but the dog was still experiencing problems in winter when pollen isn’t an issue.

For two to three years, Bella’s vets had been giving her Cytopoint injections once a month and this did help, the itching would go away. She was also being given Apoquel tablets that work on the nervous system. However, as time went on, Bella was getting worse. Her vets suggested it could be a food allergy, but said they didn’t want to play guesswork and referred her to Anita for allergy testing.

Anita had a discussion with Mrs Bellingham via video link. This way, Anita could inspect Bella, she looked at the condition of her skin and under her paws to understand what could be causing the redness.

Anita put Bella on a new diet and advised Mrs Bellingham to make Bella’s food from scratch. Mrs Bellingham explains: “It’s obviously a bit more work, but it completely sorted out her allergies. We started with a basic diet of just pork – beef and bird were totally excluded, as were other snacks. I made little meatballs and flaked a pork joint. Bella loved it.”

The diet carried on for around eight weeks, after which, under Anita’s instructions, Mrs Bellingham introduced chicken for two weeks, then went back to only pork, then introduced other meats, one by one, to identify those Bella could safely eat. However, when Mrs Bellingham treated Bella to her favourite snacks, the dog started to itch again.

This chew is described on the packaging as being grain and gluten-free, with no soy or wheat, and with real chicken… and yet Bella started to itch. Anita explained that the product is also full of artificial flavours and preservatives, which could also cause an allergic reaction.

Bella would much rather have snacks and itch a bit, but it got worse, so Mrs Bellingham decided to stop giving her the chews and introduced Royal Canin Anallergenic Kibble instead.