Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 9/28/2008

Question
hi please can you tell me how food alergy test are done?The reason i am asking is because i have just come across  from a Naturopathic/Homaeophathic website in Australia that is offering a food alergy /sensitivity test for the cost of $100.00 Test are carried out by mailing a sample of your dogs hair in a sealed plastic bag,which you then recieve a email with the results from the test. Please can you tell me if this it possible to test for alergies this way? as im finding it a bit hard to believe!

Answer
There is no effective allergy test for foods!!!  Many companies offer tests, but none of them correlate to food allergy.  In other words, it the test says that your dog is allergic to beef, if you take it off beef products, it does not get better.  THe only way to test for food allergies is to take the dog off all regular foods and feed either a hydrolyzed diet or a new protein diet that the dog has never eaten.  In the US, we often use kangaroo and oats diet, but your dog may have eaten kangaroo before.