And more importantly, why?
And maybe even more importantly than that, what is an elimination diet?
So let’s start there:What is an elimination diet?
It’s a diet where we eliminate everything going into the mouth of your pet. Usually, it’s a dog. Simply because it’s a little bit easier to work with dogs and cats can be outrageously particular about food. That doesn’t mean elimination diets are impossible with cats. It just means it’s more of a challenge.
Second question: Why use an elimination diet?
All right, so let’s look at hypothetical dog, Fluffy. Fluffy has itchy skin. Fluffy might have recurrent ear infections, redness all over the belly. Crazy, itchy skin.
One of the things that anybody wants to know is: Is Fluffy scratching because of the food?
But it’s not really just food. It’s every single thing that goes into Fluffy‘s mouth. Every single supplement, medication, water treatment, etc. These all need to be considered in an elimination diet.
The first question which really is the third question: How do you do it?
So the way to get started is stop every single thing. And pick one protein and one green vegetable. Like normally, broccoli is pretty safe. How to pick a protein? That’s a tough one. It depends on what Fluffy has eaten. Or maybe what Fluffy is eating now and whether or not Fluffy is having problems with the current food. But pick a protein. So let’s say beef for a moment. We are going to feed Fluffy beef and broccoli. With a tiny pinch of salt. And that’s all Fluffy gets for two weeks. No supplements. No medication. Nothing!
Why are we so strict about it?
Look at any of those chewable anything we are sold to feed our pets. The heartworm pill. The flea pill. The joint pill. The allergy pill. Treats. Water treatment. These all contain chemicals. Fillers. Tons of ingredients. Any one of these items could be contributing to why Fluffy is scratching herself to bits.
So for two weeks Fluffy gets beef and broccoli. And we look and see what happens. Does the itching get worse, stay the same, or get better?
If things get worse, we change proteins right away.
Sudden change. Not a transition.
Transitions are looking at trying to avoid diarrhea in animals with really messed up guts. (Which Fluffy might have, but we are here talking about how to do an elimination diet.)
We make a sudden change because if Fluffy is eating beef and Fluffy is allergic to beef and you spend 10 days mixing beef with chicken now Fluffy thinks that chicken is beef and Fluffy has a problem with both beef and chicken.
And then you repeat. You spent two weeks with chicken and broccoli and see how Fluffy does. Or maybe you change up your green vegetable and Fluffy eats chicken and green beans with a pinch of salt.
No, this is not balanced. This is an elimination diet.
So-called balanced diets are usually loaded with 40 extra ingredients (read that bag of kibble you have in the closet). Anything can cause reactions.
So first you figure out which protein is Fluffy can eat without having a horrible skin breakout.
So in this hypothetical example, we tried beef with Fluffy and her ears got really hot and swollen. So we immediately changed to chicken. (And honestly, we changed to chicken thighs, not chicken breast because chicken thighs have 10 times more nutrition than chicken breast.)
So now we’re feeding her chicken and broccoli. And she’s doing great. And we go two weeks and she’s doing awesome. So now we add one thing once every two weeks. Carrots for example. Then wait two weeks. Then try sardines. And wait two weeks. If at any point, her skin has a freak out, then you know we don’t feed that.
That’s an elimination diet.
Continuing your supplements and your pills, etc. etc. That’s not part of an elimination diet.
The plus side? Elimination diets are inexpensive because all you’re doing is playing with simple ingredients.
The downside of an elimination diet? It’s confusing. Complicated. You don’t know what’s really causing the problems. And maybe the problem isn’t even the food!
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