Chicken is a favourite food of most dogs, and as it’s full of juicy protein, it often forms the main ingredient of many dog food recipes and treats. But it just so happens that chicken is also one of the most common food allergies in dogs!
With this in mind, managing a chicken allergy in your dog can be tricky. If you suspect your dog might have a chicken allergy, or you’re stumped on what to feed your allergic dog as a chicken alternative, join us as we unpack all you need to know about dogs with chicken allergies.
Yes, believe it or not, some dogs are allergic to chicken!
Even if they like it, and eat it without hesitation, they could still have an allergy to chicken.
Chicken usually forms a large part of a dog’s diet (as it’s a nutritious, lean protein and tasty, too) - but it’s also one of the most common food allergies in dogs, alongside beef, wheat, eggs and dairy.
Exact stats are hard to pin down, but chicken is known as one of the top food allergies in dogs, alongside beef and dairy.
This is because chicken is so widely used in a range of dog food, so more dogs are exposed to chicken; and also because the more often a dog eats a particular protein, the more likely it is that a dog will develop an allergy or intolerance to that food.
As we’ve said, dogs will happily eat chicken even if they have an allergy, so it’s hard to diagnose from the get-go.
When getting advice from a vet, they’ll probably encourage you to do a trial-and-error test with their diet. This means gradually eliminating chicken to see if their symptoms stop. This makes knowing the signs of chicken allergy imperative to helping out your pooch.
Here are the most common symptoms of your dog having a chicken allergy. It’s worth noting that these symptoms are seen for most food allergies, which is why it can be tricky to identify the problem!
If your dog is allergic to something they eat, the body senses it is being attacked each time it detects said food, and has a defensive reaction to its presence.
If this is a chicken allergy, for instance, the immune system overreacts to the proteins (amino acids) in chicken and produces antibodies to try and fight them, meaning your pooch then experiences allergy symptoms such as skin itchiness, redness and digestive issues.
With allergic reactions being so intertwined with your dog's immune system and bodily functions, there's also a direct link to their gut health and microbial diversity!
70% of your dog's immune cells that keep their immunological function ticking along lives within their gut. So, when the bacteria that keep everything afloat are unbalanced, everything the gut microbiome supports also can't work as it should - including their immune system.
This results in a number of symptoms, including allergy symptoms. This can also exacerbate existing allergy symptoms.
Pooch & Mutt are all about championing the importance of keeping your dog healthy from the inside out. And it all starts with their gut health. Find out more about your dog's gut health, their microbiome, and its crucial role in their overall health and wellbeing below.
This depends on how long your dog has been eating chicken and how severe their reaction is.
If your pooch has had chicken in their meals for a long time, and you eliminate chicken from their diet, it could take 2-3 weeks for the strongest symptoms to subside, but up to three months for all symptoms to stop completely.
The most important factor is to identify chicken as the culprit, and then experiment with an elimination diet to see if your dog’s condition improves and they no longer have a reaction.
One of the trickiest parts of dogs and food allergies is identifying which food is causing the allergic reaction in the first place.
The most effective approach is to try an elimination diet, with the support of your vet, who can make sure everything goes according to plan.
If you feel your dog is getting frequent allergic reactions from their food and is showing the symptoms of a food allergy listed above, it’s important to take note of what symptoms show and how often, along with what they ate at the time, and explain this to your vet.
They can give your dog a physical check-up, potentially run some blood tests and make sure there aren’t any other underlying health issues that could be causing your pooch problems.
If it’s decided that your dog probably has a food allergy, your vet can help you start an elimination diet to identify the trigger, whether it’s chicken or something else.
Note: Though blood tests do exist to identify a food allergy, these are very expensive and sometimes prove false negatives. Because of this, your vet might not suggest these tests up front, but offer alternatives.
The most effective way to identify a food allergy in your dog is with an elimination diet, sometimes called an ‘exclusion diet’.
This is basically a stripped-back menu for your pooch, in which they’ll eat gentle, hypoallergenic foods such as potatoes and fish, usually for 8-12 weeks. It means no table scraps or one-off cheat meals, and no sneaky treats - the idea is to eliminate all the foods your dog usually eats, and cleanse their digestive system of what could be causing them allergic symptoms.
After the 8-12 weeks are up, the next step is to gradually reintroduce foods they used to eat, one by one; like a ‘food challenge’ to identify the perpetrating ingredient. If you suspect chicken, try feeding them small amounts of unseasoned, boiled chicken along with the stripped back food and see if it has an effect.
You may be hesitant to feed a potential allergen to your dog, especially if their symptoms have stopped since you changed their diet, but it’s the only way to be entirely sure of identifying the triggering food and avoiding the discomfort in future.
It's also good to note that many dogs with food allergies are often allergic to more than one ingredient. This is why a prescribed diet is often more successful than avoiding just the one ingredient.
If you discover that the trigger isn’t chicken, that means another food is causing the allergic reaction.
The most common food allergies in dogs include beef, dairy, eggs, wheat and lamb; if any of these are usual foods in your dog’s former diet, try introducing them in small amounts until your pooch starts to display symptoms.
Report the findings to your vet, and they can advise you on what to do next to manage your dog’s food allergy.
We should also consider that many dogs with food allergies also have environmental allergies to things like dust mites and pollen. So just because your dog is still showing symptoms after a diet change, it doesn't necessarily mean it is not needed.
So you’ve identified a chicken allergy in your dog: it’s now time to start deciding on alternatives for their diet, using whole ingredients that still provide enough nutrients, such as protein, for their wellbeing.
As chicken is used in so many dog food recipes and treats, you’ll need to be vigilant about what your dog eats from now on to ensure they stick to a chicken-free diet.
Carefully read the back of dog food packaging, be vocal about your dog’s allergy with your friends and family, and perhaps switch to a high-quality, specialist dog food for allergies.
With a chicken allergy in dogs, their body reacts to the proteins (amino acids) in the chicken. As their body tries to fight off these proteins, this is what causes the aforementioned allergy symptoms.
With the reaction stemming from the protein found in chicken, this means that other chicken derivatives can be safe to eat for some dogs with allergies.
Before feeding anything new to your dog, especially with allergies, be sure to check with your vet first.
Pure chicken fat doesn't contain the protein that triggers an allergic reaction to chicken. This is why you may find it amongst ingredient lists on chicken-free dog food. Whilst as an owner of a dog with a chicken allergy, you may feel reluctant to feed your dog chicken fat, in most cases, it's safe for them to have.
However, always check with your vet before feeding it to your dog, just to double-check.
Whilst they come from chickens, dogs with chicken allergies can still eat eggs. That said, dogs can also be allergic to eggs, so feed them with caution. Be sure to check with your vet for further advice before feeding your dog anything new.
When a dog has a diagnosed food allergy, some dog owners choose to simplify their diet to just nutritious whole foods that don’t contain without the allergen.
Some dog owners even start a homemade diet for their pooch, so they know exactly what they’re feeding them.
There are benefits to these methods, however this isn’t always the best solution. It can be tricky and time-consuming to go homemade and ensure your pooch is getting the right nutrients, vitamins and minerals their body needs every day. To make it easier, there are ready-made dog foods available that are nutritionally complete and perfect for dogs with food allergies.
As with all our recipes, it’s also grain-free, so there’s even less chance of triggering unwanted symptoms.
Always discuss this new food switch with your vet, so they can check that your dog is responding well to the new diet. You can also read more about the nifty powers of hydrolysed dog food for dogs with allergies.
If your dog has a food allergy, or a suspected food allergy and you want to try an elimination diet, try our grain-free dog food recipes for allergies or for dogs with sensitive stomachs. They’re specially formulated with hypoallergenic, nutritious ingredients - and use alternative proteins such as salmon or cod.
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