Your dog scratches often, even without fleas in sight. Its ear is constantly inflamed. Its coat is dull, its skin reddened. Or maybe its stomach is rumbling and its stools have been irregular for weeks.
You've tried everything — different shampoos, supplements, antiparasitic treatments. But the problem keeps coming back.
One of the most underestimated causes in these cases is something you see every day: the food bowl.
Food allergy or intolerance? The difference matters
First of all, an important clarification that often causes confusion.
Food allergy — is an immune system response. The dog's body mistakenly identifies a food protein as a threat and reacts by producing antibodies. Symptoms can appear even with minimal amounts of the offending food and tend to be constant over time.
Food intolerance — is a digestive, non-immune response. The body struggles to process a certain ingredient. Symptoms are primarily gastrointestinal and tend to be proportional to the amount ingested.
In both cases, the solution is similar — identify the offending food and remove it from the diet — but allergies tend to have broader and more persistent symptoms.
