The power of the food trial

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"Dog food 203365" by Anne Hornyak - Flickr: Fromm 203/365. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Image courtesy Anne Hornyak via Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

A very itchy, erythematous young boxer with very sore ears came in to my consult room.

A normally very docile chap, it really resented having topical treatments applied to its ear canals.

It turned out he was passing stools three to four times a day (two is more normal) and showed signs of gastrointestinal disturbance on an intermittent basis.

Thinking we were heading in the direction of atopic disease, I instigated a food trial, with my personal favourite, Purina HA. Three weeks later, we had a different (much better) dog.

Amazing – particularly given only 25% of cases respond within the first three weeks of a trial. Now I have to persuade the owners we should do a re-challenge to confirm our diagnosis.


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