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| the Dutch way || Spike's update, 2007 || back |

Rotation Diet as treatment for food allergies

Since September 2004, when I started to prepare all meals for the dogs myself, I noticed further improvement in Spike's condition.
Before that date I used a ready-made frozen raw meat product for the dog's breakfast and home-made BARF for dinner, or ready-made for breakfast and dinner. I fed a beef and a lamb variety without rice.
We were in the middle of the reconstruction of our living room and kitchen so I hadn't much possibilities in preparing the dog's food myself.
I noticed feeding Spike one meat source for days or weeks especially the beef variety didn't become him. He didn't start cramping but I knew he wasn't feeling well.
I once read an article about rotation diet as treatment for food allergies.

Here is a quote from the article: "When a patient has multiple food allergies, the offending foods must be eliminated and all other foods should be eaten at intervals of four to five days or longer. This is know an a "rotation" or "rotary diversified" diet. Rotation diets are necessary for patients with multiple allergies because if you have overt allergies to many foods, it is likely that you have slight, sub clinical allergies to many other foods that you consider safe. Eating them on a rotated basis reduces your exposure to them and hopefully will help preserve your tolerance for them".

An allergy test taken in 2003, showed Spike is allergic to all grain and had a slight reaction to some meat.

Kyra took the test too and she only had a "2" for the last three ingredients, the rest was 0. Strange thing: Kyra is allergic to lambs meat and this was a zero in her test! (zero, one and two are ok) I often wondered why Kyra (one and a half year younger than Spike), who was raised on the same food as Spike, had such different test results.
When the results came in, people told me the results only showed how often Spike had been in contact with those ingredients, that the results of this test had no meaning. It made me wonder what I had been feeding my dogs. I had never fed them corn, oats, potato, barley, soy or pork. The only way they got in contact with those ingredients was by the high quality kibble I fed them.....

I kept thinking, from time to time, about this strange outcome in Spike's test report. Till now it is the only thing abnormal that has been found in his blood.
Since I started paying attention to the results of the test and left out the food with IgE from three to five (all grains and cow milk) Spike started doing much better.

The next step after eliminating all grain from Spike's diet was the rotation diet. I had the feeling there was a possibility Spike's condition could improve more by this way of feeding.

When you are feeding BARF it is important to vary a lot. So BARF is an excellent way of feeding a rotation diet. BARF IS a rotation diet ;-)). I rotate between grazers like lamb, goat, foal and cow, with feathered animals like duck, goose, turkey and pheasant and furry animals like rabbit and hare. One day a grazer and the other day another sort animal. Once a week mackerel or sardines and once a week goat's tripe. I prepare the tripe myself, rinsing it thoroughly to avoid the risk there is some grain left (most grazers are fed grain). It is my gut feeling food rotation is for Spike a very good method.
It might be interesting if more cramping dogs were tested like this, before they are put on a gluten free diet.
I heard from two other owners of a cramping Border Terrier who had their dog tested for food allergies and the results were as amazing as Spike's.
Such a test could be a good help for a proper food management for the cramping dog.

Joke Miedema, Feb 2, 2005

| BARF || Gluten & testing || Rotation diet || Commercial dog food || Vaccination || Mailing with dr John Symes |
| the Dutch way || Spike's update, 2007 || back |