[Jo J]

I wish dog food companies would STOP putting flaxseed filler in their formulas, or at least limit it to a few products. My dog recently became seriously sick —lethargy, obsessive paw licking (to the point of sore in between his toes), excessive drooling, loose bowels, itching—from eating organic chicken based kibble a friend gave him when they were watching him while I was away. I don’t know if this is a springer spaniel thing but every one of my springers has been allergic to flax. I told them about it, but they overfed him his regular food, ran out and didn’t think to look to see if their dog’s food would have flaxseed it in.

In addition to being an allergen, flaxseed is an unneeded filler. It is very difficult for dogs’s metabolism to convert it into a useful omega 3s (the reason most companies use for including it). If you see any of these symptoms in your dog, look at the ingredients on your dog food bag!

• This topic was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Jo J.

[joanne l]

I agree the best omegas is salmon oil or fish oil.

[joanne l]

I just found this on the internet:
“Flaxseed is LIKELY SAFE for most adults when taken by mouth. Adding flaxseed to the diet might increase the number of bowel movements each day. It might also cause gastrointestinal (GI) side effects such as bloating, gas, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, stomachache, and nausea.”

[Jo J]

All I know is it can make dogs very sick. I know a lot about nutrition (a journalist who has covered the topic for several decades) and I know how to do wash outs to find out what foods you or your dog may be allergic too. It’s fairly simple with dogs. It has taken my dog more than a month to return to his peak health and he’s still not even close.

[Lauren O]

I’m going through a similar issue with my dog. Long story short, she started vomiting one day, I took her to the vet. The vet incorrectly diagnosed her with Irritable Bowel Disease and switched her food to Hill’s Prescription Diet Multi Benefit and put her on a high fiber diet. Almost immediately, she started itching everywhere, to the point of getting a little burn under her arm from scratching so much and losing hair on her leg from licking. I left her on that food for about a month and did as much internet research as I could. I found another food that most people said was a good food for dogs that need high fiber but have skin allergies. So she got switched to Earthborn Holistic Venture Alaskan Pollock Meal and Pumpkin. Two weeks later, she was still itching. I tried another food, that she ate a quarter cup of and vomited. I was ready to scream. The problem is there are SO MANY INGREDIENTS in dog food so trying to eliminate a common denominator is exhausting, not to mention, you have to wait several weeks in between switching. It’s all trial and error with a significant wait time in between the trial and the error. So I was overwhelmed. I wanted to find a food that had the smallest number of ingredients possible. Then I found Just Food for Dogs. They have several different flavors, and if you live in California, you can meet with one of their employees and custom make your dog’s food, however I live in Texas so I had to settle for a pre-made recipe, but the best part is: her current food has 6 ingredients and each of those ingredients-I know exactly what they are. No mixed tocopherols, choline chloride or Rosemary extracts; just cod, safflower oil, broccoli, green beans, russet potatoes and sweet potatoes. And amazingly, Lulu stopped scratching. BUT THEN, Lulu started having potty issues. There isn’t enough fiber in this food. Also, the 9oz bag is $25, so I’m paying roughly $125 a month for dog food, which is pretty expensive for me. I don’t really care about the money, if my dog isn’t scratching and miserable-I’ll pay for it, but with other digestive issues due to the lack of fiber, I had to start doing research again. After studying the list of ingredients of all of the foods that Lulu had problems with, I noticed the one thing that was in every food that wasn’t a vitamin was FLAXSEED.
Tonight I googled dog food allergies to flaxseed and ended up here. Any help, advice, comments, etc would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I keep hitting a wall. I’ve always tried to do the best for my pup and now I’m lost. I’ve always fed her grain free food because I assumed that was the best (I realize now how naive this was) and now I’m reading that grain free diets in dogs can lead to heart failure. Does anyone know anything dog food that I can feed my poor little dog that won’t make her itch like crazy and lick her paws bare?
Sorry for the length- part explanation/part venting.

[Jen S]

I am in the same boat. I feel horrible that it feels like I’ve been guessing for years but with mild symptoms. It’s gotten worse recently with the head shaking, licking, biting and scratching to the point of sores. While we always thought he may have a food allergy, it got worse when we moved to Pennsylvania last year. I researched more after one vet tried Cytopoint (sp?) and another gave us magical solution to put on his hot spots. I found an allergy test from Chewy and sent it away to see if they could determine allergies. Corn and household fungus are the most severe, but various proteins and flaxseed are mild intolerances for him. We had our pup on grain free food for the longest time too, but I found a food Zignature Select Cuts Trout and Salmon that doesn’t have his potential allergens, including flaxseed. I had to take him to the vet to get treatment for his sores, and the vet gave us a prescription for hydrolyzed food. It it taking everything I have to continue with the food that doesn’t have his allergens to see the outcome before trying to hydrolyzed food (which has all of the allergens but just broken down to the amino acids to avoid detection by the immune system). My fear with hydrolyzed food is that the proteins might be broken down but not his other allergens. Anyway, after a week on this new Zignature Select Cuts Trout and Salmon, he’s still itching and shaking his head. It is breaking my heart, but I’m hoping the new food will help him over the next 6 weeks. This post helped because I was beginning to think he might somehow have mites because it’s amazing to me that a food allergy could have this impact on him. Would a food allergy always be immediate? He tends to develop symptoms over time rather than immediately after eating a new food. Positive thoughts for your sweet fur babies!

[rachel S]

hello flaxseed avoiders,
my dog was diagnosed with food allergies at 12 months. back in July. we determined he was allergic to a couple of things, some he had never been exposed to. but Flaxseed and peanuts, yea no peanut butter anymore either. the vet wanted to put him on a hydrolysed diet. i saw the price of $100/20lb bag, I said no way and started my own research. i found Taste of the Wild Prey all flavors, he gets 2 cups a day(split), he is 86lbs, his vet said she is so happy with his skin condition, but he needs to lose a bit of weight. he is 1.5 years old chocolate labrador. I hope this helps some of you struggling to find food that does not contain flax, but is still mid-high quality

[Gary A]

It’s been a while but I though that I would add to this. After two years of our little Field Spaniel suffering from from Acute Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis and over a year of food elimination diet trials, our vets finally ran him through an expensive battery of allergy tests. Our the vets had informed us up front that the expensive tests only had a 75% accuracy rate and allergy testing was not recommended for the diagnosis of food allergies; we were okay with that, we were getting desperate. Now, the tests showed us pretty conclusively that he had no allergies to natural unprocessed animal proteins ; however they cannot test for the highly over-processed proteins found in commercial dog food, too many processing methods. But what did come up was that he was deathly allergic to flax products, he scored over 500 on the allergen panel. He also scored over 300 for tomato products. Even allowing for the 75% accuracy rate, those two items were simply just too high to ignore.

We immediately sought out foods that contained no flax or tomato products, and it was surprisingly pretty difficult. We found a few, and immediately began him on a diet changeover routine. Within a week there were no more bloody raspberry jam stools, no more bloody vomiting, his little stomach calmed right down. Its now been almost a year that he’s been free of any severe gastroenteritis symptoms; he still gets the occasional upset stomach, but that seems to be mostly from eating grass.

I guess the biggest question I have out of all of this is if flax and tomato products are “so safe” for our pets, then why are the allergy testing companies actively testing for flax and tomato in their panels? We already know that not only is flax seed is a natural source of cyanide, but the touted rich plant based sources of omega 3 contain ALA, rather than EPA and DHA, and that ALA is not readily bioavailable in our dogs and cats. Also odd, I’ve recently read that Flaxseed Allergy is now considered an emerging allergen in humans.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by Gary A.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by Gary A. Reason: grammatical

[Kim V]

I know this feed is older, but I found it when I was actually looking for hemp seed allergies. I’m making lightly cooked homemade dog food which has made a world of difference for my 3 dogs. They are so shiny and healthy now. No more yeasty ears and head shaking. I’ve been playing the which protein, veggies, and oils can they have game though and each dog has had difficulty with different things. One fish oil, another sweet potatoes, and all of them hemp oil. The point of my post is that I wanted to let people know there is food allergy testing that is affordable online with great reviews. I am going to do the 5Strands test for food allergies for $88. I may do the food and environmental, but with 3 dogs $148 is a little steep. I hope everyone has figured out what works for their furbabies.

[Kim V]

After searching again, My Pet Sensitivity is on sale for $50 and gives a discount for buying a two pack test. Hope that helps!

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