Dog Food Allergies and Cat Litter

It can be challenging for me to address issues that affect dogs and cats in one short blog, but this one presented itself recently and I thought I would share. Perhaps I share a bit too much personal information, but in the name of education, here goes...

Our dog, Phidippides, Phidy, Dippy,... is a chocolate labrador (mix? Genetic history unknown). As with many labs, he sometimes show signs of food allergies, which in dogs is often displayed as skin problems—itchy skin, especially licking and chewing of the feet as well as inflamed itchy ears prone to recurrent infections. He had been doing very well, and we thought we had a good diet for him, eliminating grains (wheat and corn are often allergic instigators) and finding a food with a single source of meat, no beef, which is a common allergen for dogs as well. But in the past few months he has begun chewing his feet again. Yes, allergies can pop up at any time to any ingredient and the search for the right food can be a challenge, so like any good pet owner, I ignored it hoping it would go away.

As back story, we have been doing some winter remodeling and Phidy has spent a lot more times with the cats, James and Sirius, needing to be locked in the same room while workers do this and that around the house. Luckily they all get along just fine and the cats can get up high in their cat tree if he gets annoying—cat food also goes up out of reach (though there are occasional moment of unintended sharing when a morsel drops to the floor). He did make a seemingly new discovery with so much leisure time with his small furry buddies. The litterbox. I didn't think much of it—yes, he's a dog and it is a disgusting joy of dog-hood—until his feces looked like it did the time he decided to eat a whole bag of my daughter's rat food (yes, we keep the whole food chain going in our house.) The puzzle pieces began to fit together and finally I could no longer ignore the obvious. The cat litter, "World's Best Cat Litter" (a pretentious name, but I do prefer it to clay), is made from corn. Oh. Hmmm. That could be the problem. Our previous lab, Midnight, could not nip popcorn from the floor without having a severe skin reaction. It turns out that Phidy was occasionally ingesting larger amounts from the litter box than previously suspected (though even tiny amounts of a food that causes allergies can lead dogs to ravenously try to chew their feet off).

To give this story a happy ending, measures have been put in place to better block the cat box from reach and interestingly enough, his itchy feet are doing much better!

Questions about dogs and allergies?
Questions about choosing cat litter?
Contact me :)