Once allergy testing has been completed, a diet trial and hyposensitization are 2 other important elements of a proper allergy workup. This article will dig deeper into diet's role as part of an effective allergy management strategy.
Diet Trial
No food study has ever been completed using Spectrum’s testing technology. We are in the process of developing a food study to show, in a scientific manner, that our testing methodology provides the insight needed for a food trial.
A simple explanation of how to interpret food results might help when you perform a test for food sensitivities. There are 2 categories of results on a food test from Spectrum: either the patient is positive or negative. However, you, the veterinarian, must sub-categorize the positives and negatives one step further in order to know how to treat the patient. Since exposure plays a role in IgE elevations, you should also categorize foods into known exposure and unknown exposure. Once you have the exposure category, then you know how to prioritize the ingredients.
Our food lists treat all positives as requiring removal. However, helping your pet parent to understand that a negative without exposure may become a positive with regular exposure is very helpful. Therefore a food sensitivity test should only be considered a starting point for a diet trial, not a full indicator of the animal’s total sensitivities.
We have secured an exclusive partnership with Paw Diets that allows your pet parent to have a fully interactive food list in the palm of their hand. Our new digital list allows the pet parent to keep their pet’s dietary recommendations consistently up to date. As the manufacturer publishes an ingredient change, this food list updates automatically to reflect that change.
In conclusion
Our most successful clinics use Spectrum’s testing and hyposensitization alongside diet change, and the short-term comfort therapy they are already using in their practice, to help calm symptoms before and during the initial build-up phase of allergy treatment. For more information on this simple 4-step management process we've developed alongside Clinician's Brief click below.
TIP: The best candidates for allergy testing and treatment have been on comfort therapy for more than 3 consecutive months.
It is important for pet parents to understand that the disease of allergy continues to progress, even if their animal is no longer symptomatic thanks to comfort therapy.
Hypoensitization can retrain pets’ immune system to work better and eliminate symptoms of allergy without relying on comfort therapy long-term. It also provides the best chance for renewed quality of life when done today versus 6 months to a year from now.
