food allergy

by Kim J
(Innisfil, Ontario, Canada)

could a food allergy cause uncontrollable urination in my 5 month old rottie. She was on wellness holistic dog food. Doing well.

Then we mixed 50% purina puppy chow with it, and almost overnight she started urinating while sleeping, walking all the time. I just realized that is the only change we have done. Please note she is also on antibiotics for bladder infection and bi weekly injections for mange.




Hi Kim
As I'm not a veterinarian this is a difficult question for me to answer, and anything I can add is purely a personal opinion. I do strongly suggest that you also ask your vet this question and follow his/her advice.

I would think it's possible that a sudden change in diet could cause this sort of reaction, but it would likely be more than an allergic reaction. It could be that something in the food is irritating her kidneys or causing a lot of inflammation. I expect you've already stopped feeding her the puppy chow, if you haven't then I'd recommend doing that right away. Of course it could be a co-incidence but it seems a bit odd that it happened overnight and corresponds exactly with the dietary change.

If it is a UTI, then the antibiotics should help. It's also possible that the shots for Mange has something to do with it, I would ask your vet about this.

Rottweilers are a breed that seems to have a predisposition to kidney problems including kidney disease and kidney failure. There also seems to be a genetic factor playing a role in these conditions. If your vet hasn't already tested kidney function etc. you may also want to suggest that. This type of problem could occur spontaneously, or it could be triggered by some outside factor - possibly diet or medications I would imagine but again, I'm not a vet, so the best person to ask is your own vet.

I hope that you get to the bottom of this and that your dog makes a full recovery. I wish you the very best of luck.