Testing for Food and Environmental Sensitivities in Pets

One of the most overlooked contributors to chronic health issues in dogs and cats is food sensitivity. I’ve seen time and time again that when pets are placed on a diet that suits their individual needs, many common health concerns—such as skin issues, itching, ear infections, digestive troubles, seizures, and general inflammation—can improve significantly. While diet isn’t always the only solution, it is often a powerful first step in the healing process.

However, identifying what an animal is reacting to isn’t always straightforward.

How Food Sensitivities Are Commonly Addressed in Veterinary Medicine

The most widely taught approach in veterinary schools is a diet elimination trial using prescription diets, specifically those made with hydrolyzed proteins. These proteins are broken down into very small fragments so the immune system no longer recognizes them as allergens.

While this method can provide short-term relief, I have concerns about the long-term effects of these diets. Many contain ingredients like powdered cellulose (a refined form of wood pulp) or even hydrolyzed feathers. While they meet basic nutritional requirements, I question whether they truly support an animal’s overall health and well-being.

Do Hydrolized Diets Work?

Yes, to some extent. Many pets improve on these diets for a few months or even years. However, I often see cases where, over time, their immune systems become more reactive, leading to new health challenges or an inability to tolerate even these specialized foods. The reason? These diets may reduce symptoms, but they don’t resolve the underlying immune dysregulation. It’s like using duct tape to patch a leaking pipe—it holds for a while, but it doesn’t truly fix the problem.

A More Supportive Approach

In conventional medicine, immune dysregulation is often managed by shutting down the immune system’s response—whether through medication or highly processed diets. While this can be necessary in severe cases, long-term healing requires a different approach. Once the initial inflammation is under control, the body needs support to restore balance rather than continued suppression.

That support comes from real, nourishing foods (and sometimes targeted herbal therapies), which can help rebuild the immune system and bring the body back into balance.

2. Allergy Blood Tests

It makes logical sense that if an animal has a sensitivity to something, their body would produce antibodies against it. Based on this idea, companies have developed tests that measure IgE (Immunoglobulin E) levels in the blood—an antibody associated with allergic reactions.

When veterinarians run allergy panels, they are typically measuring IgE levels to determine sensitivities to either foods or environmental factors (such as trees, pollen, grasses, and insects).

My Experience with Allergy Testing

For many years, I used blood allergy tests in my practice, hoping they would provide clear guidance for my patients. While these tests can sometimes offer helpful insights, in my experience, the results are not always reliable.

These tests typically cost between $400 and $1000, depending on the panel selected, yet their accuracy can be unpredictable. In some cases, the results aligned well with the pet’s symptoms. But in others, the results were confusing—for example, a test might indicate an allergy to turkey, chicken, and corn, yet turkey was the only food the pet could eat without getting sick. Similarly, some foods that tested “negative” for allergies still caused immediate digestive upset when eaten.

For me, this inconsistency—combined with the high cost—made it difficult to rely on these tests as a primary tool for diagnosing food sensitivities.

Environmental Allergy Testing: Helpful or Not?

When it comes to environmental allergies, the information from these tests can be interesting, but not always practical. While it’s helpful to know if a pet is allergic to spruce or pine, the treatment approach generally remains the same regardless of the specific allergen.

The main scenario where identifying environmental allergens is useful is when creating allergy shots (immunotherapy). Many companies that perform allergy panels also offer customized allergy injections to help desensitize the immune system. These can be effective, especially in young animals, but they come with limitations:

• They often take 10 months to 2 years before showing significant improvement.

• They require ongoing injections or daily treatments.

• They can cost several hundred dollars every few months.

For some pets, allergy shots can make a big difference. However, they are not a quick fix, and they require patience and commitment.

A Surprising Discovery

Over time, I noticed something interesting in my patients:

Seasonal or environmental allergies often improve or go away completely when a pet is put on the correct (real food) diet +/- the right herbal therapy. In other words, a pet that would get itchy every spring and fall, no longer has those seasonal allergies when they are on the right diet.

For this reason, I always target diet first. It is the easiest to control and appears to impact their ability to handle environmental allergies.

3. Saliva Antibody Tests (Hemopet)

A company called Hemopet developed a test called Nutriscan, which measures antibodies in saliva rather than blood. This approach makes sense—since the mouth is the first point of contact with food, any immune response might naturally begin there.

I appreciate Hemopet’s Nutriscan test and have used it in the past. While Hemopet can be a valuable tool, I have found that it comes at a higher price point and tends to be slightly less reliable than the test I personally prefer. I stopped using Nutriscan in 2019, so it’s possible that there have been updates or improvements in the past few years that I am not aware of.

Some of my holistic colleagues like the Hemopet test and possibly have had more success than I did. As with all things in medicine—especially holistic medicine—our understanding is always evolving. At this time, my preferred approach is the Glacier Peak panel, which I will discuss next.

Dr. Magda’s Approach to food and environmental sensitivities

I know I said this before, but it never ceases to amaze me how many health issues in pets can be improved—or even completely resolved—just by identifying and removing foods the pet is sensitive to. In my experience, this simple change has helped improve the health of nearly 50% of our patients with conditions ranging from diarrhea, vomiting, and skin allergies to chronic urinary tract infections, seizures, and even bladder stones. Time and time again, I have seen pets recover simply by removing a food that was triggering inflammation in their bodies.

While dietary changes alone can sometimes be enough to restore a pet’s health, there are cases where additional treatments are needed to fully bring the body back into balance. However, because this approach has helped so many animals, it remains a foundational step in my treatment process for all new patients.

For this purpose, I have found Glacier Peak Holistics to be a great starting point. Like any allergy or sensitivity test, it is not perfect, but given its affordable price point and consistent success in previous patients, I consider it a great first step for all pets.

Prior to using this test, I relied on the trial-and-error approach to identify food sensitivities in pets. While it occasionally led to success, more often than not, it was a frustrating and time-consuming process. Any pet owner who has repeatedly switched foods in an attempt to resolve digestive issues, skin conditions, or other chronic problems knows how stressful this can be—not only for them but for their pet as well. Through this method, I did notice patterns, such as chicken being a common trigger, but without clear guidance, it often felt like a guessing game with no guarantee of success.

Recognizing the need for a more effective and reliable approach, I turned to Glacier Peak Holistics, which has since become an invaluable tool in helping me identify food sensitivities more efficiently and with greater accuracy.

Glacier Peak Holistics Sensitivity Test

In holistic medicine, there are treatments that have been observed to be effective long before science fully explains their mechanisms. Acupuncture, for example, has been practiced for over 2,000 years, and only in recent decades have we begun to understand how it influences the nervous system, circulation, and inflammatory pathways. This pattern is common in integrative medicine—practices often prove their value through clinical outcomes before research catches up.

For me, Glacier Peak Holistics’ Pet Intolerance Test falls into this category of emerging diagnostic tools. While we may not yet have a complete scientific explanation for how bioenergetic testing works, the results speak for themselves. We have now been using this test in our clinic since 2020 with thousands of case studies and positive feedback from pet owners.

This test uses hair and saliva samples along with bioenergetic analysis to assess how a pet’s body interacts with various food and environmental substances. Though the exact mechanisms remain an area of ongoing research, many pet owners and holistic practitioners—including myself—have found it to be a practical and insightful tool for identifying sensitivities and guiding dietary changes that lead to better health outcomes.

However, I want to be clear that I use the GPH test as a starting point.

I still take all the results with a grain of salt and I would encourage pet owner’s to do the same.

At this time, I primarily focus on the food items and don’t spend as much time on the environmental and other stress/ health/ emotional imbalances that show up on the test.

The majority of pets show up with many sensitivities. Even puppies and kittens! So do not be stressed if your pet comes up with many items in red and yellow.

This means that if your pet is alive and in this world (and drinking urban water, breathing the Los Angeles air, was birthed by dogs and cats that ate commercial kibble and/or is living among stressed humans), they will likely have some imbalances. 

We always start with the diet and layer in other treatments as we continue on your pet’s path to wellness.

Common Sensitivities Among Pets

I’m amazed by how many pet health issues improve or disappear simply by removing sensitive foods from the diet.

I have some theories for why we see this, but am not entirely sure why this phenomenon occurs. It could be that certain common food items are more prone to adulteration with chemicals and preservatives. I recently learned that all chicken in the USA is soaked in a chemical prior to going to the supermarket. Salmon and fish meal, on the other hand, is sprayed with a chemical antioxidant called Ethoxyquin, that prevents fats from becoming rancid during storage and transport. Ethoxyquin has been associated with various health concerns, including DNA damage in human lymphocytes, potential liver and kidney effects, and possible genotoxicity of its metabolites. 

So perhaps pets are reacting more to the preservatives than the food item itself.

Another theory for the food sensitivities comes from Chinese medicine. In chinese medicine, they observed that certain foods create more warmth in the body (increase in circulation) while others are more cooling (decrease in circulation and inflammation).

Where I currently work with pets in Los Angeles, the climate is hot and dry. I often find that foods that are hot and dry by Chinese medicine standards, are often problematic for pets here and show up as sensitivities on the Glacier Peak test, the most common being: salmon, chicken, sweet potato and lamb.

So are the food sensitivities an energetic problem or is it because of preservatives? At this time, I do not know.

Caveats to the GPH test (and all allergy tests):

1. Sensitivities change over time. 

There are many people who were allergic to something as children but then are no longer allergic to it as adults. Or the opposite can also be true. As a child you could eat something that now you can’t. 

This is the same for pets. The more exposure an animal has to a certain food or categories of food, the more likely you are to develop a sensitivity to it. 

2. An allergic reaction and a sensitivity can suddenly change

This means that a food an animal ate its whole life can become a sensitivity from one day to the next. 

**I have found that being exposed to something during a time of stress increases the chances of becoming sensitive to it.**

This makes sense. If your body is stressed and on “high alert,” it might wrongly attack something that it used to ignore.

One interesting pattern I’ve noticed as a veterinarian is that some dogs develop diarrhea during a cross-country trip, even when their diet remains unchanged. A food they’ve eaten their entire lives suddenly seems to cause digestive issues—likely due to the stress of travel and change, even if they appear happy, playful, and full of energy. While they may seem to enjoy the adventure, their bodies still register the disruption, whether from the long drive, unfamiliar environments, or shifts in routine. Even the most easygoing pets experience stress during major life changes, and sometimes, that stress manifests in their digestion, making once-tolerated foods suddenly problematic.

This is why relying on a GPH test or an allergy panel from last year (or even 6 months ago) may no longer be accurate.

3. Rich foods can cause diarrhea

Some pet owners have found that fish oil or sardines were not listed as a sensitivity, but their dog or cat developed diarrhea after eating them. This does not necessarily mean that they are sensitive or even allergic to this food. It just means that the food is too rich and their digestion is not strong enough to handle it at this time (this can improve over time too).

4. Not all markers in yellow need to be eliminated

Some pets are sensitive to many items and the owner cannot find foods that meet these criteria.

My general advice is:

Do your best!

Try to avoid all markers in red and as many in yellow as possible. If you feed a food with some markers in yellow and your pet still has symptoms, then you may need to move to a stricter ingredient list.

Local pet stores in Los Angeles that sell more single protein and limited ingredient diets include: Rosie Bunny Bean in Highland Park, Pet Food Express (a chain), and Andersons in Montrose.

It may still take some trial and error to find the right diet. You may also need to try different diet types until you land on the food that decreases the symptoms. For example, if you feed a limited ingredient kibble and are following your pet’s sensitivity list but they still have symptoms, then you may need to try a fresh food diet (either cooking or raw food) for them instead.

5. And lastly, not all disease is diet-sensitivity related.

Some animals have a deeper disease pattern happening that requires more than just a diet change.

For these animals, using herbs, probiotics, enzymes, and other supplements may still be needed to address the symptoms they are showing.