Tofu is on an elimination diet because he used to scratch a lot and continually wounded himself. We started off with duck and he's been fine, no itching, wounds, etc. I added beef in a few weeks later and still no problems.
This week, it was time to add chicken in. It might just be my imagination, but he seems to be scratching more whereas on duck and beef, I didn't notice much scratching. I found two little cuts on his ear from scratching as well, but nothing as bad as what it used to be - open sores with loss of fur.
My question is, should I continue to feed him the chicken and see if he scratches until he wounds himself again to be 100% sure it's the chicken he's reacting to or should I stop now and just avoid chicken forever? When doing elimination diets, at what point do you say okay, he/she's definitely reacting to this protein and it's a food allergy for sure?
On one hand, I want to find out for SURE because a chicken allergy is quite a hassle - so many foods contain chicken! On the other, I don't want to have him coned for a few weeks again due to scratching.
Thoughts?
This week, it was time to add chicken in. It might just be my imagination, but he seems to be scratching more whereas on duck and beef, I didn't notice much scratching. I found two little cuts on his ear from scratching as well, but nothing as bad as what it used to be - open sores with loss of fur.
My question is, should I continue to feed him the chicken and see if he scratches until he wounds himself again to be 100% sure it's the chicken he's reacting to or should I stop now and just avoid chicken forever? When doing elimination diets, at what point do you say okay, he/she's definitely reacting to this protein and it's a food allergy for sure?
On one hand, I want to find out for SURE because a chicken allergy is quite a hassle - so many foods contain chicken! On the other, I don't want to have him coned for a few weeks again due to scratching.
Thoughts?