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My original post was giving my experience with an aging dog going GF with  
food and treats and what a huge difference it made in her health in  several 
ways.  
 
Most replies were questions about which food I used.  However, a  common 
theme was that ANY pet food or treats with gluten should not be handled  by 
Celiacs, whether it makes a difference in your pet's health or not.  So  we should 
all find and use GF pet food.  THAT also makes a lot of sense to  me.  Many 
wanted to be able to stop giving their pets steroids, benadryl,  and other meds. 
so felt this change was worth a try.
 
I received MANY requests for the brand of food that I am using.  I did  not 
state the brand the first time so as not to "advertise" any one brand but  many 
said that we talk about human food brands so why not pets'?    There are many 
other brands, prescription and not, that have GF foods.   This one was easy 
to obtain.   
I am using Science Diet Advanced Protection for Seniors (with the  regular 
food, not the prescription food).  It is a fairly new  formula.  I also made 
sure the treats I give her have no wheat or barley by  reading the labels.  The 
ones I have now are:  
Milk Bone Chewy Treats--Filet Mignon Flavor
Authority (Pet Smart) Hip & Joint Treats
Purina Chew eez Carvers--Chicken
 
Pet Smart's store brand is Authority.  They also had a senior formula  that 
has no wheat or barley...I started to try that one....it looked like it  would 
be a good one.
 
I went to Petsmart and Petco websites and you can do a search where it  asks 
you different questions about what kind of food you need (type, allergies,  
age, etc.)...it then gives you your choices.  I then read the ingredients  of 
the choices it gave me (I checked wheat free) and then looked for Barley and  
eliminated those options.
 

Some other comments and food recommendations....
1.Our boy eats Nature's Variety Prairie brand. I highly recommend it. You  
can buy it at specialty pet stores but not the regular, big-box pet stores. 
_http://www.naturesvariety.com/where.lasso?r=0852357_ 
(http://www.naturesvariety.com/where.lasso?r=0852357)    . We also feed our boy fresh vegetables and 
fruits, which he loves. His  favorites are broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato, 
pumpkin, blueberries, apples,  green beans, carrots, plain yogurt. And he gets 
fish oil on his food (helps with  joints, either salmon or sardine) 
_http://www.grizzlypetproducts.com/_ (http://www.grizzlypetproducts.com/)  or  
_http://www.natureslogic.com/products/dp.html_ 
(http://www.natureslogic.com/products/dp.html) .   I also subscribe to Whole Dog Journal which promotes these types of 
diets. You  might be interested in it. _http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/_ 
(http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/) 
 
2.  Frankly, I don't think any pets or people benefit from  gluten--whether 
they have an intolerance or not and
certainly dogs in the  wild don't eat gluten. It makes so much sense to me.
 
3. My youngest dog a border terrier is actually of a breed that has a  
diagnosed disease called CECS that is thought to have a base cause in  gluten 
intolerance.   If you look up Border Terriers and CECS you  might find something on 
it.  It's horrible for the borders, and has been  found through DNA testing to 
be genetic and causes muscle spasms.  Many  many owners of Borders keep their 
dogs off of wheat all together.  When all  the recalls went through, and 
knowing that around the age of 2 is when this  disease shows up, I gave up and 
took both my dogs off of grain all  together.  I started them on Evo by Innova.
 
 
4. I have a cat with a diagnosis of feline lupus????  He gets these  sores on 
his mouth and we have to give him a steroid shot about once a month or  once 
every other month.  Of course, the steroids will shorten his life due  to the 
damage it does to his kidneys.  One of the symptoms we notice prior  to an 
"attack" is scratching and pulling his hair out.  I'm thinking I  might try 
gluten-free cat food.  It sure can't hurt.  And, I shouldn't  be handling the cat 
food with gluten anyway.
 
Bottom line summary:  Gluten free pet food might or might not help  alleviate 
symptoms and help to avoid medicating as with my dog, but if you have  any 
reason to be gluten free yourself, it can only help you,  and can't hurt your 
pet.
 
Gina
 
 





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