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After reading many emails and articles on animal's health  improvement after 
going gluten free....I decided to try this for my aging dog  who had 
itching/biting herself for years and very low energy and joint  problems inhibiting her 
movement.  Figured it wouldn't hurt to try GF food  AND treats and see if 
there was any improvement in her health.  Why not?  

The result has been a completely different  dog.  She is not like a young dog 
at 13 years,  but now  doesn't bite herself constantly, scratch all of the 
time, and can move around  SO much easier and is VERY perky and playful compared 
 to what she was.  It has been amazing actually....at first I wondered if  
the early changes were my imagination...but as more time has gone by....it  
absolutely is not.  I feel badly that I just assumed this was her "old age"  
causing these problems.  
 
I have never even implied to anyone that my dog has actual Celiac  
disease....(and I don't remember anyone else's emails doing that either)  just that 
there must be a gluten allergy or intolerance  with my dog and all of the other 
pets I have read about and the  removal of gluten has made a huge difference.  
 
My dog is not on a specific "low  allergen"or prescription food.  I 
researched online to find  dry food w/o wheat for senior dogs then also read 
ingredients  and eliminated the choices that had barley.  The one I chose is a  known 
brand but new formula on the market but there are others too.  The  label claims 
"Begin to see a visible difference in  2 WEEKS.....Money Back  Guarantee".   
I wondered if by that statement on the bag if the  pet food market had indeed 
researched and seen that removing gluten may  actually improve the health of 
some pets but since wheat  is a cheap filler it doesn't want to make a general 
statement or they would need  to remove it from all of their food!  It took 
longer than 2 weeks for my  dog since I did the recommended slow 
introduction...but literally after 2 weeks  of being totally GF (thoroughly washing food 
container, etc. also)...I saw a  huge difference in her and she has steadily 
gotten even better.   

We know that there are millions of people who have intolerances or  allergies 
to gluten who do not have Celiac.  I think that from my  experience (and from 
the many others that I have read) that it stands to reason  that animals 
could have the same reactions since wheat is not a "natural food"  for dogs and 
cats and so much of their food contains a large amount of it as  filler.  
 
G-F food is obviously not a cure all for every animal or  every ailment...but 
it is certainly worth a try if your pet has skin  problems, lethargy and/or 
joint pain. 
 
Sorry for the length....but that is my 2 cents from personal experience and  
I wanted to share it after reading the post about criticism that we are 
claiming  that our pets are Celiac because our pet's health has greatly improved 
after  being GF.
 
Gina




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