wrote in news2qak4tllmu2qn0ujnuj4cn7a5r1v2uubf@
4ax.com:

How did you and your vet determine that your dog was allergic
to food components as opposed to, say, environmental elements?
Medical tests? Simple experimentation?

Process of elimination. Her allergies are year round. She's had
them while living in three different towns. The logical place to
look, then, was diet.

There *are* allergy tests that can be performed, but my vet didn't
recommend them in our case. My understanding is that they are
expensive and not very reliable for food allergies. (Testing for
inhalent or contact allergies might be more accurate, though.)

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)