Allergies in cockapoos is actually extremely common. From carrying out some research, there can be many different causes of allergies, from food to things such as dust and grass!! (allergies can also be linked to anal gland problems in Cockapoos.)
It can be really difficult to pinpoint the exact cause. We started noticing signs of allergies in Lottie from a really young age. She would lick and bite her feet, itch a lot and also rub her ears up against furniture as if she was trying to itch them!
When Lottie started rubbing her ears up against the furniture, we wondered whether there might be some sort of problem such as an ear infection, so we took her to be checked out at the vets and this is when they advised that it could be a problem with allergies.
We were advised to put Lottie onto a special hypoallergenic food. We decided to go with Royal Canin hypoallergenic food for small dogs, at the advice of the vet. It also means that you have to be really careful with treats, Lottie is really triggered by different sorts of treats, so we have to really stick with one brand of treats, Waggs, which is the only one she seems to be ok with! You might even need to only give them their hypoallergenic food for treats if the allergies are particularly bad.
This also means you have to be mindful of any human food that you might feed them that could set allergies off. Lottie is on a pretty strict diet of her hypoallergenic food with bran flakes for breakfast (to help with the fibre) and then she has a little bit of broccoli, cheese, or tuna added to her evening meal and we’ve found her to be ok with all of these foods. We’re really mindful of giving her any scraps of our food that might set off allergies.
Lottie was too young when we took her to the vets to be able to have the blood tests that they can carry to pinpoint the allergies. (I believe they have to be at least 1 year old). These tests can also be pretty pricey, so we opted to try and find the cause of the allergies ourselves, basically through trial and error, and we believe we have them pretty much under control now!
We believe that chicken seems to be the main cause of the problem for Lottie, and also specific brands of treats, so we try to avoid that in everything that she eats.
All of the trial and error that we have been through seems to have got us to a more positive place with Lottie’s allergies but if we notice that they seem to become more of an issue, then we’re definitely going to consider getting the blood tests at the vets.
