There are quite a number of people here with dogs that have food sensitivities that results in itching, rashes, staph infections, hotspots, anal gland fluid overproduction, sebum overproduction, etc., including my dog. I put him on an elimination diet and as soon as I got him off of the foods he reacts to all symptoms ceased. His symptoms only ever return when he is given a food that he reacts to, so yes, food sensitivities do result in the symptoms you are seeing, so it is definitely something to look into.
If it is a food issue, with a properly run elimination diet, you can easily tell if the dog is reacting to certain foods. The only time there is difficulty is if there are also skin allergies that are causing the exact same responses. Those allergies tend to be seasonal. That’s how you know whether or not you are dealing with skin allergies. Also, certain types of allergies are recognizable due to where on the body the dog is reacting. That’s one area where a good vet comes in. They get to recognize those signs very quickly.
You will notice that I use the term food sensitivity rather than allergy. If you read some of the many threads here about food allergies and food sensitivities, you will see that vets often use the terms interchangeably, but we are talking about different things due to the differences in the dog’s immune system. The different types of food sensitivities that dogs experience are because they may have several different types of immune responses, IgA, IgE, IgM, and others. The “true” allergy causes hives, localized swelling, breathing difficulty, anaphylactic shock and is rare. Food sensitivities may result from damage to the gut lining and cause itching, redness, heat, sebum(skin oil glands) overproduction, staph infections and hotspots, etc. Food intolerances cause symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, colitis, gas, abdominal pain, etc. They are all different, but they are all immune problems and get lumped into the term allergies. And many vets try to treat them all the same with drugs that are not good for the dog, instead of trying to get to the cause of the problem.
