Elimination Diet(food or environmental allergy?)
Welts started to appear on my dog in around 1p.m. on Aug 7th. By 3 a.m., he was covered, and the bridge of his nose was a blob. He was given a hive allergy around 4am that helped, and by his 9am vet appointment on the 8th, he was normal.
At his vet appointment, he received a cytopoint injection. He has known environmental allergies that have been under control with a supplement, but before we found the supplement, he would get cytopoint injections during the summer months and once in the winter. Last year, he only needed a cytopoint injection in the spring/beginning summer time and in August, nearing the end of summer. This year, he didn't need a cytopoint injection for spring. Anyway, the Cytopoint has done nothing noticeable to help with the itching. He has been taking an OTC allergy pill every 12 hours since. If he missed a dose or got it late, the welts/hives and itching would return. At some points, he was still very itchy even with the pill.
My first thought was environmental allergies, but now I am not sure. He started getting The Farmer's Dog about three weeks from the 8th. Suspecting it might be a food allergy, I switched him back to his old diet on the 13th. All the while continuing with the allergy pills.
Today, I didn't give him an allergy pill, and it's been 24 hours with no symptoms. I still can't be sure if it was the food or just a bad environmental allergy reaction. I live in a valley, and we just had a lot of wild fire smoke come through. Maybe it had to do with that.
My question is, should I try to add The Farmer's Dog food back in, and if I do, how long would symptoms normally reappear if he does have an allergic reaction to something in the food? His environmental allergy symptoms have been known to ebb and flow in the past.
Any advice is appreciated. I am apprehensive to try the food, but I want to narrow this down to prevent future breakouts. He will be getting an appointment with a dermatologist for immunotherapy, but that doesn't help with food allergies. My pup was miserable, and I feel so bad.
TLDR: Dog has environmental allergies under control. Started new food three weeks before symptoms appeared. Sometimes, environmental allergies show symptoms in August, but nothing this crazy. Changed back to old food after six days of symptoms. Five days after changing back, symptoms disappeared. Should I reintroduce the food to see if it was the food or an environmental allergy? If he is allergic to the food, when will I see symptoms reappear?