Are Their At-Home Pet Allergy Tests Reliable? – CanineJournal.com
Are you worried about your dog’s allergens? Food intolerances and environmental allergens can pop up at any time throughout your dog’s life. 5Strands can help you determine your dog’s possible allergens.
Is your dog itching incessantly or having digestion problems? Intolerances to certain food ingredients or environmental allergens could be the culprit. 5Strands offers several at-home tests that could help shed some light on what’s troubling your pup. What does 5Strands test for, and are their allergy tests worth considering?
Article Overview
5Strands
4.45 / 5
Pros
- Tests for 380 food and environmental allergens
- Only requires hair samples
- Get results in 7-10 days
- Website lists all allergens they test for
- Customer support via phone and email
- For dogs and cats
Cons
- Testing technology isn’t scientifically proven for accuracy
- Website doesn’t have a sample report to view
Key Features
- Uses bioresonance technology
- Non-invasive sampling method – only requires 10-15 hair strands (not blood or saliva)
- Every pet kit test works for both dogs and cats
- Easy-to-decipher results are color-coded with red being foods and other triggers to avoid and yellow to flag those allergens to use with caution
- Results also include personalized dietary and lifestyle guidelines, including a recommended elimination diet (if needed)
- Also offers several different human tests for intolerances and nutrition deficiency
What Is Bioresonance Technology?
There’s a lot of controversy over bioresonance technology because it’s not a scientifically proven method of determining allergies and other health issues. But it is used in holistic medicine (and holistic veterinary medicine), and several anecdotal cases support its results. On their website, 5Strands states, “Testing results should not be compared to traditional blood or saliva allergy test results.” So keep this in mind.
How does their analysis work? Bioresonance technology analyzes energetic alignments in the body. According to 5Strands’ website,
All particles of matter share the characteristics of both waves and particles and emit electromagnetic waves. Each person, microbe, food substance, or toxin has its own unique wavelength or frequency with individual characteristics. This includes all the cells in the body as well as substances such as pollens, toxins, viruses, bacteria, food, etc.
Together, these micro-organisms make up your gut’s microbiome. Our intolerance testing kits provide in-depth guidelines to help you avoid or eliminate any dietary or environmental intolerances.
Pet Products & Price
5Strands offers five different pet tests to help determine potential intolerances/allergies and nutritional deficiencies. This company also offers human testing.
Pet Deluxe Package
- Most comprehensive test kit
- Tests for 460 items (e.g., food intolerance, environment sensitivity, nutritional deficiency, and metal & mineral imbalances)
$212.00
Pet Standard Package
- Best if you don’t know what’s causing your dog’s allergies
- Tests for 380 items, including both food and environmental intolerances
$121.00
Pet Food Intolerance Test
- Tests for 255 common pet food ingredients (e.g., proteins, grains, dairy, fruits, vegetables, synthetic additives, food dyes, sweeteners, and more)
$62.90
Pet Environmental Test
- Tests for 100+ environmental allergens, including plants, grass, flowers, essential oils, fabrics, cleaning solutions, and more
$78.00 ($78.00 / Count)
Pet Nutrition Test
- Indicates which of the 40+ key vitamins, minerals, and amino acids your pet isn’t absorbing properly from his food and/or supplements
$66.00 ($66.00 / Count)
5Strands Coupon Code
5Strands often has discounted prices off of MSRP on Amazon.
Dealing With Dog Food Allergies
This brief video discusses symptoms and treatment of dog food allergies, including information about elimination diets.
What’s Our Final Verdict?
We’re skeptical about the scientific accuracy of 5Strands intolerance tests, but you could give it a try as long as you share your results with your veterinarian. Remember, no at-home allergy test should replace a vet consultation.
If you’re not sold on bioresistence technology, then we encourage you to consider an at-home saliva test. EasyDNA carries the Allergy Test My Pet kit, a saliva test for dogs that analyzes 120+ common food and environmental allergens by measuring the antibodies in your dog’s saliva against each allergen.
