5Strands Pet Food & Environmental Intolerance Test, at Home Sensitivity Test for Dogs & Cats, 412 Items Tested, Pet Health Check, Fast 5 Day Results, For All Ages and Breeds

I spent a lot of time determining if I wanted to spend the money on this kit. I knew if it was accurate, the results would be well worth it. But I’ve also read the reviews that claimed they never got results, got incorrect results, or got bad customer service. After receiving the results, I couldn’t be happier that I got this comprehensive test!I’ve done a lot of researching about dog allergies. I’ve read that DNA tests aren’t accurate. My vet told me the only way to get real results was to go to the expensive specialist for expensive tests. Then I read that even blood tests weren’t always accurate. Diet testing takes a long time! I ended up ordering this test because I was so sick of not getting results with what we were doing.Here’s our story:Roo was licking her belly quite a bit, giving herself rashes. She’d occasionally lick her feet, and occasionally her armpits. We didn’t think much of it. Then it got to the point where she started licking her belly and armpits until she was completely red and raw. She increased her feet licking too. Then she also started scratching aggressively at her chin, opening her skin with her claws. It got to the point of lots of hotspots and skin infections. Googled it- sounds like allergies or intolerances. So we made changes to her diet, but not enough. We didn’t think it’d be from food she’s been eating for a long time, so we didn’t take away everything. So anyhow, we changed her kibble- gave her sensitive stomach and skin salmon. I had also been giving her a glucosamine chondroitin supplement since I had some left over from another pet, which I stopped at the same time we changed kibble. After a few weeks, we saw a lot of improvement, but she still showed symptoms. Maybe it wasn’t the dog food… We give our dogs dogurt (a frozen yogurt recipe). Maybe that’s it…. We stopped it and less than a week later, she got better, but still has some issues. Ok. Things are much better- but at this point we don’t know what to change. Only choices left were do nothing more and let her be slightly uncomfortable and deal with the occasional rashes and hotspots, send off an allergy test, or go to the expensive vet. All of these things may not have provided the desired results, so we picked the allergy test.I received it the next day and registered my kit. The whole process was so easy! I cleaned the dog brush so there wasn’t a hair on it from another pet and got a good size sample to put in the bag. Sealed it up, folded the box back up, put it in the mailing bag, and put the shipping label that was provided on the package. Kept the tracking number. I knew what day it was supposed to arrive, I couldn’t wait to get results. I tracked it the day it was supposed to arrive around noon, it said it had been picked up. By later that afternoon, I got a notification that the sample was received. It was a Friday, so I had assumed the weekend wouldn’t count in the 4 days. I was hoping for results by the following Thursday. Monday before noon I received an email that the results were in-after 3 days!And guess what was on there… Chicken, her original kibble had chicken in it. Chicken is also common in so many treats too. Glucosamine and chondroitin were also both on there. That would make sense for why we saw a sudden increase right before she got really bad symptoms. And why she had significant results by changing her food and stopping the glucosamine. Yogurt was on there… we saw improvement after stopping her yogurt. There were a lot of medium things she was allergic to that was in supplements we were giving, like brewers dried yeast and probiotics. Now that we’ve received results we can finally narrow down what food, supplements, and treats she can have. She’s so much healthier and there’s still more room for improvement! She looks happier and even 5 years younger! This test has been a game changer for us!Overall, I wasn’t a fan of how the results were listed. It’s grouped by severity of both food and environmental. For example, chicken meal was insignificant, chicken heart was mild, and chicken protein was severe. It made me have to search through the papers multiple times for multiple things. It would have been much easier if all chicken allergies were listed together, or if there was an option to filter alphabetically instead of by severity.Overall, this test was well worth it and my dog is doing so much better!

It is amazing how many things dogs are allergic to and when you go to a vet to find out the source of allergies all they want to do is sell you medications. The only way to address the source of constant itching, scratching and ear infections is to identify what they're allergic to. The cost of running these tests is nothing comparing to the cost of all the medications and other medications to address the side effects of the first medication and meanwhile, all these meds shorten their precious lives. The tests that were run by 5Strands gave me exactly what my German shepherd is allergic to food wise such as what ingredients to avoid and what treats would be best for her. I have never seen her happier and more energetic after I adjusted her food and treats according to her test results by 5Strands. I would recommend every pet owner to give this a try. It will make your pet much happier and healthier and would make your life less stressful by dealing with vets constantly.

This is the 6th test done on our dog. Found out 3 years ago that the vaccines she got caused a food intolerance to every thing we were feeding her. I’ve been home cooking for her ever since. She has had an intolerance to beets pop up in the last few months and now ground beef too. We just switched her to pork and she seems to have more energy and less scratching but still have to wait 6 weeks to see if her hair grows back. If it does, then we can try turkey, both proteins show no intolerance. This test proved our vet was not totally correct when he said her issues were “environmental” and saved money and terrible side effects from him wanting to use Cytopoint shots and appoquel, both that suppress the immune system and can cause a host of other diseases. Home cooking is a lot cheaper and healthier and isn’t that hard. They received the test on a Mon and I got the results emailed on Wednesday. Highly recommend!