5Strands Pet Food Intolerance & Environmental Sensitivity Test, at Home Gut Health Test for Dogs & Cats, 857 Items Tested, Pet Health Check, Results in 4 Days, 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!

I found out that my dog was allergic to a lot of things. And finally got some food to keep her allergies at Bay. I would definitely use this again if I needed to.It was well worth the money i took this results to my vet, and my vet says that this is what they use, and it's a whole lot cheaper than having the vet do it.

Just think -if you are given info for what your pet, (dog in my case) is sensitive -&/or intolerant to than you can save on lots of potential-future pain+for your furbaby trying out different foods+, not to mention vet bills, etc. I’m Soo Glad I got this test!! I recently got a dog (rescue)-and THIS TEST validated he was sensitive/intolerant to his original food & treats, etc. (chicken, wheat, corn, etc) -Not seasonal allergies like vets sometime ‘go to’. There was also a few things we changed in our house -due to the environment results. My dog is healthier & happier, enjoying his food and home a lot more now!! This test can help you decide what is best to feed your pet & see if anything is bothering him or her in their home. I have the app on my phone & refer to it very often. Like I said, this is worth triple+ the $$! I also got results a lot faster than I expected. Lastly, I called to ask about other tests and customer service (Stacey) was great. She explained even more about this tests and others they offer too. I really think these tests are a benefit to learn what can help keep our pets healthier and again, just get this Now!

UPDATE: Turkey came back as no reaction, green coded and totally safe. So we switched her food to Turkey. Turns out she's allergic. These tests feel very randomly generated, and flat out risky and unsafe for pet well being. ---Original Review--- We ordered this test after our doctor confirmed a severe chicken allergy in our dog and switched her to a lamb-based diet, which quite literally saved her life. Without knowing it, feeding chicken-based foods led to an 18-month allergy flare that left my 2-year-old dog with permanent skin lesions and was threatening to make her go deaf from constant ear infections. She literally smelled like she was dying, and we were talking palliative care with our vet, who suggested an elimination diet as a last ditch attempt to figure out our dog's allergy. When we did the elimination diet and moved her to a lamb based diet, EVERY SINGLE physical symptom cleared up in about 72 hours of being off chicken. We ordered this test because we wanted to scan for a suspected salmon intolerance and anything else we might have missed during her elimination diet. So we went in aware of a severe chicken allergy/intolerance, and knowing that lamb was safe. So imagine our surprise to get our results where lamb flags as a worst of the worst intolerance - even more than the chicken that was killing her. If we were to put faith in these test results and didn't have the advanced knowledge going into the testing, we well may have taken her off the lamb food that has saved her life and moved her back to the chicken-based food that was killing her. Our test results are also unlikely to be true based on statistical probabilities. Our kit returned 58 level 3 intolerances 64 level 2 intolerances 67 level one intolerances That leaves 191 things that she didn't respond to. That means she had some form of intolerance to almost exactly 50% of things they tested for. This split would not be realistic as a natural occurrence. We should expect to see significantly more non-issue and level one intolerance than level 2 and 3 intolerances. This adds to the distrust of the results. Upon closer review of the flagged allergies and their severities on our report, we noticed that anything actually in her diet flagged as intolerant on some level. The ONLY things on this test that didn't flag were food items that just don't exist in her diet at all. I suspect that this test only tests for food IN THE DOG'S SYSTEM as opposed to foods that will actually harm them. This makes sense, since Lamb would be the #1 thing in her diet, and it flagged as a level 3 "discontinue immediately" intolerance...when in reality it's a safe food for her. Chicken flagged as a level 2 intolerance, which makes sense since she's now been without it for nearly 8 weeks, with the exception of small amounts of chicken fat and by-product meal in her treats, but does have a SEVERE issue with chicken. So SOMETHING was in there, just not much, and it flagged as a lower intolerance than it should have. I understand that the test doesn't bill itself as 100% accurate, but this test could have actually led to harm to our pet and that is scary. Buy this for fun if you like, but please don't use this as a substitute for the spendy vet testing. Please don't make feeding and medication decisions based on this test. We feel like we wasted $150 on this test that could have been better allocated towards more advanced testing that is scientific and would have offered us true insight to our dog's unique needs. This test feels generic in nature and like it probably doesn't have anything to do with our dog at all. The pros are that it is simple to do, fast, and causes the dog no discomfort.

These are great done it for 2 different dogs and has really helped me cut out things that make them itchy. It’s really easy to use and send of and good price for the amount of things they test for has really helped with itching and diet changes

Our 3 year old mixed breed dog was struggling with both environmental and food allergies. Sent the DNA My Dog saliva test back via regular mail - no expedited shipping - and didn't get the results for over a month. I did receive an email stating they received the sample and asked me to pay for expedited processing - which I did not. The DNA My Dog test gave me only 3 page report that listed 1 protein she was allergic to and 2 proteins with low allergen to. Then a list of 123 allergens our dog did not react to. The 5Strands brand had a test for both environmental and food, which we purchased. Used shedded hair collected by petting her for the sample and received it back in 4 days with no expedited options. We recevied back a 12 page report that graded her allergies by none, level 1, 2 or 3. It had 3 pages of environmental allergens (eg. ash trees, cat dander, hawthorn, etc..) and 6 pages of food allergies ( sorted by fats, grains, proteins, seafood, spices, additives and veggies.) We found the 5Strand test much more comprehensive and actionable. It is more expensive, but found it well worth it. There is so much information, it does take some time to digest, but printed out the results and took them to our pet food store and walked through options -starting with the proteins our dog could have, then sorting through the rest of the ingredients.

Easy to use and very quick results

Ok, so a lot of mixed reviews on this...here is my take on it. I was having the hardest time with my Frenchie. No idea what foods were making her so itchy! On a whim, I purchased this kit. I wasn't expecting much but I was hopeful. The report was 5 or 6 pages long and included environmental sensitivities. Its perfect!!! WARNING!! This is not going to pin point one thing that is causing the issues, it will give you a report listing the degrees of sensitivities to MANY things...which at first can seem overwhelming, but in the end is a REALLY amazing report. Does it work? Well...I cut out the foods that were high on the list and my Frenchie has not scratched since....you tell me :)

In order to activate the test kit, upon copying the QR code I was required to enter my Mastercard number and would then be billed $19.95 monthly. No way was I doing this so am out the $145.00. This was not mentioned anywhere when I ordered the kit. Rip off.