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

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

Easy to use and very quick results

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.

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!

This test effectively saved our dogs life. We rescued an eight month old German Shepherd. He came to us with a bag of salmon and turkey, dry dog food, and a pack of Imodium for diarrhea. We could see his ribs. He came from a good home, but they couldn’t handle his dietary constraints. Instead of buying 15 kinds of dog food, we quickly turned to 5 Strands in 2022. We purchased this kit and within seven days had all the answers. It would be easier to tell you what this dog wasn’t allergic to, and that is beef and green peas. This poor dog was allergic to every type of protein under the sun. He’s allergic to pumpkin and sweet potatoes. He’s even allergic to kangaroo. I’m not kidding. That was on the test! These people care about your pets and even give you color coded ratio of allergen response. For instance, if they’re really allergic, it’s in Red! Slight sensitivity would be a green, yellow for middle of the road. So fast-forward to 2025 we have a 135 pound plus German Shepherd who loves life and eats ground beef with rice and green peas every night. We found a beef based dry dog food without chicken or any of the other things he was all allergic to at Petco. If your dog keeps getting sick, it’s most likely something they are eating. Get rid of all of the milk, bones treats, and other garbage. Stop feeding them can dog food that has so much crude and disgusting chemicals. It’s kind of expensive. I’m not gonna lie, but I could not in good faith watch this dog go downhill because he was so worth saving. One test GAVE us all of the ANSWERS we needed and it’s why Harvey is healthy and happy. (He could stand to lose some weight, we’re working on that.) but that is on us! He loves to eat. Thank YOU 5Strands for saving our boy, Harvey!!

I’m outraged by the negative reviews on this product... especially the person who said they got sent results without sending in their sample (they email you results so how would they have gotten your email) Collecting the hair was simple..I live in Canada and paid $30 for express tracked shipping..they email you when your sample arrives and in 5 business days I had the results. They are extremely thorough and a little difficult to understand but I think you need to use your brain to interpret the results. My dog has been shedding excessively, licking her paws and lady bits, scooting her butt and she’s had 3 ear infections in the last 2 years. she’s on a raw diet and we already tried cutting out chicken and pork to no avail. It was difficult for us to figure out what the problem was..and we went with this test kit because it’s more thorough on what it tests (example..my dog is allergic to pork fat..but not pork meal or bone or organs) so for the raw diet I felt it was better to have the thorough breakdown instead of just “pork”. Anyways the biggest cause we learned is beef (she’s reacting to all forms of beef) so I will be reworking her diet to elimite beef and fish and we will evaluate from there. I feel like this is a small price to pay to figure out what’s wrong instead of having to figure it out blindly. Anyways I recommend this product and I think people who haven’t purchased and tried it shouldn’t be leaving reviews (my vet was extremely negative on this test as well..told me it’s not possible to test allergies using hair or saliva) I’m glad I didn’t listen and gave it a shot. To be clear..it doesn’t test the allergies that are instant reactions (like mouth/ throat swelling..you wouldn’t need the kit if the dog reacts RIGHT AWAY to an allergen..this is for intolerances. Thank you.

This test saved my Athena life we bought it now 3 years ago she was taken to hospital as Hills Science diet vet put her on put her in vit d toxicity as many dogs were. We wasted 11k on vets and tests and meds at this point on her. Her allergies just kept going she was miserable n we hated watching it. A vet tech actually asked us if we heard of this test we looked it up debated it and ordered it what did we have to lose. Game changer we changed the grass cut down our magnolia tree ripped our carpet up changed her bath soap bought kangaroo dog food well after bout 3 months we started seeing change now it’s 3 years no meds no dr visits no symptoms oh and money on our pockets we still pull out her tests when making or buying treats lol we don’t change up often and as you see full coat of fur. Tests works if you put the work into reading ingredients and following it