Does my dog have allergies?

 Allergies in pets, unlike in people who have respiratory symptoms, manifest themselves primarily in the skin which can be itchy, irritated, smelly, crusty.  The itching can be uncomfortable for pets, and annoying for us when the dog is keeping us up all night scratching. 

There are no easy answers when it comes to allergies. It can be frustrating when you have a pet that just can’t stop itching, so here are somethings that may be helpful as we work to help your pet and you become more comfortable.

*Our upcoming allergy relief supplement can help relieve allergies but is not a cure.

*We cannot cure allergies.  The only thing that approaches a cure is immunotherapy (“allergy shots”). Allergies are better considered a chronic disease.

*Allergies can be environmental, or food related.  Generally food allergies are NOT related to grain in the diet (although it is very commonly blamed for allergies by dog food companies), but proteins in the diet.  I will discuss this more in the next blog.  Without allergy testing, we can’t be sure of what is causing the problem, but sometimes we can narrow it down a bit.

The bottom line is that allergies are frustrating, but we can achieve comfort in the majority of pets, we just need to work hard together to get there.  We have some new medications that are proving to be very safe and effective at controlling itchiness.  We have prescriptions foods that are truly hypoallergenic and we have veterinary dermatologists that we can work with on particularly tricky cases.