Animals Get Allergies, Too.

Many domestic animals—especially dogs, cats, and horses—suffer from some form of allergy.

Several kinds of allergies regularly occur in animals:

• Atopic Dermatitis. This is linked to pollen, molds, house dust, and other common airborne substances. These are called allergens. The first symptoms of atopy usually are skin irritations which lead to excessive scratching, which often lead to more complicated infections.
• Flea Allergic Dermatitis. It’s a common form of animal allergy in which one fleabite can cause itching in an allergic animal for up to three weeks.
• Food Allergies. These often appear as skin irritations, but may also include vomiting and diarrhea.

Ask your veterinarian if your pet is allergic.

If your pet shows symptoms of allergies, your veterinarian first needs to rule out other common causes like fleas, food, and infections. Once your veterinarian has diagnosed atopic dermatitis, he or she can take a blood sample or perform a skin test to determine what allergens are affecting your pet. From there you have treatment options:

• Avoidance. Staying away from all environmental allergens is virtually impossible. However, avoidance can decrease exposure and may lessen your animal’s symptoms. This option is most effective for flea and food allergies but impractical for atopy.
• Symptomatic treatment addresses animals’ symptoms with steroids, immunosuppressants, antihistamines or fatty acids but does nothing to stop the progression of the allergy. Steroid use is commonly used to relieve animals from the everyday discomfort caused by allergies. This approach does not address the cause of symptoms; it masks the symptoms. Long term use of steroids and/or immunosuppressants may be impractical and have the potential for side effects.
• Immunotherapy. It’s a safe, all-natural treatment that builds your pet’s immunity to allergens through injections with increasingly larger doses of a serum specifically formulated for your pet. This option is effective for treating atopy but not recommended for flea and food allergies.
  It is often more effective than many medications and has been shown to have no lasting side effects.

Your veterinarian will help you decide which treatment option is most appropriate for your pet. For more helpful links, click here.