One of the most common frustrations dog owners experience is when your dog is itching or has red and irritated skin and you don’t know what is causing it or what you should do. Assuming your dog is free of fleas, it is likely your itchy dog is afflicted by some kind of allergy.
Allergies in dogs can be caused by several things. Although many owners assume their dog’s allergy is caused by their diet, it is far more likely your dog has a contact allergy and is reacting to something in his environment.
Let’s take a deeper look into why your dog is itchy, and what you can do about it.
Skin Allergies in Dogs
Allergic skin conditions form the largest and potentially most complex and frustrating medical conditions that our pets may suffer. They may start as early as a few months of age or start to manifest for the first time in aging pets. There are a few major categories that cause pet skin allergies. Each of these categories, generally speaking, affects different areas of the body.
Atopy:
This is the most common form of allergy that our pets suffer. Atopy refers to pets that suffer allergies to “inhaled” allergens such as pollens, dust and dust mites. Dogs are particularly prone. They inhale these allergens in through the respiratory system and actually react with allergic, inflamed skin.
Characteristically, the most commonly affected sites are the ears and the paws. These areas become inflamed, red and itchy. The dog starts to scratch, lick and rub. Secondary to this inflammation and self-trauma, bacteria and or yeast that lives on the skin surface in all animals, then starts to replicate and cause an ongoing infection. This infection is what we call “secondary” to the inciting allergy.
Fleas:
Obviously a very common cause of allergies in pets. Characteristically they most commonly affect the back near the base of the tail. Some dogs are not overly sensitive to fleas and will only start to scratch once a large number of fleas build up. Other individuals are highly sensitive and even one flea bite will set of an allergic reaction that lasts for days to weeks. In these individuals, you may in fact never see the flea, just the allergy. The commonest mistake people make is thinking that the allergy could not be caused by fleas, as they have never seen a flea. Scratching around the tail base in summer means fleas 90% of the time, even if fleas are never seen. You have an allergic pet.
Contact allergy:
Any plant can cause allergies in any particular individual, however wandering dew and grasses are the most common offenders. Commonly, contact allergy sufferers are scratching underneath on their bellies and under their armpits, where they run over and rub against the allergen, ie: they “contact” it.
Food allergies:
Any food can potentially cause an allergy, but in fact, overt food allergies are most rare than the above groups. To rule out food allergies is a difficult and involved process. There are some theories that the unnatural foods that are commercial foods may in fact not only cause food allergies in themselves but potentially contribute to all the above groups of allergies as well. Dr Bruce Syme is a veterinarian who has produced a “raw natural “ diet based on kangaroo meat and crushed grains and vegetables. He theorizes that pets bought up on these natural diets are far less likely to develop not only food allergies but also all other allergies.
SIGNS OF DOG SKIN ALLERGIES
Pet skin allergies start as a mild red colour of the skin and the patient may scratch just a little, or shake their ears, or rub their skin along the ground. If mild this is often all that occurs.
As the allergy worsens, the skin becomes far more obviously inflamed. If the patient is allowed to keep scratching this inflamed skin, bacteria, and yeast that live on the skin now reproduce and cause an ongoing infection. At this stage, we need to treat both the allergy and now the infection. These are the “secondary” pet skin allergies as described above.
ALLERGY TREATMENT OPTIONS
Cortisone:
This is the mainstay of what is known as “symptomatic” treatment of patients with skin allergies. The advantage of cortisone is that it is very cheap, and very effective. Also, used in small doses, side effects in cats and dogs are very minor and rare. Humans are far more sensitive to the side effects of cortisone, and often clients are reluctant to use cortisone, likening their pets experience to their own. Fortunately, the same is not true with our pets. If larger doses of cortisone are needed long term to control the itch, then side effects become more of a potential problem.
Antihistamines:
These don’t have the potential side effects of cortisone. They are extremely effective in humans, but unfortunately our pets are far less sensitive, and anti-histamines may only reduce the itch a little, or not at all. We often try various anti-histamines to see if we can reduce the dose of cortisone needed to control symptoms in severely affected patients.
Anti-biotics and anti-fungals:
These are used in either topical or tablet form to control the “secondary” infections discussed above. For true, deep seeded infections, often 4 to potentially 8 week treatment courses are needed. This is why it is very important for pet owners to get treatment early in the course of allergic dermatitis, and not wait until secondary infections have taken hold.
Atopica:
This is a non-cortisone treatment that is often effective in getting dogs that suffer severe allergies off cortisone. It is a lot more expensive and unfortunately, a percentage of patients don’t tolerate the drug, resulting in vomiting and diarrhea. But for patients tolerating the drug well, it is a viable alternative to long term cortisone use.
Desenstitizing:
Done at a specialist skin and allergy specialist centre this is a fantastic option for long term severe allergy sufferers. It is expensive, and there is about a 25% failure rate, but for those majority of dogs that respond well, it is a great option. Initially the skin specialist will do skin testing to actually identify what the allergens are. Then they make up a serum which is given to the patient as a course of injections which “de-sensitises” the patient to the allergies. The allergens stop causing a problem, the pet stops scratching, and life is good again, without the need for cortisone.
This article appeared in its original form on the Southern Animal Health site here.
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