Monday 14 April 2014

Guest Post- Dog Allergies

First off thanks to all who wished Daisy Boo a happy birthday!


Just like humans, dogs can get allergies as well. Also, just like with the human allergies, the symptoms can be confused with the symptoms of other conditions. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you know all about the most common allergies and that you take care of your dog in the best possible way. The three most common allergies that dogs can get are food allergies, flea allergies and contact allergies and reactions. The last thing is similar to dermatitis with humans. Here is what actually happens when your dog has some of these allergies, how they manifest and what is the best way to prevent them or treat them.

     Food Allergies

What Happens?
Certain types of food, or certain ingredients in food become perceived by your dog’s gastrointestinal tract as dangerous. They start causing problems with indigestion.
How Do They Manifest?
When your pet develops allergic reactions to some sorts of food, their skin becomes itchy, especially around the face and their rear end. Therefore, they may have patches without fur at those places because of the scratching. Also, they may experience chronic gas, vomiting, diarrhea. It may also happen that your dog loses some weight.
What to Do?
Naturally, you should visit the vet, but they will also suggest eliminative diet. It is hard to determine what exactly the cause of the allergy is. This is usually done by getting your puppy on a 12-week hydrolyzed protein diet. And it has to be strict. Also, to prevent this from occurring, you need to make sure that your dog gets very high quality dog food and that you are taking turns in feeding them dog food and whole grain food.
     Flea Allergies

What Happens?
Flea allergy happens when the flea sucks the blood of your dog and then its spit comes in contact with their bloodstream. Therefore, it is more accurate to say that your dog is allergic to flea bite. Even just one flea can cause all sorts of problems for your allergic dog. The allergy itself and the scratching can also cause skin damage and allow to bacteria to infect it and make even bigger problems.
How Do They Manifest?
Itching, itching and a whole lot of itching. This can cause tissue damage, and alopecia, which means that there are patches of hairless skin. Since this type of allergy affects skin, hair is affected as a part of the skin tissue as well. There can be crusts, erythema, self-inflicted skin damages, and the main areas for these signs are inner thighs, around the tail and the lower spine.
What to Do?
React fast. It is probable that you have ignored symptoms for a while, thinking it was common dog behaviour to scratch. You need to make sure that your dog doesn't have the fleas any more, but making sure that you don’t hurt the already existing skin damages. When it comes to fleas, it is always better to be safe than sorry. The flea allergy is mostly developed with dogs between 1 and 3 years of age.
However, don’t diagnose your dog for dog allergies before you consult the vet. That may cause mistreatment and bigger health issues for your buddy.


- Catherine Daniels, huge animal lover, loves writing about them in spare time, enjoys hiking with her dog Cookie and cuddling with her cat Zoe.

8 comments:

  1. Dog allergies really suck. Our Freddy had the itchies really bad-- his paws and his mouth would turn a reddish color. We weren't feeding him anything with red dye either. It was very hard to separate his dog food. He was already a picky eater as it was. The only thing he ended up being very good about was white rice and chicken.

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  2. WE hate to have itchies and scratchies.

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  3. Pip had many allergies and lots of itchy skin. So far, no allergies for Ruby.

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  4. Lucky for us no allergies here but it is awful for those that do. We feel for them. Have a terrific Tuesday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  5. sounds tough,I feel for dogs like this as I have my own allergies ,which are a pain,xx Rachel

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  7. My dog Elsie had horrible allergies. We found that food was a problem, but the bigger issue was environmental and indoor allergens. My experience with Elsie is on my blog at: http://www.allergydogcentral.com/2010/12/23/dog-allergy-stories-elsie/

    I completely agree with Catherine that you should consult your vet if you think your dog may have allergies. And, don't be afraid to get a second opinion!

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  8. Beau became allergic when we moved from Indiana to Florida. Blood tests, allergy shots, cortisone, nothing helped. He scratches til he falls over, or sighs and comes to me so that I can scratch him until I fall over. Horrible life for him.

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