I’ve been asked the other day if there is any antihistamine medication for dogs. I’ve said it before, and I’m telling it once more: dog allergy is not histamine-mediated. Histamine not being responsible for your dog’s allergy symptoms, it means that giving the dog antihistamines won’t solve the problem and won’t bring any relief of his symptoms.

A dog allergy should not be treated in-house. I know vet bills can be crazy expensive, but if you cannot afford a vet for your dog, maybe you shouldn’t have a dog at all. When your kids get sick, are you treating them by yourself, or do you run to see a doctor? Why not doing the same for your dog? Allergy is one of the most serious chronic diseases, both in humans or dogs. Eventually, it may even become deadly, if neglected for a long time.

As dog allergy causes are still unknown to the medical world, all that you can do to alleviate your dog’s allergic reactions is to keep him from getting in contact with the allergen. The most common allergens for dogs are food allergens, therefore an elimination diet should eventually determine what particular food gives your dog that allergy. Never give him that food again and you’ll have a healthy, symptom-free dog.

The sooner you take your dog to the vet for its allergy, the better.

Categories: Dog Allergy, Pets Allergy
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This is a question we’ve got from one of our readers: can dog allergy cause death?

The answer is that any allergy can cause death. It all depends on how violent the allergic response to the allergent exposure is. To make it more clear, one can have a mild allergy to mold, let’s say, and experience only slight symptoms of irritation, itching or sneezing. The same person can have an extremely severe allergy to wasp venom, without even knowing it. In the moment he gets stung by a wasp and his body gets in contact with the venom, a raging allergic reaction is triggered, with major implications for all vital systems functions, like breathing or blood circulation. The immune system wrongly assumes that the body is in major danger, and it starts a real war against the enemy, with the purpose of neutralizing it as soon as possible. This is called anaphylaxis, or anaphylactic shock, and it is a major affection which needs emergency treatment with epinephrine. There’s very little time from the occurrence time until death installs: only a few minutes, so in case this happens to somebody near you, don’t wait: call the paramedics. If you’re lucky, they’d save the person’s life.

Usually, people who were diagnosed with severe, life threatening allergies, must carry with them an epinephrine pen, and administer themselves the drug immediately after they’ve been exposed to the allergen.

If you know that you or one of your family members is allergic, you’d better test yourself and tell the other members of your family to get tested too, so you minimize the risk of suffering an anaphylaxis.

Even though you know that you only have a mild allergy to some substance, like dog dander, you still have to be careful. First, you shouldn’t have a dog at all, but if you do, you must watch yourself and call an ambulance at the slightest signs that your allergy worsens. Repeated exposure to the allergy-triggering factor leads in time to the aggravation of the symptoms, up to a severe or even lethal level.

So, allergy is not at all a joke and it should be treated seriously. Never ignore it, or you’ll pay a price with many times can be too high, for a disease which can be kept under control for a lifetime.

Categories: Dog Allergy
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More and more dog owners are aware that their dogs may suffer from allergies, exactly like humans do. A dog allergy can be triggered by common allergens, such as fleas, pampas grass, or specific foods.

If you notice your dog scratching a lot, or sneezing almost continuously for days, or if you see its fur falling off in large amounts, then you can suspect a dog alergy and try to further investigate the problem.

Step one: closely examine the dog’s skin, looking for signs of parasites like fleas or ticks. Any small, black spots of dirt can come from such parasites, so even if you don’t see the insects with your very eyes, you can still give your pet an anti-flea treatment.

After you removed the flea allergy suspicion, watch your dog while playing outside: do the allergy symptoms occur mainly after frequenting some specific locations? Are there any peculiar plants in those places? Pollens? Pampas grass? Weeds? If you cannot establish a relation between the allergic reactions of your dog and the places he’s been in, you’d need to step further, in suspecting a food allergy.

Food allergies in dogs, like the ones in humans are properly diagnosed by an ellimination diet. Remove one food at a time from your dog’s diet and watch the symptoms for about 1-2 weeks. Are the allergy symptoms still there, or are they alleviating slowly, to disappearance? If after one month of elimination diet your dog’s allergic manifestations are gone, then you know that was the food which acted like an allergen in this case. By simply removing it completely from the diet, your dog would be allergy-free for the rest of his life.

If the allergy symptoms are still present, then remove another food from your dog’s nutrition and repeat the observation until you manage to find out the cause of the allergy.

Don’t try to treat your dog with human alergy medication! This can be harmful and even cause your dog’s death. Humans and pets have different mechanisms of reaction to different substances. For example, a human can eat onions without any problem, while feeding a cat with onions would kill it, because onions contain a substance which is poisonous for cats. It is that easy to harm your pet!

The best advice, in case you notice allergy-like manifestations on your dog, is to take it to a vet, who can perform thorough investigations and give an appropriate allergy treatment for your dog. While airborn allergies may be difficult to control, especially in case of dogs, because you need to take your dog for a walk at least twice a day from obvious reasons, dog food allergies shouldn’t be a problem, once you get them diagnosed. Just don’t give your dog those foods anymore and you’re done.

Categories: Dog Allergy
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Dog allergy has become more and more an issue nowadays, when people want to have dogs despite the fact that they don’t have the living conditions for that. We keep our dogs in small apartments, they eat with us in our kitchen, they sleep with us in our bedrooms, and then we wonder why dog allergies are on the increase.

When I say dog allergy, I mean both humans being allergic to dogs and dogs getting flea allergy or developing allergic reactions to substances in our homes. Allergy is a tricky disease, therefore it may be difficult to diagnose, especially in the case of dogs or other pets, as they need surveillance to see if they behave in other way than they usually do. For example, a dog scratches itself anyway to a certain degree, and nobody takes the dog to a vet each time they see the pet scratching. However, if scratching becomes a habit and it occurs repeatedly, many times a day, then we can suspect a dog allergy, most probably a flea allergy, so a visit to the veterinary would be welcome.

When to suspect a dog allergy

Continuous scratching is the first symptom of a dog allergy. Other signs you may look for are rashes or irritations of the skin, hairs falling unevenly, in big numbers, red and teary eyes, sneezing or coughing.

If you can, try to see when the symptoms occur during a day’s time: is it happening only when the dog enters a certain room? Is it happening immediately after meals? When playing in the park? What triggers this allergic response from its body?

Always look carefully at the animal’s skin and fur. If you notice small black spots which go away with ease when you grab them, then you have reasons to suspect your dog has fleas. Regardless the fact that he may or may not have a flea allergy, you still need to get him rid of those insects, because they are carriers of many diseases anyway.

The reverse look upon a dog allergy is when humans get allergic reaction in presence of dogs. The best advice is not to keep dogs anymore if you get diagnosed with dog allergy. Continuous exposure to the allergen would make your condition worsen in time, and you may end up with serious troubles if you keep on ignoring your symptoms. If you insist on having a dog while being allergic, then you need to take care of a perfect hygiene in your house: always wash the dog very well, don’t let it enter your bedroom, don’t allow him sit on your favorite chair. In general, try to minimize your contact with the dog and stay away from, playing with it too closely. Dog allergy is serious issue.

Categories: Dog Allergy
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Does Your Dog Have Allergy?

Dog allergy is common is about 20% of the pet dogs in US only. Pet owners may not notice that their dogs are allergy sufferers, exactly like the human beings. One of the most widespread allergies amongst dogs is flea allergy dermatitis. Dogs can also develop food allergies, airways allergies or even atopic dermatitis.

Dog Allergy Symptoms

The clinical signs which make the diagnosis of allergy in dogs are usually the itching which never stops, cough, which is dangerous and should be treated as an emergency, wheezing (which is a kind of whistle noise the dog makes during breathing) or mucus secretions. Under no circumstance should the dog owner give medication to his dog without seeing the vet first of all. Medication can mask the symptoms, thus making the diagnosis much harder.
Only the vet can decide if your dog suffers from a simple, common allergy, or it has a more serious ailment which needs other type of treatment. Once taken to the doctor, your dog will be tested for various allergens, in order to determine its body reaction.

Dog Allergy Treatment

Dogs can live with allergy very well, if their owners take care to obey several simple rules. For example, if your dog is allergic to specific foods, you should never give him those foods again. Allergy does not disappear if the allergic subject is exposed more frequently to that allergen (the substance which induces the allergic reaction). Keeping on giving your dog that food which caused the allergy would worsen the symptoms, and in time, it may even cause death.

Beware of fleas, as they can cause your dog allergy. In such cases, the allergen substance is the flea saliva. If that’s the situation of your dog, you’ll have to be very careful to keep him away from fleas. This is not very easy for the owner, because dogs are friendly to other dogs and they touch each other, allowing fleas to pass from one body to the other when they play in the park.

If discovered early and treated properly, allergy is a disease anybody can live with, including your dog. This is why it is very important to take your dog to the doctor as soon as you suspect anything which may not be in order with its health. If you see a change, like the presence of a bigger quantity of secretions, or never ending scratching, or series of sneezes and coughs, don’t treat your dog with over the counter medication according to what you may think it has, or according to your neighbor’s advice.

If you love your dog, take it to the vet and ask for allergy tests to be run on it. Remember that once you got yourself a pet, you are responsible for its well being, and you have to take good care of all aspects of its life. Don’t forget that dog allergy is real and fully manageable if discovered in time.

Categories: Dog Allergy, Pets Allergy
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