Canine Allergies: Is your dog allergic?
I woke up last Saturday to find Shadow, our 11 month old Chocolate Labrador Retriever, with a swollen eye. At first I thought that he and Gunner (the German Shepherd puppy we’ve been fostering) had been playing a little too rough and Shadow gotten a black eye (or maybe in his case a brown eye : ). After looking a little closer, we decided it was time for a visit to the vet.
Shadow has allergies
It turns out that allergies are common in a lot of dog breeds and symptoms start appearing around the time the puppy turns one year old. The symptoms are typically different from humans, and are sometimes are easy to miss if you don’t know what to look for. (I’ll admit that I missed them before our trip to the vet.)
When allergies start, you may see the following symptoms:
- Dry skin (possibly with red, irritate hot spots)
- Itchy face (especially around the eyes) with the dog rubbing his/her face against almost any surface (Shadow likes to rub his head against my leg.) (Please see the picture above for an example (this is not Shadow).)
- Scratching different parts of the body.
- Canine hair loss (usually as a result of the scratching)
- Sneezing
- Eye discharge
In some extreme cases, vets also see dogs with skin lesions (which can lead to infections), bad odor around the areas where they are scratching, diarrhea, vomiting, and ear infections.
What causes canine allergies?
Dogs can be allergic to many different things. Seasonal allergies, typically caused by trees, grass, pollen, or mold. Food allergies, have there been any changes in the puppy’s diet recently? Or, an environmental allergies, for example fabric, rubber, or plastic in toys or maybe even dust or fleas.
For my next article on canine allergies, My Dog Is Allergic, Now What?, I will go into detail on how to troubleshoot different allergens and methods of treatment. I will also fill you in on how the progress is going with Shadow.
Please feel free to post comments on products you’ve had success with in this area. I would like to provide Shadow some relief as soon as possible. Currently, the vet has us giving him antihistamines twice daily, but I would like to find a better long term solution.
I used to have a dog that had a variety of food related allergies, I had to “home cook” his food, basically meat and rice only, to avoid problems. The most important thing is to find out against what your dog is allergic and then to avoid this allergen, everything else is just treating the symptoms, just my 2 cents, SY
@hospitalera: My grandmother had a dog that ate meat and rice daily and it seemed to help. I think if the culprit is likely food, I would start with a hypoallergenic dog food. In an upcoming article, I will be going over some ingredients to watch out for that are known allergens.
Thanks for commenting.
Chris
My dog, JoJo, has very itchy skin. He is scratching all the time. I thought it was an allergy to fleas and discovered that when I give him the flea poisons he scratches more. Right now he has a serious hot spot at the base of his tail. We feel so bad for him. I have been putting antibiotic ointment on it to keep it from getting infected. Help?? Thank you, Carla
I think an oatmeal bath may be a good place to start because it can help soothe the skin, but I recommend getting him to a vet as soon as possible. That hot spot could become infected and get worse.
Chris
@Carla Leopardo
You should never use antibiotics without prescription / vet advice. Get your dog to a vet, like Chris said, and get it checked against what it is allergic and get the right advice on how to treat it. Antibiotics are powerful stuff that can make things worse rather then better if not used properly, SY
i would take jojo to the vet and get an allergy test. they basically sedate him, shave a square in his side, and inject him with a series of common allergens. the injections that give your dog a reaction are the things he’s allergic to. my childhood dog was- strangely enough- allergic to cats.
When I was a child, I had a lot of allergies. The doctor’s performed a similar procedure on my back to determine what I was allergic to. I think you did the right thing by having your dog tested, but having been through a similar experience, I feel bad for him.
Sometimes some short term discomfort is worth the result.. However, I’m not sure how you could convince Jojo of that while it is happening. : )
Take care and thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Chris
A lot of times, dogs will scratch itchy patches of fur because of hot spots (damp fur won’t properly dry causing a bacterial infection that has the potential to collect mold) or scaly skin (two kinds: oily and dry). A bath or good shave down will usually resolve these issues. I find that the shampoo Allergroom works well for dogs with dry skin and heard that dogs with oily or greasy skin should use LyTar shampoo. There probably are others kinds of shampoos that are effective at resolving scaly skin, but these are pretty standard ones.
All my best!
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