As spring continues, veterinarians say there are several ways to ease pets’ suffering of allergies.
What sorts of allergies do dogs and cats get?
Dig deeper:
Allergies happen when the immune system overreacts to a foreign substance. Cats and dogs react to many of the same things people do, as well as pests like fleas.
There are no definitive recent statistics on how many pets have allergies, but research suggests the problem is growing.
What they’re saying:
“I probably see allergic dogs and cats every single day, probably multiple times a day,” said Dr. Karen Woodard, medical director at Thrive Pet Healthcare-Elmhurst in Illinois.
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About 90% of allergic pets react to environmental triggers, Woodard said, and the rest have food allergies only.
Dog breeds that are especially vulnerable include various types of terriers, boxers and bulldogs; in cats, it’s Persians, Siamese and Himalayans.
(Photo by Monika Skolimowska/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Pets can even be allergic to other animals — cats to dogs, dogs to cats and either to another species.
“It’s possible for them to be allergic to us, just like we are to them,” said Thrive’s Dr. Anthea Elliott Schick of Scottsdale, Arizona, immediate past president of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology.
Symptoms of pets having allergies
Why you should care:
Allergic cats and dogs aren’t as likely as humans to sneeze and cough. More often, they scratch and lick themselves, shake their heads and develop ear infections.
Woodard said her Yorkie mix, Teddy, had the classic signs — scratching around his shoulders and getting rashes and ear infections starting as a six-month-old puppy. She lived in the South at the time, and he tested positive for allergies to various trees and grasses there.
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A common sign of allergies in her feline patients is “overdoing their grooming,” said Woodard, who’s on the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association’s board of directors. “Cats shouldn’t be pulling their hair out when they groom. So if you start seeing bald patches on your cat, even though the skin underneath it looks normal, that could be a sign of allergies.”
Even food allergies, often to chicken, beef, lamb or other protein sources, frequently show up on the skin, although pets can have vomiting or diarrhea, too.
Rarely, pets can develop life-threatening anaphylactic reactions, perhaps after being stung by an insect. But most allergies are simply miserable for the animals.
How can you help your pet?
What you can do:
The first step is to get a diagnosis from the vet. This could involve allergy testing, or in the case of food allergies, an “elimination diet,” which involves feeding limited ingredients the pet hasn’t previously eaten.
If the allergy culprit is environmental, there are medications like anti-inflammatory drugs and newer oral and injectable medications for dogs to block chemical signals associated with itchiness. Food allergies may be treated with special diets such as “hydrolyzed” food, in which proteins are chemically broken down into tiny pieces.
But vets say there are also ways to help pets at home by cleaning their bedding frequently, wiping their fur with a wet washcloth and giving them baths.
Outdoors, “they’re almost acting like little Swiffers, getting allergens on their skin, and it goes through their skin and actually becomes a problem,” Schick said. “We say bathe your dog, at a minimum, once a week if they’re allergic.”
After she’s tried nearly everything, Friedman’s dogs are still vexed by allergies. But they’re doing better.
“I’m going to keep experimenting until we find what stops it completely,” she said. “All you can do is try.”
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes from interviews with veterinarians, including Dr. Karen Woodard of Thrive Pet Healthcare in Illinois and Dr. Anthea Elliott Schick of Thrive in Arizona. This story was reported from Los Angeles.
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