ALLERGY SEASON

By David Hannon, DVM

Spring has sprung. The temperatures are warming, the rains have come, the flowers are starting to bloom, and Max and Fluffy are itching. “Oh, it’s just a little flea”, you might say. Well, it could be, and if it is, you need to get your pet on some flea treatment. But with today’s flea preventatives, fleas are easily dealt with. Allergies, unfortunately, are not. Also remember that 50% of allergic dogs are allergic to fleas (flea bite hypersensitivity), so even one flea can stimulate an allergic reaction.

Spring and fall are the seasons with the highest allergen levels, and the times when we see the most allergic pets. While you and I may be sniffling and sneezing, our dogs are itching. The technical term is ‘canine atopy’, or ‘atopic dermatitis’. ‘Atopic’ means ‘abnormal location’. This is because the airborne particles that stimulate the allergies are inhaled, stimulating sinus allergies in humans, but causing dermatological symptoms in dogs. So dogs itch.

There are three things that one needs to remember about allergies: They usually begin when the dog is 2 to 4 years old (although they can start much earlier or much later), they get worse with age, and there is no cure for allergies. Animals can also acquire new allergies as they age. So what can you do about them?

Ideally, it would be best to identify and remove the offending substance. However, if you live in Memphis, TN and your pet is allergic to Bermuda grass and poplar pollen, that’s just not going to happen unless you move to New Mexico. However, if your pet is allergic to marigolds and there are four of them on your back porch, then avoidance would be possible.

In order to identify what your pet is allergic to, an allergy test would need to be performed. This can be done in one of two ways. The gold standard is intradermal allergy testing, or ‘skin testing’. This is similar to skin testing done in humans, where a tiny amount of varying allergens are injected intradermally, and a reaction identified. Since most general practitioners do not have the resources for this, the second option is a blood test to identify immune proteins made to varying allergens. This is obviously a lot less invasive, but it takes longer to get the results.

Once the allergens are identified, if they cannot be avoided, then the next best option is hyposensitization therapy, or the infamous allergy shots. This involves giving injections of miniscule amounts of the allergens that your dog is sensitive to, and gradually increasing the amount and the frequency over time. The immune system gradually becomes less sensitive to the allergens so that the dog gradually becomes less allergic. The down side to allergy shots is that you cannot always determine 100% of the allergens that a dog is sensitive to, and you cannot always desensitize a dog to all of the allergens that you have determined that it is sensitive to. They can also develop new allergies as they age, so they might need to be retested and have their allergy shots modified. They usually have to maintain desensitization therapy for life to keep the allergies at bay.

The last option for treating allergies, and the one most commonly done, is symptomatic therapy. This basically means that you can treat the symptoms of the allergies without addressing the underlying cause. Corticosteroids, such as prednisone and betamethasone, have the best effect against allergies, but also have the most side effects with long-term usage. Antihistamines, medicated shampoos and conditioners, topical sprays and creams, and nutritional supplements have all been used to address these symptoms, with varying response. The protocol that would be best for your pet would need to be established by your veterinarian.

Allergies are frustrating but treatable. If you think that your pet has allergies, or if it just scratches, licks or chews a lot, talk to your veterinarian about diagnostic and treatment options.