If you have a dog with allergies or sensitive skin, it can be challenging! Especially as it is a condition which is very individual to each pet, can vary over the seasons and flare ups are common, even with the best of efforts!

So here is how we will support you in caring for them;

Anti-Itch Medications

Medications will form the basis of treatment for most of our allergic patients.  There are several different kinds, all very safe and effective, and we will talk you through them and together will decide which is going to be best for you and your dog.

The aim is always to keep their doses to a minimum, and the other treatments below will support that, but equally we should never avoid using them if your dog needs them.

Skin Supplements

Good quality skin supplements are hugely supportive of sensitive dogs.  They help to improve the skin health and strengthen the skin barrier.

‘Cat’s Brick Wall Analogy’

(If you are our client – Cat may have told you her ‘brick wall’ metaphor!)

Think of your dog’s skin like a brick wall; with the skin cells being the bricks and the material that holds them together the cement.

A dog without sensitivities will generally have skin like a brand-new brick wall with no cracks in the bricks or cement.  Whereas ones who struggles with allergies often have skin like an old building, with damage to the bricks and lots of holes in the cement. When the wind blows on the old wall, dust and dirt can get through the cracks and into the home on the other side, annoying the person who lives there!

The dust is like the allergens that cause the allergic reactions.  When they get through the skin barrier and into the body, this is what triggers the immune system and makes our pets sore and itchy.

So by helping the skin to repair itself we can go a long way to reducing the allergen exposure, which in turn will lower the skin and immune system reaction and therefore the irritation our dogs feel

Skin supplements we recommend are VetPlus Coatex and YuMOVE Skin & Coat Care Itching.

Regular Parasite Protection

It is absolutely vital for our sensitive dogs that we keep up with their parasite protection.  Even if they aren’t allergic to fleas or other parasites, the bites and irritation they cause can easily contribute to generalised flare-ups.

Topical Treatment

Shampoos, leave-on mousses, wipes and ear drops are all available for sensitive pets and, like supplements, can be hugely helpful in keeping the skin calm, protected, supple and strong.

They will also combat the bacterial and yeast infections that are a common extra challenge for our allergic furbabies.

Some pets will benefit from regular treatments and others will only need the extra support when their skin flares.  We will guide you on which product would be best and how and how often to use it.

The skin microbiome

All our pets (and us!) have bacteria and yeast that live on our skin as part of a normal, natural and healthy skin microbiome.

However problems arise when the skin becomes inflamed and irritated because this allows those yeast and bacterial numbers to rise and infect the skin rather than living in harmony with it, and these infections can be as itchy as the allergies themselves!

The aim with topical treatments is three fold; to support the skin to be as healthy as possible, to clear any infections that might be present and to restore the balance of natural microbiome.

Diet

While our pets can be sensitive to things in their foods, this is unusual with only about 20% of allergic dogs reacting to food stuffs and of those, many also have environmental allergies.

However, we can perform diet trials to see if your dog is in that minority.  These are done by exclusively feeding a hydrolysed diet, we recommend Purina HA, Royal Canin Anallergenic or Hills Z/D for 6 – 8 weeks.  During most of that time your pet will also be on their other treatments and towards the end we will gradually reduce those.  If they are suffering from only food allergies, their symptoms should not return but if they are not, we will see a relapse.

From there, if the results are positive, your pet can either stay on that diet regime long term or we can start a process of food challenge, to try to more specifically identify what their triggers are.

However, even if we don’t follow this path, a change of diet can be a great support to your dog’s general skin health.  Diets like Purina ProPlan Sensitive Skin, Hills Derm Complete and Royal Canin Skin Care are all great choices.

Immunotherapy

It is possible to start sensitive dogs on a desensitisation program to try to cure them of their allergies.

Before we start that it is important to know that of the pets treated, roughly 33% will have a complete resolution and no longer be allergic, 33% will improve and have less itching and need for medications but they will still have some sensitivities and for the final third it will have impact at all.

So while it is a treatment we support and carry out regularly, it does not completely cure every patient.

This process starts with sending a blood sample to the lab to analyse what they are allergic to.  The lab starts by testing broad categories of ‘indoor allergens’ and ‘outdoor allergens’ and if either score a positive, then they are expanded to test over 50 different different things.  These range from things like specific tree and plant pollens to house dust mites, skin dander and fleas.

Once the testing is complete and we know your pet’s individual allergy profile, a desensitising injection solution unique to them is created.  We then start a program of regular injections, beginning with a frequency of every couple of days and eventually reaching the point where it is just a monthly visit.

These injections continue for a period of around 12-18 months and at that point we assess your pet and decide if they have helped and how much.  Most pets do not need the injections beyond this point, but we do have the occasional patient were we realise they are more comfortable with a monthly top-up, which is fine.

So as you can see, there is a great deal we can do to care for our pets with sensitivities and while it can seem like a lot at first, we are here to guide and support you and figure out exactly what your pet needs!

If you think your pet might be one who suffers with allergies or you already know this is the case but would like our help, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.  You can call us on (01246) 903526 or Whatsapp us on 07426712065