ITCHING AND SCRATCHING

These symptoms can be caused by flea infestation, mange (caused by tiny mites), or most commonly ALLERGIES.  Dogs get allergies just like people do and as we all have heard so often, Austin may be "the allergy capital of the world".  When humans have allergies, symptoms more often affect the respiratory tract and eyes and less often may cause rashes on the skin.  Dogs seem to be the opposite with the skin being affected far more often.  Allergic symptoms in dogs are mose often seasonal, occurring for just a few weeks or months out of the year.  When this pattern exists, we tend to think of reactions to grass, pollen, or plant material or even flea allergies (yes, dogs can actually be allergic to fleas!).  When allergic symptoms are non-seasonal (occurring almost year round) we tend to think more of food allergies.

Diagnosis and Treatment

When we examine a dog with these symptoms we take a detailed history from the owner.  We want to know if this is a recurring problem, if so, when and we may also ask questions about the patient's environment and habits.  We look for evidence of fleas, and in some cases do a test to rule out mange mites as a cause.  Once a diagnosis of Allergic Dermatitis is made, an individual treatment plan can be made.  Managing allergies is really a pretty straightforward process.  If you or your pet have allergies there are three things that can be done to help.

1)  Get away from what you are allergic to - This can be difficult if not impossible if the allergy is to grass or pollen. (Hey, you could move to Arizona!)  However, if we determine that a dog is allergic to products in the food then a prescription hypoallergenic food sometimes takes care of the problem.

2)  "Block" the allergic symptoms with a medication.  Treatment often involves either antihistamines or cortisone drugs to "block" the allergic response in the body.  Antihistamines in dogs have some value but don't block the allergic response as well as they do in humans.  Cortisone drugs block the allergic response very well but must be used under a doctor's supervision as large doses or long term or frequent use can have unwanted side effects.

3)  Test to find out what the offending allergen is and then use antigen injections to "desensitize" the patient to the allergen-  ALLERGY TESTING (just like in humans) is often used for dogs that have very severe symptoms that either don't respond to medication or need too much nedication to stay symptom free.  Once we find out what a patient is allergic to, we can then give injections of an antigen that will make the patient less sensitive to that substance.  Also, if symptoms are non-seasonal we will sometimes test for food allergies.  We have specific prescription foods formulated for testing for food allergies.  This testing procedure is fairly simple as we limit the diet to the prescription food for a period of time and then observe if the symptoms disapperar.  Many dogs will respond very well to this test.  If they do, then long term feeding of a hypoallergenic food may be all that is needed to alleviate symptoms.  Caution - simply changing brands of food or changing from one type of meat to another is almost never successful.

SUPPLEMENTAL TREATMENTS

In some cases the skin may become infected with bacteria.  The bacterial infection can cause itching and sores and sometimes can cause more problems than the allergy itself.  Certain anitibiotics effectively wipe out these skin infections.  In some cases we may recommend certain shampoos that soothe itching or treat infection in the skin.  Some dogs improve to some extent with omega fatty acid supplements.  Also, some patients may be found to have an underactive thyroid gland that may contribute to unhealthy skin.  Thyroid supplementation will greatly improve the health of the skin in these patients and make the allergic symptoms much less severe. 

PROGNOSIS

In almost all cases we can "get to the bottom of the problem" and prescribe a treatment regimen that can control the symptoms of allergies without sever side effects.  Allergies can't be "cured" but they can be effectively treated.  There's no reason for your friend to be miserable.  We can help!