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Veterinary Dermatologists
Allergies in dogs are very common. It is a lifelong condition that can affect both your dog’s and your family’s quality of life. Understanding allergies in dogs and how to manage the symptoms will make the condition more managable.
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Key Points
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Signs
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The most common symptoms in dogs are skin issues, which is different to what we see...
The most common symptoms in dogs are skin issues, which is different to what we see in people. This includes itching, redness, hair loss, skin changes, dandruff, and frequent ear infections.
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Causes
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Allergies occur when the immune system mistakes harmless molecules as threats. Alle...
Allergies occur when the immune system mistakes harmless molecules as threats. Allergies causing skin and ear problems can occur in any breed of dog.
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What you can do
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Pinpointing the specific cause can be a very difficult process. Your vet will help ...
Pinpointing the specific cause can be a very difficult process. Your vet will help you rule out common things like parasites and more rarely, food allergies. Rinsing your dog's paws and under their belly/armpits/groin when they come in from a walk will reduce allergens that get through the skin barrier later in the day while using targeted skin care products to rebuild the skin barrier can make your dog's skin more resilient to allergens.
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Allergies require lifelong management
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While some treatment options are available, most dogs require multiple products to ...
While some treatment options are available, most dogs require multiple products to keep them comfortable. By using the medication prescribed by your vet to reduce itchiness in combination with a skincare product that rebuilds the skin barrier, like DOUXO, you can reduce the frequency and severity of flare up's.
Each dog’s allergy profile is as unique as they are! There are hundreds of potential causes of allergies and each dog will respond differently to these allergens. However, the good news is that by supporting the skin barrier, most dogs will be able to handle these allergens better than before.
How can you tell if your dog is allergic?
As humans, we tend to think of runny noses and swollen eyes when we think of allergies. While this “allergic rhinitis” can occur in dogs, it’s actually pretty rare.
By far the most common symptoms in dogs are skin problems. These include the armpits, belly, the groin, the paws and in between the toes. It also often includes the skin in the ears and can look like recurrent ear trouble (red, waxy, moist, smelly or itchy ears).
Common symptoms include:
Itching
Itchy skin has three major common causes:
Parasites (like fleas or mites), skin allergies and less often, skin infections. These dogs suffer from constant skin irritation, itching and soreness. And of course, that itching leads to…
Scratching and licking
It’s perfectly natural to want to scratch or lick an itch - in fact, the response might even have evolved to help protect us from parasites! But scratching repeatedly can be damaging. Vets call this “self-trauma”, and the injuries to the skin from repeated scratching will often lead to secondary skin bacterial infection such as pyoderma, or yeast infections. The more often the skin is scratched and traumatised, the more inflammation, trauma and infection is generated. In dogs with pale fur you may notice that the fur becomes a red/brown colour in certain places - this is from saliva staining caused by repeated licking.
Dr Chiara Noli, Hair loss and inflammation on the thorax in an allergic dog
Dr Chiara Noli, Inflammation and hair loss between the pads. This is a common feature in dog allergies
Redness and inflammation
Inflammation of the skin causes an increase in blood flow to the area, causing it to change colour, becoming red and angry-looking. The problem is that the scratching may cause further inflammation, but inflammation is itchy, leading to more scratching, and leaving the skin even more inflamed - and so on and so on. We call this the “Itch-Scratch Cycle”.
Hair loss
Repeated self-trauma will result in hair loss as the hairs are pulled out and the follicles destroyed by inflammation and scratching, leading to bald patches.
Flaky skin
Some dogs develop dry, flaky skin (dandruff). This can be in isolated patches or more widespread across the body.
Skin changes
Over time, repeated inflammation and damage to the skin causes it to thicken and darken (“lichenification”). This is an attempt by the skin to protect itself and is a marker of a serious and long-term skin problem. You may also see small raised red bumps or blisters.
Dr Susanne Ahman, Inflammed ear pinna. This is common in allergic dogs.
Ear diseases
The ear is lined with skin, and ears are a really good marker of skin health: in the ear, mild allergic inflammation rapidly progresses to secondary bacterial or yeast infections. These can easily be treated, but the underlying condition is still there. As a result, we often consider that a young dog who has repeated ear infections for no obvious reason is at high risk of developing full blown allergic skin disease later in life.
What does cause allergies in dogs
When the immune system attacks healthy body cells by mistake, we call this an auto-immune disease. When it misidentifies a harmless substance (such as a pollen, or a cleaning substance) as harmful, we see the result as an allergy.
Allergens: the triggers for dog allergies...
An allergen is just a harmless substance that the immune system has mistakenly identified as a target. There are a huge range of different allergens that different dogs will respond to.
Common allergens include:
Flea saliva: Known as Flea Allergic Dermatitis (FAD), and many dogs will develop severe responses to this!
Flea saliva: Known as Flea Allergic Dermatitis (FAD), and many dogs will develop severe responses to this!
Environmental allergens: including pollens, mould spores and proteins from mites (including harmless storage and dust mites).
Environmental allergens: including pollens, mould spores and proteins from mites (including harmless storage and dust mites).
Food allergy: Food allergies in dogs are not the most common allergy, but when food allergies do occur, it’s usually an allergy to proteins (in meat in the majority of cases). Another important misconception is that food allergies in dogs cause gastrointestinal upsets - actually this is very rare and most dog food allergies result in the same itchy, sore skin that other allergens do.
Food allergy: Food allergies in dogs are not the most common allergy, but when food allergies do occur, it’s usually an allergy to proteins (in meat in the majority of cases). Another important misconception is that food allergies in dogs cause gastrointestinal upsets - actually this is very rare and most dog food allergies result in the same itchy, sore skin that other allergens do.
...penetrating the dog’s barriers and causing inflammation...
In allergic dogs, there are alterations to the microbial skin barrier, so the natural “good” bacteria are less diverse and less protective. The mechanical skin barrier is also less effective, allowing allergens to penetrate more easily. We also see failure of the mechanical barrier as a result of skin trauma - so that repeated scratching can actually make the allergies worse, by introducing more allergen to the immune cells, fuelling the fire. The immune system in allergic dogs does not work as effectively, and the skin immune barrier is more reactive than in other dogs, causing it to react more rapidly and aggressively, and does not “calm down” so readily. Unlike in humans, in dogs the inflammatory molecule histamine (from mast cells) plays a much less important role, which explains why antihistamine medications are usually much less effective in dogs than in humans.
Breed disposition
Although any dog can suffer, there are certain breeds that are more predisposed to developing allergies, such as West Highland White Terriers, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, Shar Pei's, Dalmatians, Boxers and Boston Terriers to name a few! Age of onset tends to be the younger years, typically between 6 months and 3 years of age. If the symptoms didn’t appear until later middle age (over 6 years), then it’s quite likely that there’s some other issue involved.
What to do? How to diagnose dog allergies?
Determining that a dog has allergies is relatively straightforward. However, working out exactly what the dog is allergic to is much more difficult.
Diagnosis of allergic skin disease is a long, drawn-out process and can be very frustrating. However, this is by far the best way to ensure that the symptoms are managed as effectively as possible.
Unfortunately, there is no simple test for allergic skin disease in dogs: blood and skin tests may help determine what a dog could be allergic to, when used alongside other diagnostic procedures recommended by your vet.
First, rule out parasites and skin infection
This step may seem unnecessary - or even insulting. However, it’s absolutely essential that the most common cause of itching is ruled out at the beginning: fleas and other parasites! To this end, your vet may well recommend a change in flea or parasite treatment. This isn’t a criticism of you - but until these are ruled out, the diagnosis will always be uncertain.
The vet may also do coat brushings for signs of fleas, and skin scrapes for mites such as Sarcoptic Mange or Demodectic Mange.
A skin test may be done by your vet to check if your dog is suffering from a skin infection. If yes, this has to be treated before investigating further.
Once these have been ruled out, we move on to the next step.
Recent changes
Have there been any recent changes in washing powder, food, bedding etc.? It usually takes about 6 weeks before a change manifests as an allergy, it’s not right away, but a complete change in laundry detergent (say) followed 6 weeks later by the development of symptoms is quite suspicious.
However, sadly, in most cases these changes turn out not to be relevant, and so we go on to the next approach.
Food allergies
Diagnosing food allergies is complicated, as most food allergies do not cause simple changes on blood or skin tests. Instead, a Dietary Exclusion Trial is needed. The dog is taken off their normal diet (completely - including treats, edible training aids and snacks), and placed onto either a hydrolysed diet (which the immune system cannot respond to) or a novel source diet (which the immune system hasn’t ever seen before, e.g. tapioca). They then stay on ONLY that diet for 8-12 weeks. If there is no improvement, it almost certainly wasn’t a food allergy. If there is an improvement, we start reintroducing normal foods, and see what triggers a reaction.
Environmental allergies
In the case of environmental allergies (pollens, moulds, etc.), blood and skin tests can be useful (although be very cautious of any tests that aren’t performed by your veterinarian, as sadly there are a lot of “fake tests” out there). There is also the possibility of the dog testing positive for one allergen, but actually responding to something different in a “real world” situation, so these tests are best interpreted by your vet or even a specialist veterinary dermatologist.
Once we know what allergens the dog is responding to, we can start to think about long-term treatment.
How are dog allergies managed?
Treatment needs to be customized and may change over time
As a general rule of thumb, do not try to treat even moderate allergic skin disease by yourself - always talk to your vet for advice! Treatment will depend on what’s causing the allergy and is likely to evolve over time, and is often a combination of solutions. If not managed appropriately, the symptoms can rapidly worsen and become much more difficult to control.
There are four basic approaches that we can take to manage dog allergies:
1. Avoid the allergens where possible (e.g. frequent washing to minimise dust mites, regular preventative flea control, avoiding certain foods or cleaning products
2. Topical skin care to bring soothing and barrier-building ingredients directly to the skin
3. Medication to reduce itching and skin inflammation
4. Increase immune intolerance
What is the prognosis for allergies in dogs?
Allergies are a lifelong condition that require lifetime management. It’s important to remember that most allergies in dogs require multiple different approaches at the same time to get on top of them and keep them controlled. And as we’ve seen, no two dogs are identical: every dog’s allergies are unique to them, and so the treatment must also be unique. There is no single solution for every dog. Using ingredients such as Ophytrium, contained in DOUXO® S3 CALM, at high concentration directly on the skin helps to soothe, strengthen and balance bacteria and yeast the skin.
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The DOUXO® S3 CALM range is specially developed to address your concerns about your dog's allergies. Crafted with high-quality ingredients extracted from natural sources for maximum efficiency and safety, CALM products come highly recommended by veterinarians to complement the long-term management of your furry friend's skin allergy. With a complete, easy, and pleasant routine, DOUXO® S3 CALM soothes inflamed skin, strengthens the damaged skin barrier, and prevents the adhesion of bacteria that could lead to infections. Offering a simple and enjoyable solution, DOUXO® S3 CALM provides your dog with quick and efficient relief from itching and skin irritations, allowing him to enjoy a life free from itchiness.