Allergies in Dogs and Cats

Is your dog constantly scratching or suffering from recurring ear infections? Does your cat lick itself intensely, have broken hairs, or even bald patches on its body? A possible cause for these symptoms could be allergies.

What is an Allergy?

An allergy is a condition in which the affected animal's immune system reacts to normally harmless substances in its environment. Dogs and cats can be allergic to almost anything. Common allergy triggers (allergens) include flea saliva, food, mites, pollen, bacteria, and mold. Affected animals primarily react with itching and skin changes upon contact with the allergen. Chronic or recurring ear and eye infections or respiratory problems can also be signs of an allergy. Especially with Food allergy, gastrointestinal disturbances also occur.

Common Allergies in Dogs and Cats

Three types of allergies are most common in dogs and cats: flea saliva allergy, Food allergy, and atopy. The symptoms of these allergy forms do not differ from each other, and a number of other diseases can also cause the same clinical complaints. 

Diagnosis

Diagnosing an allergy is therefore not easy, and a step-by-step, sometimes lengthy, approach is necessary.  

1. All other causes for the disease symptoms must be ruled out. This requires careful recording of the medical history, a thorough clinical examination, and often further laboratory diagnostic examinations and tests. The suspicion of an allergy often only arises when symptoms reappear a short time after an initially successful treatment.
2. Since flea saliva allergies are common, flea treatment and prophylaxis are always indicated for an animal with chronic itching. If the symptoms subside after this treatment, flea saliva allergy is the most likely cause.
3. If no other causes for the itching or skin changes are found, and flea treatment does not bring the desired success, then Food allergy is suspected. This can only be proven with a consistently performed elimination diet. Here, the animal receives special allergy-friendly food for 8 – 10 weeks. If an improvement is observed after this period, targeted feeding of individual food components can then be used to find out which substances the animal is allergic to. It is not possible to diagnose a Food allergy with the blood tests for food allergens available today. However, they help in selecting suitable food for the allergy diet.
4. If the elimination diet also does not lead to significant improvement, then the cause of the symptoms is atopy. This is an allergy to environmental allergens such as house dust mites, fungal spores, or pollen. Blood allergy tests and skin allergy tests are only useful once the diagnosis of atopy has already been made and the goal is to find out which substances the animal is allergic to.

Allergies are complex diseases. A cure in the true sense is generally not possible, but the symptoms can be managed with appropriate measures. Special allergy-friendly food that does not contain allergy-triggering proteins or that can alleviate inflammatory reactions in the skin and curb allergy flare-ups can be helpful.

In our shop, you will find allergy-friendly food from various Premium food manufacturers. To easily find suitable allergy-friendly food, you can select the attributes "Food allergy" and "environmental allergies" in the filter under "Condition".