And guess what?

If your pet has allergies, he or she may be suffering too.

The funny thing is that only a few pets have respiratory symptoms when their allergies act up. These few sneeze some and might have red runny eyes, but most allergic pets have skin problems, even if they are reacting to the same things that make our noses run.

The typical allergic dog comes to see me because he or she has been scratching so much that he or she keeps his or her owner up at night. Then comes the hard part, trying to figure out what the pet is allergic to and determine the best mode of therapy.

The most common allergy we see is the flea allergy. This is simply an allergy to flea bites. You’d think this would be easy to diagnose, but the problem is that most of these dogs and cats don’t have any fleas on them! This is because they are so bothered by the flea that they chew them off before we get to see them. Typically a dog with flea allergies will be very itchy, will chew the hair down or even off over the rump area and often they will have a secondary skin infection creating a “hot spot” or crusty circular lesions anywhere on the body.

A typical flea allergic cat will have little scabs all around their neck and/or rump and sometimes even on their belly. When we see an animal like this for the first time, it is best to assume a flea allergy, even though the caretaker swears they have no fleas. Believe me, there are fleas around, even if you don’t have a noticeable infestation in your house.

So, we put these pets on intense flea control.

It only takes one flea bite for an allergic pet to break out as described above, so these products must be dosed as recommended whether you are seeing fleas or not. We will also prescribe a bathing program with a soothing shampoo as well as administer something to stop the itching. Most cases resolve with antihistamines but severe cases need steroids like prednisone to help them recover. Antibiotics are needed for up to six weeks if there is a secondary skin infection.

Let’s say the above doesn’t work very well. Then we are probably dealing with something other than a flea allergy. Now things get challenging because the allergy could be from another type of insect, like mosquitoes (more common in cats), it could be from something they are coming into contact with like wool carpet or cedar chips in a new bed. The allergy could be from something they are eating, a food allergy, or from pollens in the air or grasses in the yard.

If we can document that the allergy is seasonal, and we certainly see lots of these by glancing at the record and noting that “Chewey” comes in every May for itchy skin, then we can assume that there is a seasonal allergy like pollens. These pets will benefit greatly from skin testing by our local veterinary dermatologists at Southeast Veterinary Dermatology and Ear Clinic in Mount Pleasant. You may wonder why these guys specialize in skin and ears. Well, chronic ear infections in dogs are almost always caused by an underlying allergy, so these veterinarians have to deal with severe ear infections on a regular basis. These seasonally itchy pets, often with ear problems, receive multiple tiny injections of different allergens in our area and the reactions are measured. An allergy injection is compounded based on the results and hypo sensitization begins.

Let’s say your pet’s allergies last all year long. In those cases we must consider an allergy to something they are around or ingest all the time, like something in the food, or we must consider multiple allergies so that there is always something around that elicits an allergic reaction.

The best thing to do with these year-around scratches is to do a food trial. This is very difficult to do, but it is the only way to determine if the pet truly has a food allergy. Unfortunately, the allergy skin tests described above are not reliable for predicting food allergies in pets. Therefore, we have to put these pets on a very hypoallergenic diet.

We usually use a prescription diet for this purpose because simply switching around from brand to brand creates a hit-or-miss situation where we cannot say for sure one way or the other. Several of the prescription veterinary companies make diets for this purpose, so your veterinarian will help you pick one that your pet will, hopefully, like. The hard part is that this test takes eight weeks, and during this time he or she cannot eat anything that has any flavoring in it at all other than his trial food.

 So, even your heartworm prevention (if it is a chewable tablet) may need to change during this time. If you cheat at all on this diet, then you have to start all over again. At the end of the trial, if the pet is itching less, there definitely is a food allergy and individual foods are slowly introduced until one causes a reaction. Then we know what your pet needs to avoid for life.

Some pets will have gastro-intestinal problems rather than itch and scratch.

Remember that treating a pet with allergies is a life-long commitment. There is no cure. It is pointless to get frustrated by multiple trips to the veterinarian each year. That is how life is for allergic pets. Just follow your veterinarian’s instructions and be patient.

(Dr. Katherine A. Saenger, DVM, owns Bees Ferry Veterinary Hospital and Boarding Kennel (www.beesferry.com) and is a former board member of the Charleston Animal Society (formerly John Ancrum SPCA.) If you have questions about pet behavior or health, or suggestions for column topics, e-mail her at vetsaenger@bellsouth.net and watch the column in coming weeks for her responses.)