-----Allergies
River Road Veterinary Clinic
Box 309
Norwich, Vermont 05055
Phone: 802-649-3877 Fax: 802-649-1345
email: RRVC@Valley.net.com
www.rrvetclinic.com
Dr. Christine Pinello - Dr. JoAnne Giel - Dr. Kathy Ling Newcomb
ALLERGIES
Allergy in our veterinary patients usually causes itchy dermatitis. The offending allergens can be pollens, molds, household allergens, insects, or foods. The key to successfully controlling the dermatitis caused by allergy is to identify and control the underlying allergies. This may require allergy skin testing, or dietary food trials. The additional use of symptomatic therapy (antihistamines, shampoos/ conditioners, essential fatty acids) will help reduce the itchiness and is used in most allergic patients.
Allergy (pollen or food) can cause recurrent bacterial and yeast skin infections and chronic itchy skin disease. The infections can be very irritating and itchy, making the clinical signs of allergy worse. The better we are at identifying and controlling the allergies, the fewer problems we will have with secondary infections.
Treatment:
We will eliminate the infection and attempt to control the allergies.
If signs of the infection return (rash with sudden increased itchiness)
please call you veterinarian to arrange treatment. Controlling the allergies
may require some "fine tuning" of the treatments to find the
combination that works best for your pet.
** The bacterial folliculitis will be a continual problem until the allergy is identified and controlled. If prescribed, the antibiotics should be used until the infection is completely cleared. The antibiotics should be restarted if the rash of folliculitis returns.
**Yeast dermatitis is another common skin infection seen in allergic dogs. The yeast, Malassezia, causes extreme itchiness and lichenification (elephant skin) on the neck, underarms and abdomen. Treatment for the yeast infection often includes antimicrobial shampoos, conditioners or rinses and in severe infections oral antifungal medication may be needed.
**Recurrent otitis (ear infections) is also associated with allergy. If present, we can eliminate the current infection but will need to continue a maintenance therapy protocol to prevent future infections. If necessary, clean the ears using a mild ear cleanser 1-2 times each week (fill the ear canal-massage-let shake dry, you can wipe the ears clean with tissue or cotton balls). Additional medications may be needed based on culture results.
Controlling the Itch:
**Antihistamines can often help decrease the itchiness. Although not perfect, they do help reduce the itchiness with very few side effects. We may need to try several antihistamines before finding one that works well. If helpful, they can be continued indefinitely.
**Essential fatty acid supplementation may be helpful
to reduce the inflammation and itchiness. They have very few side effects
and work with the antihistamines and steroids. If helpful, they can
be continued indefinitely. If desired give daily for 30-60 days to evaluate
the response.
**If necessary oral steroids can be used to treat severe reactions (put
out the fire).
**Topical therapy will help speed up the resolution of the skin disease but will need to be modified as the disease resolves. A bath should be given every 3-7 days allowing the shampoo to contact the skin for 10 minutes before being rinsed off.
**If food allergy is a concern we may need to perform a dietary trial. To diagnose food allergies we should start a dietary trial for 10 weeks, feeding only the recommended diet (no treats, table food, vitamin, chewable medications) (contact your veterinarian about heartworm preventative). Watch carefully to note any changes. After 10 weeks, we would perform a dietary challenge with the old diet to confirm or rule-out diagnosis.
** If pollen allergies (atopy) have been identified through allergy testing, we would consider starting hypo sensitization vaccine therapy to try to decrease the immune system's allergic reactions. The vaccine and administration schedule would be provided at the time of the allergy testing procedure.
**Scabies is a parasitic infection that can look exactly like pollen allergies or food allergies. If suspected, your pet will be treated with either topical dips or oral medication that will kill the mites in the skin. This disease is curable with appropriate treatment.
Key to Success:
Successful therapy for the itchy patient uses treatment to eliminate
all infections. At the same time, antihistamines, essential fatty acids,
topical products, or in some circumstances steroids, can be used to
decrease the itchy symptoms. However, unless the allergic disease is
identified and treated, the patient will continue to have problems.
FOOD ALLERGY
Dogs, like humans, can develop a hypersensitivity to certain
food substances. Food allergy can occur a few weeks after a diet change
or after being on the same diet for several years without previous problems.
The most common clinical sign of food allergies in dogs is ITCHING.
It also predisposes dogs to secondary bacterial infections of the skin
and ears.
The diagnosis of food allergy can only be made by feeding a special
HYPOALLERGENIC DIET composed of food that your dog has NEVER been fed
before. Switching to another commercial dog food is not a good test,
because most dog foods contain similar ingredients.
Treats:
During the diet trial, your dog is NOT allowed to have any treats, rawhide
chewies, table scraps, or vitamin supplements. Make sure that he/she
is on an UNFLAVORED/NONCHEWABLE heartworm preventative. If your dog
even eats ONE bite of a food to which it is allergic to, then the whole
trial must be started again! If your dog is unrelenting in its' begging,
an acceptable treat would be a slice of a baked potato with no additives,
carrots, or grapes (pick one, don't give a variety).
Duration:
DON'T expect to see immediate results! Normally it takes at least 4
weeks to see a significant improvement, but it can take up to 10-12
Weeks until the itch stops. After this time period, if the itch is controlled,
the food allergy can be documented by challenging your dog with the
old diet for up to 10 days to see if the signs (itching, infection)
recur. If the signs recur, then your dog is food allergic. The option
at that point is to either feed the hypoallergenic diet lifelong, or
to feed it temporarily while we are trying to determine specifically
what your dog is allergic to. This is done by assigning a single different
protein to the diet every 2-4 weeks, such as beef, soy, wheat, milk,
etc. and using the information gained to select a commercial diet without
the offending ingredients.
The IDEAL way to do a food trial is HOMECOOKING. You can choose from
the following ingredients:
|
PROTEINS pork roast |
CARBOHYDRATES potatoes |
Home-cooked Test Diet
Recipe:
1 cup cooked/baked PROTEIN
2 cups cooked CARBOHYDRATE
1 cup chopped VEGITABLES (no corn) fresh or frozen
2 tsp. Canola oil
(+/- 2 tsp. Dicalcium phosphate or bone meal and a nonflavored
multi-vitamin if the diet is used for maintenance)
IMPORTANT: Chose ONE type of protein, carbohydrate and vegetable for the entire duration of the trial and make sure that it was NOT an ingredient of the old food!
Mix the above ingredients together. You can make a large amount and refrigerate or freeze it. Feed the daily amount indicated on the chart below. You can divide the total amount into two daily feedings. Switch over to the new diet slowly and gradually include more of the new food each day for 5-7 days until your dog is eating only the new diet.
|
Body Weight (lbs) 5 |
Multiply recipe by ¼ |
COMMERCIAL DIET ALTERNATIVES
Although food allergy is ideally diagnosed by feeding
a home-cooked diet, this is often impractical. Alternatively, you may
choose one of the commercial hypoallergenic diets. Choose only one of
these diets and make sure it does not contain anything on the ingredient
list of the old food! Commercial hypoallergenic diets work for only
80% of food allergic dogs. Some dogs will only get better on home-cooked
diets.