It’s the spring season and flowers are blooming, trees are getting their leaves and flowers, and weeds are becoming a lawn and garden keepers nightmare. Your dog that has been a perfectly normal dog all winter suddenly begins to itch and to scratch uncontrollably. Her hair begins to fall out. Her eyes might water and you might notice swelling in the tender tissue around her eyes. These are all symptoms of seasonal allergies in dogs. You might even experience something very similar yourself at this time of year.
Food may be the cause
The first step to easing your dog’s allergy suffering is to eliminate food as a cause of these symptoms. When my dog began having symptoms of allergies I had recently changed the dog food that I was feeding my three dogs. I had one dog that was over-weight and I was attempting to reduce calories. This food contained a larger amount of soy products. I assumed that this might be the cause of her symptoms. I first put her on a diet that eliminated soy products from food. She did show minimal signs of improvement, but the itchiness remained.
A visit to the vet is in order next
A visit to the vet and a two week prescription of 10 mg. Zyrtec allergy pills and an ointment for her inflamed eyes along with an allergy shot designed to last 3 days caused her to show a lot of improvement. Her eyes began to heal, and she scratched less. Her hair began to regrow in the areas where she had gnawed and scratched herself bald. When the two weeks were over, her allergy symptoms returned. Yet another visit to the vet yielded a longer term allergy shot designed to last 6 weeks. Antibiotics cleared up a skin infection caused from the scratching helped control her itching.
After the visit to the vet
Your dog will still suffer from seasonal allergies after having an allergy shot. It will still be necessary to take a few steps to ease her itching. When a person has an allergy shot to control seasonal allergies, they also will have to still take other allergy medicine occasionally. A shot does not totally eliminate the symptoms but it greatly reduces them. A vet will sometimes prescribe the same allergy medicine that you can buy over the counter to deal with your own allergy symptoms. Benadryl is a good allergy medication to use for dogs, and also the most commonly prescribed by my vet’s office. I found that Benadryl did not relieve my dog’s symptoms very much, and also made her lethargic.
Zyrtec is a once a day allergy medication that is sold over the counter in 10mg doses. It does not cause drowsiness for my dog, and helps to relieve her symptoms. My vet prescribed Zyrtec for my dog, one 10mg tablet to be taken twice a day. Over-the-counter medicines are much less expensive than prescription drugs, and the strength was the same. Generic versions are even less expensive.
Bathing to relieve itching
A good dog shampoo containing oatmeal will help ease itching in your dog. The oatmeal soothes the skin while you bathe your dog, and the shampoo will leave her fur feeling very soft and looking shiny.
Remove weeds
Weeds are a large source of pollen that causes seasonal allergies. Remove weeds from any area that your dog frequents.
Keep your dog inside
When pollen is high in the spring and fall, it will help to keep your dog inside as much as possible. It’s not possible to keep a dog inside all the time. They have necessary business out of doors. But limit her exposure to pollen by limiting her time outside. Windy days are especially harsh for allergy sufferers. Curtail all unnecessary outside activity on windy days.
There is no cure for dogs that suffer from seasonal allergies. These tips will help you to ease her suffering in much the same way that you would ease yours.
Sources:
http://www.dog-health-handbook.com/dog-seasonal-allergies.html
http://www.vetinfo.com/seasonal-allergy-symptoms-in-dogs.html
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