Allergies
We all experience them. Some are seasonal. Some are year round. Some are animal specific. The “invisible” irritant that makes our eyes water, our nose runny, our skin itchy, and our lives in that moment, utterly unbearable.
Our dogs experience allergies as well. Sometimes a behavior that we deem as cute or quirky could indeed be indicative of your dog actually feeling uncomfortable due to an allergen that has been introduced to his environment. So pay attention. Is your dog all of a sudden eating their paw? Are they itching their arm pits uncontrollably? Do they suddenly find pure joy in dragging their tummies, frog leg style, across the carpet? Are their eyes watering? Is their skin unusually pink?
There are a few things to take into consideration before a direct diagnosis can be made. Did you just change their food? Did you recently move to a different area (It doesn’t have to be a far move…allergens can vary in a relatively small radius)? Are you using a new cleaning product? Did you start using a different flea/tick medication? These are just a few examples of a wide array of probable causes to behavior indicative of an allergic reaction.
From personal experience, the course of action you take depends on the severity of the reaction. If your dog is having breathing or mobility issues, or if their is swelling involved, get help immediately. Do not google, do not youtube, do not poll the audience to see if this has happened to their pet. Go straight to your vet or the nearest animal hospital.
If your dog is experiencing any of the less severe reactions previously mentioned, you can take the course of action that I did with my dog Bo Diddly: a few months after I adopted Bo Diddly who came to me from Louisiana, I noticed that he began to itch more than usual and bite his paw pad. I could snap him out of his itching a nibbling fits, but the behavior concerned me. I knew that the demographic change could have something to do with it. He was otherwise in good health..eating and drinking normally and peeing and pooping on schedule. So after a brief call to my vet, I began to administer 1 Benadryl a day. This seemed to help alleviate the discomfort. I also bathe him once a month with Burt’s Bees Oatmeal Shampoo for dogs. However, after moving from the city to the suburbs where we are surrounded by grass and trees, I noticed that his skin began to get irritated again. I also noticed that the brand of flee/tick medication I was giving him seemed to irritate him even more. He began to itch himself raw in certain places and that’s when I knew that I needed to have another discussion with my vet. The Benadryl and once a month baths were not cutting it anymore and he appeared to be very uncomfortable. The skin on the underside of his belly was very pink and discolored from excessive biting. Now, I will note that Bo is also a nervous guy. Nervous dogs do tend to bite their paws similar to how humans bite their nails. But the degree in which he was biting and scratching let me know that this was something more than behavioral. My vet prescribed him a different form of monthly heartworm and flee/tick medication: he was given a 6mo heartworm preventative injection, and a montly flee/tick preventative chew treat: nothing topical due to the sensitivity of his skin. I was also given a new trial allergy medicine, instead of the Benadryl, to test out to see if this is what will give him 100% relief.
So, do you see what I did here? I took everything into consideration. I monitored my dogs behavior in order to determine the best course of action I should take. Not only does this help me be a better dog mom, but I know it’s helpful information for the vet when I can go there and confidently say I have done this, this, and this. Now they can give me the best advice possible in regards to the best course of action we can take to help resolve the issue. Dog’s cannot verbally tell us when something is not right. That’s why I advocate that all dogs be on a schedule so that, when they are not going to the bathroom at their usual time or eating at their usual time, it tells you that something might be wrong. That way you are not taken by surprise with a god awful diagnosis that could have been prevented if we just paid closer attention! I’m not saying be a helicopter dog parent. I’m saying, give your dog the same consideration you would give yourself if you started to itch uncontrollably one day out of no where. It may look cute when your dog constantly trench crawls across the carpet or gnaws on their foot for hours on end. But it’s not. He is telling you something. Something doesn’t feel right. A simple allergy could snowball into a horrible bacterial infection. But, if you stop it before it really has a chance to start, well, your dog will love you even more!