Allergies occur when an animal’s defense system overreacts to certain components in the environment or food, recognizing them as harmful to the body and struggling. This reaction has undesirable consequences, such as inflammation or itching, for example.
Allergies in dogs are common. To solve this it is very important to know against which substances this reaction occurs and it is necessary to perform certain tests, so, in this article of Expert Animal, we will review the canine allergy tests that can be performed.
- There are several substances.
- Called allergens.
- That can cause an allergic reaction.
- We will briefly review the most common types of allergies to better understand the tests that can be performed on dogs and their function:.
The number of dogs allergic to certain components of food is higher than we think, symptoms usually include itchy skin and digestive disorders, such as vomiting or less consistency in the animal’s faeces.
An elimination diet, with a specific food for dogs allergic to food (hypoallergenic foods), can be used to know if a dog has this type of allergy, as we will see below.
In any case, allergy tests are recommended to confirm the existence of the process and to know which foods the animal is allergic to.
Flea bite allergy, also known by the acronym DAP or DAPP (allergic flea dermatitis), is also a relatively common problem.
It occurs when the animal’s body reacts to certain components of the saliva of these annoying parasites and its most representative symptoms are severe itching and alopecia (baldness) in various parts of the dog’s body, most often on the back of the animal’s spine.
While diagnosis of these processes can be made based on the symptoms of the animal and the response to treatment, allergy tests are highly recommended.
The treatment is based on the control of fleas in dogs and the environment in which they live and the administration of a product that reduces itching until the previous one.
Allergy to certain environmental compounds, such as pollen, is also very common, especially in some breeds, such as English bulldogs, French bulldogs and shar pei.
The most representative symptom is the intense itching and redness of the dog’s skin, alopecia is also common, caused by the scratching of pets.
In this case, allergy tests are even more appropriate than in previous procedures and treatment is more complex.
In general, the treatment includes all measures to improve skin conditions and avoid as much contact with these allergens as possible.There are also pharmacological products that can control the process and combat itching, but their effectiveness is very variable.
Corticosteroids are effective, however, a very careful dose should be followed and cannot be administered for a long time because cortisone has significant side effects.
Before the test, the case should be examined by a veterinarian, excluding other processes that may occur during digestive symptoms (such as gastroenteritis), or with itching and alopecia (such as bacterial skin infections or certain scabies).
Once this is done, it is good to know that there are several types of allergy tests that can be performed on animals suspected of having allergies, the most common are:
We will review these allergy tests on dogs and their pros and cons below.
As already mentioned, an elimination diet is a reliable method to find out if a dog has a food allergy.
However, most dogs with this problem are not allergic to a particular food, but to several!In addition, commercial foods generally include a wide variety of components, which makes this method virtually impossible to determine which specific foods the dog is allergic to, which is its main drawback.
In any case, its main advantage is that it is a simple test and can be used to know if the dog has food allergy or not (even if we do not know what food), which allows us to reject the process and start a treatment..
This is achieved only by feeding the animal with hypoallergenic food
In these diets, the proteins in the diet are hydrolyzed, that is, they are “cut” into smaller fragments, unable to cause an allergic reaction in dogs, so if we only provide this type of food as the only food and the symptoms disappear, we are faced with a food allergy.
The treatment is very simple and consists, logically, of feeding the animal throughout its life with this type of food, exclusively.Another drawback of this treatment is the relatively high price of this food.
Intradermal tests have traditionally been used in animals and humans and are based on the injection of various substances capable of causing allergies under the skin and observing the reaction of the animal’s body (mainly redness and swelling).
Needless to say, this should be done by a veterinarian
Its main advantage is that it is a very reliable method and, as an inconvenience, discomfort, since it is usually necessary to soothe the dog and perform several injections under the skin (which is not very pleasant for the animal).
In addition, the amount of substances that can be studied is quite limited (if you want to investigate other allergens later, you will need to retest) and is not useful against food allergies.
During this test to discover an allergy, the veterinarian will collect the animal’s blood and send it to a laboratory, where he will detect antibodies against certain allergens, to know which dog the dog is allergic to.
The only drawback is that they are not 100% reliable (the above were also not reliable and depended on the subjective assessment of the veterinarian who made them), in any case their reliability is increasing, especially if the blood is sent to a laboratory specialized in allergies.
These tests have the advantage of being more comfortable and less painful for the dog (only with a simple blood draw) and allow to study more allergens than the previous ones, including those likely to cause food allergies.
This article is for informational purposes only, in Animal Expert.com.br we cannot prescribe veterinary treatments or make any type of diagnosis, we suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case of any condition or discomfort.
If you would like to read articles similar to, we recommend that you visit our Other Health Problems section.