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Allergic Skin Disease in Dogs and Cats Veterinary surgeon, Claire McArdle, MRCVS, explains some of the background to allergies in dogs and cats:
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llergies are a very common cause of skin disease in dogs and cats. In fact I believe these are more commonplace in cats and dogs than most people realise but in many cases they may not have been diagnosed. As a result, the symptoms in some cases may have been noticed and treated but not the cause. As groomers, you may well spot some of the signs that the pet owner has overlooked. Pets can develop allergies to: • Flea saliva via flea bites (very common in cats) • Food proteins (for example chicken, beef, pork, lamb, fish, egg, milk, wheat) • Environmental factors (house dust mite, grass, tree or weed pollens) Allergies may well show themselves in a number of different ways, some more obvious than others: the pet is often itchy and will show signs such as scratching, licking feet, shaking the head, hair loss, redness of the skin and rashes, and ear problems. The latter is often missed as a possible symptom of an allergy. Commonly skin infections with bacteria and yeasts arise as a result of damage to the skin surface as the pet licks and scratches itself. Allergies are a source of considerable discomfort for pets so need to be investigated and treated. Other disease can cause similar signs, for example parasites (fleas, mites and lice), infections (bacteria and yeasts), hormonal abnormalities auto-immune
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disease and, less commonly, tumours. These diseases must be ruled out before we can be sure that a pet has an allergy. The vet may want to carry out some investigations to determine the cause of a pet’s skin disease, these include: • Samples from the surface of the skin to look for parasites, bacteria and yeasts • Blood samples
• Skin biopsy If the conclusion is that a pet’s skin disease is due to an allergy then specific tests can be performed to try to identify what the pet is allergic to. This may involve: • An elimination food trial for eight weeks (a special diet will be recommended and the pet must not eat any other type of food during