Does My Pet Have Allergies?

As a kid I always wondered why Snowball, our pet Jack Russell, licked her feet like they were ice cream cones every fall and spring. You can see the little brown stains on her paws in her picture. Does your pet do the same thing? Like Snowball, your pet may have allergies.

How do you know if your pet has allergies? What might they be allergic to? Find out below.

Dogs with allergies are usually itchy, which they show by licking, rubbing or scratching some part of their body including their feet, ears, eyes, sides, or rear end. Every pet is a little different. Cats with allergies have a wider variety of signs and may not even seem obviously itchy.

Allergies can be part of the reason your pet has:

• Ear infections
• Hot spots
• Full or infected anal glands
• Skin disease that keeps coming back

The last thing you want when your pet has a skin disease is to catch what they have. Skin diseases like fleas, mange, and ringworm can make people itchy too, so make sure to get to a veterinarian (like me) to find out if your pet has something contagious and how to protect yourself.

Skin disease can also be a sign of bigger problems that your vet can look for: thyroid, adrenal gland, and liver disease, to name a few.

You might know that pets, like people, might be allergic to things in their environment such as pollen and dust. You might not know that flea bite allergies are common in pets too. Pets can get food allergies, but they are less common.

Pets with flea bite allergies (what we call Flea Allergic Dermatitis or FAD) can become itchy all over from a single bite, even if they aren’t infested with fleas. While people with food allergies get upset stomachs, pets can get itchy skin.

Whether allergies make your pet only slightly uncomfortable or constantly itchy, we will tell you how you can help make your pet more comfortable in our next entry.

For more information on why a pet may be licking their feet check out this blog post.