Dog skin allergies are in fact manifestations of allergic contact dermatitis. This appears when the dog’s body is hypersensitive to certain substances the dog gets in contact with. Such allergens can be chemicals, like dog shampoos or antibiotics, nickel, wool or rubber. Household cleaning products can also be responsible for triggering dog allergies. The salt which is usually spread on the roads in winter for preventing ice forming can also cause dog skin allergies.
Dog Skin Allergies Symptoms
Itch alone is not a symptom, but when it comes together with skin irritations, vesicles or redness, it may signal we are dealing with an allergy. Being a contact allergy, this condition is more prone to appear on the areas of the dog’s skin which have less or no hair such as lips, paws, muzzle or belly. However, you should be aware that the same symptoms may occur in case of a simple irritant contact dermatitis caused by getting in contact with a harmful substance, not by a response of the immune system of the dog’s body. Here’s a very interesting article about allergies in dogs and cats and the pruritic threshold. This theory claims that each pet has a pruritic threshold, meaning that if a disease is generating an itch, the dog won’t scratch himself unless this threshold is passed. This means that a dog with a skin allergy causing an itch below the pruritic threshold won’t scratch himself. Add a flea allergy that causes itching, and if the sum of the two is beyond the pruritic threshold, only then the dog would start scratching, therefore letting you know something is wrong.
I think this is an interesting theory. What’s your take on that?
