I decided to write about allergies in pets because I keep seeing commercials & ads popping up on my phone about dogs itching due to allergies. The advertisers aren’t addressing finding the cause or source of the allergen just putting drugs/medicines in your pet. Lets say you were having chronic headaches after a few times of taking headache medicine you would start to wonder why is this happening & so often. You would probably either start to figure out what is new in your environment & make changes or call your Dr for a checkup. My dog Hunter is 4 1/2 years old & I adopted him at 9 months old. Each time when I took him to the Vet for his annual visits he had a mild ear infection(s) & I started to wonder why. My Vet told me it probably was a dietary allergy, & she recommended an elimination diet. I did this & after about 3 weeks I figured out he is allergic to coconut(even organic). The sad thing is that it is in a lot of ear cleaners & high value dog treats. I read labels & no more coconut for him. He was just in for his annual last month & no ear infection for the first time, yeah.
Food allergies are often the reason your dog is itchy, scratching, licking a lot, or ear infections. ‘The food Allergy connection’ by Alfred Plechner DVM says the problem often has to do with food allergies & abnormal activity of antibodies in the mucous membranes of the intestinal tract, a result of imbalances in the endocrine-immune systems.
Improve their diet: “A poor quality diet means they aren’t getting enough of the good nutrition they need. Whatever the cause, improving the diet is always the first place to start the healing process. An animal with poor digestion isn’t assimilating food well will look to other sources such as stools for additional nutrients. Supplementing with digestive enzymes can help.” Roger Dehaan DVM
Next comments are from Alfred Plechner DVM & Joseph Demers DVM state some potential allergy causes:
Flawed Food: Commercial pet foods are loaded with highly processed inferior-quality ingredients & chemicals that may contribute to overall ill health & trigger allergic sensitivities. (I feed a higher quality commercial dog food, I had my Veterinarian muscle test the food to be sure it was good for my dogs & I supplement with fresh foods as well. I personally can’t afford to feed a raw diet for two larger dogs or I would).
Over-vaccinating: The current use of powerful & multiple vaccines creates a massive insult to the immune system, leading to general dysfunction & allergies. ( If you have not read my post #31 on vaccinating or Titer you may want to read it, it’s informative).
Proliferation of chemicals: In an age of unprecedented proliferation of chemicals & pollutants that many experts say is weakening our immune systems & undermining health. Doris Rapp MD an expert in environmental medicine says that if this happened over 100 years perhaps we could have adapted. Dogs have their noses to the ground, & carpets where they are exposed to multiple toxins: lawn & garden chemicals, rat poison, pesticides, cleaning & disinfectant products, etc… Unless their nutrition is good we can’t hope to detoxify these things. An animal on a poor diet & exposed to stress & multiple chemicals is a prime candidate for allergies & illnesses at an earlier age.
Some general tips to help your pet with allergies: Most coming from this book https://amzn.to/43WvQFB
1. Find the source of the allergy & eliminate it if you can. 2. Keep the dust down in your home. 3. Frequent shampooing your pet with an oatmeal shampoo can give some relieve to itching if exposed to an allergen externally. 4. Use natural, nontoxic products in home & yard. (Vinegar cleans & kills weeds). 5. Switch to higher quality food (many pets are allergic to chicken & most fish as fish is pet foods is usually from farm raised which have chemical added & antibiotics while being raised). Venison, Elk, rabbit, or Bison are usually not a protein source pets are allergic to. Dogs are Carnivores so they need meat as the first ingredient in their food (not meal or meat bi-product). Change a cats diet very slowly as they hate having their routine interrupted & suddenly changing cats diet could cause them to stop eating entirely. This could lead to a severe liver disorder called hepatic lipidosis says Dr Lampru. Switch their food slowly over several weeks, it could take a few months to see a vast improvement, but as long as you’re seeing improvement. 6. Switch to glass or ceramic food & water dishes, stainless steel bowls are fine for food, but many dogs don’t like the way water tastes in them. many pets have reactions to the plastic that leaches into their water or when teeth scrap it while eating & they inject plastic particles. Use bowls that are not painted on the inside, your pet doesn’t care if there is a design in it anyway, so don’t risk paint flaking. https://amzn.to/42UqmtO https://amzn.to/3GcI6Ij 7. Change the pets water to distilled water or filtered water. I use a Brita & the cartridge that filters out 99% of lead. https://amzn.to/3EwqqH0
Well known Expert in the pet world CJ Puotinen says” Most allergies in pets is caused by poor nutrition. Well nourished animals don’t get allergies & animals that get them often get rid of them if they eat a well balanced natural raw diet. This is not to say the cure works quickly, for just as diet related allergies are slow to develop, they are slow to reverse”. Many people are impatient & want instant results, but benefits are gradual. “Cortisone & other drugs may mask or suppress the allergic symptoms, but they don’t reverse them & over time the condition of drug treated animals usually deteriorates.” This info comes from the first addition of this book https://amzn.to/42k9JaU
If you feed a high quality food as I do it is still good to add in whole fresh foods rich in antioxidants. In whole foods form your pets body can more easily metabolize the antioxidants. Foods such as carrots (not too many due to sugar, but can shred a little onto their food), blueberries, spinach & broccoli (lightly steamed) are high in antioxidants & provide good nutrition. I will be doing a blog soon on fresh foods dogs can have & if they should be fed raw or steamed.
If you already do the things above & your dog still has allergy issues, know there are natural things you can use as alternatives to medicines that mask the issue or give temporary relief, but don’t solve or eliminate the problem. I will be writing more about Allergies in Pets (treating them naturally)next Sat & maybe the next one. I like to keep my post to about a 5-7 min read, & I have a lot of natural options to give you.
If you like my blog & are learning from it please share it with your friends on social media, like my posts, comment, & subscribe (won’t get spam, just notified when I post new content). All these things help get the word out there about my blog. If you have a question or an idea for something you’d like to see me blog about let me know in the comments section or email me directly. echoinggreatpetcare@gmail.com Thanks again for reading & please come back soon. Debbie
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