Feel free to not answer this as I’m not sure if it crosses the line of vet advice over the internet: My dog has awful allergies and the vet and my family have no idea what the allergen is. His prescription is expensive and the family doesn’t want to pay for it or pay for allergy testing. We’ve tried different foods, confining to different areas of the house, and just trying our best to observe what may be causing it. So are there any other ways we could figure it out? Thanks!
‘Fun’ fact: Your dog can be allergic to dozens of things, all at the same time, and they can even be allergic to humans.
This makes identifying an allergen without specific allergen testing extremely difficult. It reduces your methods to trial and error, with a lot of room for error. There are some things you can consider to generally reduce the amount of allergens an animal is exposed to though, even if you can’t identify specific ones to target.
Food allergies account for approximately 20% of allergies in dogs. They’re not super common, but worth trying to rule out. In a clinic we would typically use an ultra low allergen (hydrolysed protein) diet, but you can get similar results in 70-80% of cases with single, novel protein diets. These are diets which have only one meat source, and that meat source is something the dog has never eaten before. This is easier to source for some dogs than others. It will also take 8-12 weeks of feeding only this diet to the exclusion of all other food until you expect to see any results, and any ‘break’ in the diet puts you back to day 1.
Even if your dog is not food allergic, there are various skin support diets and supplements available with higher levels of fatty acids which can be helpful.
Physically removing allergens from the skin can also be helpful, and the simple way to do this is by washing the dog. Always use a shampoo with a good veterinary dermatologist recommendation, as you might end up doing this twice a week. There are also leave-in conditioners which are useful for extending the effect.
Some dogs will also tolerate light clothing on their body, which is useful for the grass-allergic dog who insists on rolling in the grass at every opportunity.
You can also purchase products which remove particles from the air in your home, which might be useful, but also might be expensive.
Some people get lucky with their pets allergies and a change of environment, either moving house or frequenting a different park in case there’s just one particular plant that’s the problem, but good luck figuring out which plant.
Allergies are frustrating and often lifelong, and there’s no one method that works completely 100% of the time, so most allergic patients are at least partially dependent on a prescription.
And before anyone comments about antihistamines, I haven’t seen antihistamines work effectively in any dog yet, they’re far too weak for most cases.
