When your pet has allergies, we want to alleviate the suffering as much as possible, whether the problem is parasites, food, or the environment. We always try to pinpoint the allergen, but at the same time, we work with you to calm the symptoms that cause your pet to be miserable.
Dogs and cats with allergic tendencies require extra vigilance to maintain healthy skin and ears free of bacterial infections. This is key to keeping them comfortable and out of the office and off of medications. The place this starts is at home.
Home maintenance can rely on medicated shampoos and ear cleaners to get rid of the substrates that organisms grow on while on the surface of the skin. Topical therapy may include shampoos, conditioners, or ointments applied to skin. For the ears, there are lotions, liquids, or gels applied directly to the ear canal.
If you’ve exhausted all of the non-prescription options, we may prescribe Cytopoint® or Apoquel®. Cytopoint is a long lasting itch relief injection for dogs. It can control allergic itching for up to eight weeks. Apoquel is a tablet given to treat the itch. It starts to work within four hours, and you should see total relief within 24 hours.
We only see your pet a few times a year, so we know that the bulk of the work happens at home. If you have questions about what you can do at home to help with allergy relief, talk to us. After all, you’re the first line of defense on helping to keep your pet healthy and happy for a lifetime!