[Animals] Dogs and cats also suffer from allergies

[#Steeven.™]

Spring has just begun and with it, allergy season. Those who are allergic to pollen have suffered (and are suffering) the consequences of the flowering of plants and their pollination, all seasoned with pollution and the fact that there is hardly any rain that cleanses and purifies the environment.

Also, according to recent studies, allergy season starts 20 days earlier, is 10 days longer, and has 21% more pollen than it did in 1990.

With this panorama, it must be taken into account that our pets, especially dogs and cats, also suffer from allergies to pollen. In fact, these domestic animals suffer from allergies that humans also suffer from, which can be grouped into three groups, depending on the group of allergens that cause them.

 

 

Environmental or atopic allergy

It is the best known, since it is the most common in dogs and cats. This general group can be subdivided into two: pollen allergens and dust mite allergens. As with humans, the signs of allergies caused by pollens usually appear sporadically throughout the year, coinciding, depending on the species of producing plant, in spring or autumn. However, there are mites in any house, so the animal that is allergic to these insects will constantly suffer from this allergy. "Unless they are inoculated with mites or pollen, the so-called autovaccines, so that they become sensitized" and their immune system produces natural defenses that fight these allergens, says Dr. Xavier Roura, from the Small Animal Internal Medicine service of the Hospital Clínic Veterinari from the UAB. The most common signs of allergy to pollen or mites are itching and reddening of the skin. However, it is likely that what is really seen are the lesions caused by scratching or secondary fungal or bacterial infections that take advantage of the inflammation and the lowering of the animal's skin defenses to settle in it and cause epithelial damage and increase the pruritus (stinging or itching) in the animal.

 

Allergy to stings

 

Dogs and cats are usually very allergic to the bite or saliva of some insects: fleas and ticks are great enemies of our pets. In addition, if a tick or flea parasitizes a dog or cat and it has a disease, when it sucks its blood it also sucks the virus or bacteria that causes that disease, so it can be transmitted to the next animal or be human that parasite In other words, fleas and ticks can transmit serious diseases, as explained by Dr. Ana Ríos, head of the dermatology service at the Puchol Veterinary Hospital. That is why it is convenient to take our pet properly dewormed to try to avoid the spread of systemic diseases by ectoparasites. However, and contrary to what happens with allergies to pollen and mites, "they are not allergies that are chronically maintained," says Roura. "The most common is allergy to flea bites, because it is an insect that lives all year round," Roura qualifies.

Food allergies
Some animals can also have food allergies, although it is "the least common allergy and the most difficult to detect", explains Dr. Roura. If your dog or cat has a food allergy, most often it is to some type of food protein such as milk, beef or chicken, wheat, eggs, fish, or even soy. In general, it can be said that the foods most likely to cause an allergy or intolerance are those with a higher protein content, and those that are consumed more frequently. The problem is that, to detect this type of allergies, "blood tests are indicative, but they are not one hundred percent reliable," continues Dr. Roura. The formula for detecting this anomaly is trial-error: "Give a hydrolyzed diet and in two or three weeks, if the animal has improved, return to the initial diet, to see if that is what it is." Or, something cheaper, "resort to an exclusion diet: if he has never eaten fish, for example, he is fed fish and potatoes and the protein to which he is allergic is discarded," he says. The way in which the allergy will manifest itself will be, once again, as in humans: with vomiting or diarrhea in the most extreme cases (and with a higher intake) or itching and reddening of the skin. Approximately 10% of dogs and up to 30% of cats that have an allergy or intolerance also show gastrointestinal symptoms (vomiting, diarrhea).

 

Multifactorial allergies
It must also be clear that most allergic reactions are multifactorial, that is, they can be caused by different allergens from different groups. Which means that a dog or cat diagnosed with an environmental allergy must take care of their diet and their external deworming to avoid adding other allergies.

 

https://www.elperiodico.com/es/entre-todos/20230322/alergia-perros-gatos-animales-domesticos-13895118