Allergies are awful and can lead to atopic dermatitis. Atopic derma-what? It's the inherited condition where your pet has an allergic reaction (inflammation or getting itchy) to some kind of allergen. According to the US National Library of Medicine, about 12.5% of felines suffer from atopic allergies, and 10% of canines suffer from atopic allergies.
Environmental allergies are much more common than food allergies in pets — 85% of the time, it's an environmental allergy such as grasses, weeds, dust mites, molds, and fungi.
When it comes to environmental allergies, dogs and cats can have year-round allergies to any one or all five of the main allergens, particularly dust mites in the house.
There is a blood screening test that we can do to screen for environmental allergies, and helps to determine what allergy your pet most likely has. The blood screening test is about 75% accurate. Even if the blood screening test gives the wrong results, it gives you a good idea of which direction to go. If the test comes back negative and you're still very suspicious there's an allergy, more aggressive diagnostics like food trials may be needed. But if you do the blood test and it's positive for environmental allergies, there is a pretty good chance that your dog or cat does have environmental allergies.
There are lots of different treatment options available.
Environmental allergies are the most common cause of dogs and cats being itchy. We want to stress that even if your dog has horrible environmental allergy symptoms, 90% of the time, it can be managed well with any of the above therapies. Sometimes even a medicated shampoo helps because it helps put a barrier on the skin and protects them from the allergens contacting the skin. Those are all options that you can talk about with your veterinarian about treating your pet's itchiness.