Not sure antibiotics are the right way to treat dog skin allergies? Try a holistic approach.
Before you resort to pharmaceuticals, try searching for the root cause of your dog’s skin allergies.
Dogs who scratch and scratch away at themselves until they get hot spots, infections, and near-constant misery need help. They need to see a vet.
Beyond that, there is something more you can do for your dog’s skin allergies and that’s to work with your vet to find the best solution that offers relief. Believe it or not, that solution doesn’t always involve the vet’s first instinct.
Work Together With Your Vet to Treat Dog Skin Allergies
Let’s look a little deeper into what you and your vet can do for dog skin allergies… usually manifested by intense itching. Many traditional DVMs have a fairly straightforward routine for dealing with their canine patients who exhibit signs of allergies. They’ll prescribe anti-allergy drugs, cortisone, or antibiotics.
Let’s get one thing clear: vets know what they’re doing- they went to med school, and they have your pet’s best interest in mind. Furthermore, cortisone is sometimes a good idea when dog skin allergies are severe. It’s a strong drug but it can help allergies when nothing else works.
Immune modulating drugs may also be prescribed, and of course these can work when circumstances call for them. Antihistamines can help a lot, too.
But unless you and your vet get to the root cause of dog skin allergies, you haven’t completely solved the problem. You also haven’t ruled out the possibility that you can approach a solution together, from a holistic point of view.
Try to Arrive at a Natural Solution
By working with your vet to brainstorm what may be causing the allergies, you may be able to avoid a drug-based treatment, thereby encouraging a healthier (and less expensive) approach.
It’s called a holistic approach.
The problem with antibiotics is that while they may wipe out a health issue caused by bad bacteria your dog is dealing with, they also wipe out a whole lot of good things in your dog’s body right …namely good bacteria. Once the good bacteria suffer a decline in population, it’s all downhill from there, as far as your dog’s health is concerned. You’ll wish he was merely suffering dog skin allergies again, rather than the new array of health problems he’ll have.
Why Antibiotics Are Bad For Your Dog
You see, those good bacteria live in your dog’s gut. It just so happens that the digestive tract is also where a lot of your dog’s immune system components lie (dendritic cells). Holistic medicine also purports that every single organ in a dog’s body has evolved to play a role in the immune system.
Therefore, killing off the good bacteria from the digestive tract simply means you’re opening up for the possibility that your dog could become seriously sick.
Dog Skin Allergies are Most Often Caused by Food
When your dog is scratching way too much for his own good, the first thing you and your vet should discuss is how to pinpoint what foods might be causing the allergic reaction. That’s because food allergies actually cause itchy skin.
The first mode of attack against dog skin allergies might be an exclusive diet. This is a fancy way of saying you’re going to exclude certain foods to see if that doesn’t clear up the scratching and subsequent skin condition your dog is suffering.
Usually your vet will recommend a hydrolized protein diet, to see if that “exclusive” diet does anything. If your dog skin allergies clear up, then you know it’s a food allergy and (thank heavens) you won’t have to resort to drugs.
Of course, if the problem persists then you and your vet have to keep searching for the cause. Your vet will search for flea bites (maybe your dog is allergic to flea saliva), among other things.
In the meantime, on the off chance that your dog is allergic to dust or any household environmental allergens, clean everything and use natural cleaning products. Also, weekly bathing with a non-drying shampoo can remove any allergens like pollen and dust that may literally be hanging out on your dog’s skin.
Only when an exclusive diet and a clean environment don’t clear things up will you need to start thinking about chemical flea control and possibly some prescriptions from your vet. But at least they should be saved for the last resort and not the first line of attack against dog skin allergies.
