Allergy Season

This will be my first post on allergies. There's lots of information to be said and even more bunk out on the internet.

When people "get allergies" to thinks like pollen, grass, dust, etc, we typically think of the runny nose, eyes, and asthma. When dogs have inhalant allergies, they tend to have skin symptoms of itching, redness, and then secondary infection. There's plenty of crossover - some people get eczema, some dogs get runny eyes.

So the typical "allergy" dog is a foot licker, armpit scratcher, and face rubber. They also tend to have ear problems (itching, secondary infection). Some individuals only have ear problems or only lick their feet. Some have the whole list of symptoms and are miserable.

"Allergies" are caused when the body's immune system sees something like a pollen and reacts to it instead of ignoring it. The cells in the body that are responsible for reacting to antigen (antigen meaning anything, usually a protein, that the immune system reacts to with an antibody) are full of all kinds of fun chemicals designed to spread havoc. Histamine is the major player. Histamine causes blood vessels to dilate, causes itch, and swelling. Histamine is what makes that mosquito bite swell into a little bump.

Not everything is known about why this happens in certain individuals. Genetics is involved. Offspring of an allergic individual are more likely to have allergies, but it's not a guarantee. We now know that there are some really cool changes in the way the skin of an allergic individual is put together. As it turns out, the "cement" that holds all of the "bricks" of the skin cells together isn't quite right in these people and pets. As a result, the skin isn't as effective a barrier as it's supposed to be. This allows the body to absorb some antigens that you wouldn't normally absorb (like pollen) and the immune system gets all upset and you develop "allergies."

Allergies are also something that develop over time. The typical atopic dog shows signs during their 2nd or 3rd year of life. Sometimes earlier, but usually it's not their first summer. They also get worse over time, so the 8th summer is usually worse than the 2nd summer.

I'll post again with a discussion on treatments. There's TONS of stuff to talk about, so I'll break it up.

AMH