Most pet owners know just how heart-breaking and frustrating it can be to watch your dog bite, chew or scratch on himself due to itchy seasonal allergies. Summer is the worst season of the year for dogs with their pollen allergies, itchiness, reactions to various bug bites like fleas, hot spots and even allergic reactions to grass. This guide will talk about how you can learn to recognize the early signs of skin disease, and how to it can be treated before it worsens and becomes very serious.
Fleas. Grass fungus. Grass seed and pollen. Ants. Mosquitoes. Bees. Scabies and mange mites. Ticks. Slivers and spiny things. Cuts and scratches. These are just some of the things that our pets can become affected by that we don't even see or know about. Did you know that the tiny grains of pollen are actually covered in sharp-looking spikes? Once these tiny grains work their way into your dog's foot pads, they will drive your dog crazy with all the stinging and itching they cause. Allergic reactions can also be caused in your dog if these grains are inhaled. There are so many things that can go wrong.
In most cases you will never see what the true cause of all that itching, scratching and chewing is. However, it is important to know the warning signs that could alert you to a very serious skin condition at work in your pet.
You should always try to find out what's going on when you notice your dog scratching himself. Look at the area that he's scratching, as well as the surrounding area, for clues. Sometimes it's just something really easy, such as his collar causing him to scratch, but it could also be the start of a serious allergic response. Your dogs nails can easily open up the protective skin barrier when he scratches, allowing infection to get in and spread. You need to figure out what is causing this behavior and make it stop. Prevention is the most effective treatment, but if something does happen, the sooner you figure out the cause, the better. Here is a list of things you can do on your own to check your dog's health.
The first thing you need to do is check your dog's underbelly. Roll your dog over onto his back and start checking at the area where your dog's back legs join his body, as well as the genital area. Depending upon your dog's coloring, the skin in this area should be almost completely white. The skin here should look very healthy and clean, sometimes just a tiny bit of pink in color. Check the joint area of each leg for any type of hot spots or irritations that might be developing. Now turn your dog back over and check the back-end near the tail area, moving forward while you comb the hair aside to check out the health of your dog's skin under the hair. These are things to watch out for in your check-up:
- Watch out for black, red or rusty-colored dots on the skin. These dots would be flat against the skin, but might look like blackheads or tiny pinpricks. It could even just make the skin appear to be dirty. These dots will usually appear near the genital area in the groin. If you are seeing these spots, there might already be a problem.
- Watch out for larger black specks that look similar to poppy seeds or bits of pepper. If you see this chances are it's the tiny specks that signal the presence of fleas. Known as flea "dirt," these specs are your dog's excess blood that was consumed by adult fleas and then passed as flea feces. If you aren't sure what these specks are, take a couple of pieces and put it on a paper towel that is slightly damp. If you can identify that these specks are actually red, your dog definitely has fleas, and you must immediately begin the tough job of removing the fleas from your dog and your home.
- Watch out for a case of "doggy dandruff". If you see any type of flakiness or crustiness in the rump area of your dog, that's an early warning of this type of skin condition. If your dog's skin was healthy he would not have these excessive flakes. If you can effectively fix this problem, you will also reduce the amount of dander present in your home.
- Watch out for raw patches, red spots or other types of rashes. These conditions will be very irritating for your pet and in most cases get much worse.
- Watch out for bare spots or a thinning of the hair. The back area of your dog, near the tail, you might see some crusty flakes and thinning of hair, which might not be obvious, particularly if your dog isn't groomed very often. If there are bare patches of skin present on the side of your dog, you should get him to the vet right away, as this could signal a very serious disease called bilateral alopecia.
- Watch out for scabs, scratches or other wounds. It is important to treat a potential infection as soon as possible to prevent it from becoming serious.
These are some tips to help you prevent problems from occurring:
- Keeping fleas away is a huge subject for discussion and there seems to be an awful lot of tips on how to prevent flea infestation. While it is important to keep your dog and your home free from fleas, it is even more important to do this as naturally and as safe as possible. Many of the treatments on the market today, such as collars and sprays, contain toxins that can cause serious side effects and conditions. Unfortunately, even many of the so-called natural flea treatments can have harmful consequences. A lot of experts have been debating the effectiveness of diatomaceous earth, Brewer's yeast, garlic and pyrethrins as safe alternative treatments for dogs, however you need to remember that every dog will react in a different way. Your best bet is to inform yourself and read about each treatment and make an educated decision about what course of action is best for your pet and your household. A topical rub that is made of Lily of the Desert, which can be purchased at GNC stores, certified organic aloe vera gel and Rosemary essential oil, will help to both prevent and treat flea infestations. It is important to know, however, that if you have a major infestation that there is no quick and easy treatment.
- Learning about and understanding hot spots will help in treatment, but there's really no way of preventing them. A number of different things can cause hot spots to just pop up out of nowhere. This condition should be treated right away to prevent a bacterial infection from starting. The area surrounding the hot spot needs to stay dry while it is healing, which means you need to stop your dog from licking it. You can make the hot spot disappear in just a day or two using a solution called DERMagic Hot Spot Lotion, which contains rosemary essential oil, florets of sulfur, vitamin E and organic aloe vera gel. This ingredients in this solution will help to increase healing, stop itching and cure or prevent a bacterial or fungal infection from starting or spreading. You should never use any steroid-based treatment such as prednisone or cortisone, as these medications can compromise your dog's immune system and cause more problems.
- Mites can cause a lot of damage and include widely-seen infections and conditions known as mange and scabies. It can be very hard to diagnose these conditions and very tough to treat, and unfortunately these conditions have the potential to be fatal. Veterinarians prefer to use steroids as a means of reducing the inflammation caused by mites, most often using prednisone to treat the condition. Unfortunately, as noted in the case of hot spots, steroids will weaken your dog's immune system and make the condition worse. It is essential that you keep your dog's immune system functioning properly through an active lifestyle, a happy home and a healthy diet, as a means of preventing mange or mites from invading. Any treatment or situation that can compromise your dog's immune system will allow those mites to dig further in and increase their attacks on your dog underneath the skin.
- Allergies are caused by a reaction to what is known as an "allergen". The best way to treat any allergy is to remove the thing that is causing the allergic response from the home or environment. Unfortunately, many allergic responses will also cause compromise to your dog's immune system, meaning that he would be unprotected from bacterial, fungal or yeast infections, so that any minor skin infection must be treated immediately to get rid of the infection before it worsens. Again, it is important to stress that cortisone and other steroids will only cure the symptoms and potentially compromise the immune system further, without treating the actual infection.
If your dog has a skin problem you need to make sure that it gets treated right away to prevent it from becoming much worse. Even when choosing a product that is labeled as being "all natural", you still need to be careful. Products that have "natural" on the label are not regulated by the FDA, so really anything could be in that product. Make sure you choose products that are labeled as "certified organic", and never purchase products that have harsh chemicals listed in their ingredients. Always read the labels. If you aren't sure about the ingredients, go online and find out more about them and consider all the potential side effects before you use them.
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