Environmental allergies can cause your pet dog or cat to scratch, lick, and develop various skin problems. Environmental allergies usually start showing symptoms in young dogs and cats between the ages of 1-3 years old. Unfortunately, there are many allergens that can affect household pets and the allergic symptoms can become worse as they spend more time indoors during winter.
Some of the most common outdoor environmental allergens are grasses and pollen. Indoors, dust mites, wool, cotton, or chemicals can all cause allergic reactions in cats and dogs.
How to Assist your Pet with Environmental Allergies
First of all, if you think that your pet has started excessively scratching, losing patches of hair or showing other signs of an allergy, you should take them to your local veterinary clinic for a check-up. This will help to rule out other health-related conditions. Your vet can also give advice on how to protect your pet from exposure to more allergens.
Here are some ways that you can reduce your pet’s exposure to allergens in the home.
Air quality
Dogs and cats have very sensitive noses and therefore they are more sensitive to toxins in the air that we humans are. You could switch to using non-toxic household cleaners and other hypoallergenic chemicals to clean your home.
An air purifier can also help to improve air quality and reduce environmental allergens in the air.
Proper immunizations
While it’s necessary to immunize your pet against a number of diseases like distemper, hepatitis, rabies, and other diseases, many vaccinations may not be necessary. Of course, you vet will advise you on which vaccinations are required for your pet.
However, many unnecessary vaccines for your pet could stimulate the immune system too much and trigger allergic reactions.
Also, many flea and tick prevention treatments can cause allergic reactions in pets. Therefore, you could switch to natural ways to prevent fleas and ticks.
Bathe regularly
Bathing your dog or cat is one of the best ways to remove allergens from their fur. In fact, bathing, or “irrigation therapy,” can give your pet immediate relief from an allergic reaction caused by chemical irritants.
Observe your pet
If you still have difficulty identifying the source of your pet’s allergy, it’s important to try and observe your pet. For example, when does your pet show signs of the allergy? Does it happen just after you have cleaned the house? Have your changed their food? Have you been using new chemicals in your garden?
To improve the life quality of your pet, it’s important to do everything possible to eliminate environmental allergens from your home. Some simple changes to the chemicals you use around the home or improving air quality may be all you need to do to remedy environmental allergic reactions in your pet.