Barrie’s Allandale Veterinary Hospital says pets don’t have to scratch that itch,
The Caplan Avenue facility hosted National Itch Check Day Saturday, featuring expert advice from veterinarians, educational exhibits, demonstrations and hospital tours—all focused on helping pet owners better understand allergies, itching and pet skin health.
Angie Schofield, Allandale Veterinary Hospital manager, said there was information on different kinds of allergies for dogs and cats.
“We find that there are lots of dogs and cats that are itchy, but their owners don’t realize why they’re itchy or that it’s getting excessive,” she said. “And they can get severe wounds and scabs on their skin if they continue to itch and scratch.
“It’s about learning about different kinds of itchiness and what medications or food can be helpful to make it a little bit more comfortable for our pets.”
Schofield said our pets can be itchy all year or it can just be seasonal, like people.
“But they react differently than we do,” she said. “Generally people get more of the respiratory symptoms, but dogs and cats do manifest more in the itchiness.”
So what is to be done?
“Some people use antihistamines, but we find that they are not as effective as they might be in people,” said Schofield. “There are different foods (chicken is one) that you can use to help mitigate the allergies and there’s also medication, that they can take daily or have injections to help stop the itchiness.”
Also at Saturday’s event, veterinarians were to be available throughout the day to talk about common skin conditions, summer allergies and when pet owners should seek veterinary care.
