Seasonal Allergies Are Ruff: Have you tried a Whole-Body Solution?

Dealing With the Itchies

A Whole-Body Approach

Over the last 15 years, we experience an abundance of customers looking for solutions to deal with their itchy pet during the months of March and April. The winter thaw and the spring growth tend to correlate with an increase of skin issues, excessive itching and chewing in our pets.

More pet owners are choosing to investigate alternative approaches over traditional therapies recommended by veterinarians.

Veterinarians commonly recommend several types of medications to help manage allergy symptoms in pets:

• Antihistamines: These include diphenhydramine (Benadryl), cetirizine (Zyrtec), loratadine (Claritin), and hydroxyzine. They can help reduce itching and inflammation, though effectiveness varies among pets.
• Steroids: Prednisone and dexamethasone are often used for severe allergic reactions or flare-ups to suppress the immune response.
• Immunosuppressants: Apoquel (oclacitinib) and Atopica (cyclosporine) help control itching and inflammation by targeting the immune system.
• Biologic Therapy: Cytopoint is an injectable treatment that neutralizes a key component in the itch cycle, providing relief for weeks.

Apoquel and Cytopoint are two extremely popular pharma’s that more veterinarians are recommending. They can suppress symptoms. However, they do not address the underlying causes of the allergy symptoms.

So, what can we do as pet parents to naturally navigate the itchies?

1. Always supplement your pet’s food with an appropriate source of Omega 3. Not only is it good for eye health and brain health, but a good fish oil is also great for skin and coat while balancing off the overload of Omega 6’s from most of the food we feed our pets.
2. Minimize or eliminate carbohydrates in your pet’s diet. Cannot say enough about this. Dogs and cats thrive on a high protein diet that is appropriate for carnivores. All processed pet food has an excessive amount of carbs to keep the food shelf stable.
3. If your pet is experiencing health issues, try your best to stay away from unnecessary vaccinations. Vaccines can suppress the immune system and create more of a challenge to deal with the underlying issue.
4. Choose to deal with ticks and flea defence naturally. Putting pesticides into an unhealthy pet certainly does not help the matter. You can learn more about that HERE.
5. The gut is the control centre for the immune system. A healthy gut provides the best chance to ensure your pet’s immune system is working at peak performance. Supplementing with a good species-specific pre and pro biotic will certainly help.

Environmental Allergies

Environmental allergies are the trickiest to deal with. If you feel that your pet is reacting seasonally, then you may want to consider reviewing my past blogs on a whole-body approach to dealing with the symptoms of environmental issues. Start with first one HERE.  Then you can follow to part 2 and part 3.  You might find something in these blogs that make sense to you and your pet.

Histamine overload is the root cause of your pet’s allergic symptoms. Instead of using antihistamine drugs, we have several natural supplements that you can start with right away.

1. Raw Performance Itchy & Allergy. This supplement contains Quercetin. It is a plant-based natural antihistamine.
2. Earth MD Environmental Aid. The natural plant-based ingredients have been reported to function as antihistamines.
3. Local Bee Pollen Granules. When consumed regularly in tiny amounts, bee pollen may help desensitize the body to allergens, reducing allergic reactions over time.

Final Words

There are so many things in life that can cause our pets to have suppressed immune systems. Some things we cannot control, like genetics. Some things we can. The food we feed, when and how often we vaccinate, extensive use of anti-biotics and steroids, how we choose to protect our pets from fleas, ticks and mosquitos, the water they drink, the pesticides we may or may not use, the cleaning products in our house, and the list goes on.   Most of our pet’s immune system is in the gut and lower digestive tract. Focusing on the gut will go a long way to helping our pets live a long and comfortable life.

Remember, The Proof Is in The Poop!!!

This information is intended to provide information only. Each animal health situation is unique. This information is not intended for use in diagnosis or treatment of specific health problems or diseases and should never be considered as a substitute for veterinary advice.