Labrador Allergies: What To Look For
Labrador allergies related to food need some detective work on your part. If your Labrador starts to scratch constantly then you know it is suffering from an allergy. Labradors do shed a lot but if hair starts to fall out in clumps and you see red or exposed skin then you know it has an allergy. The only problem is that all allergies, whether food or contact, manifest in itchy skin. The same way a human might have a runny nose when they are allergic to pollen a dog will have itchy skin when it is allergic to something.
Without allergy testing a vet will not be able to diagnose the problem and will only be able to medicate your dog to treat the symptoms. This is not an ideal situation, as you don’t want your dog on steroids and other medications long term. Plus the scratching, chewing, and licking that your dog does to alleviate the symptoms will only make things worse and expose it to bacterial infections. There are a few things you can do to cut down on exposure to allergens so that your dog is healthy.
Labrador allergies can result from several things including food, environmental allergens, parasites and fleas. All these things can cause your Labrador to break out in hot spots, itchy lesions that appear after your dog has been chewing itself because of severe itchiness. You will be able to recognize the hot spots on your own but the underlying cause for hot spots is harder to find. Your vet will need to do this to give your Labrador care that it needs.
One of the more common causes of Labrador allergies is flea infestation and the vet can easily find out if fleas are the reason your dog has an allergic reaction. Even if your dog is usually inside it may still have fleas that you can bring in from outside. If fleas are not the problem then a skin scraping to determine if a parasitic problem is making your dog ill is the next step. If either of this is not the problem then allergy testing will have to be carried out, this is expensive but may be your only option to finding out what is wrong.
Labrador allergies are manageable once you know what the problem is. If it is an environmental factor then you can eliminate this factor from your home to solve the problem. If the problem is related to pollen then you can keep your dog indoors early in the morning and early in the evening.
Cheap pet foods that claim to have meat in them usually do not contain actual meat, instead they contain animal by products. This refers to heads, necks, intestines and other parts of the animal that are not consumed by humans. A lot of pet foods, especially dry food, are made up of wheat and soy. Wheat and soy cause allergic reactions in a lot of dogs, not just Labradors.
Providing the best Labrador care for your dog means avoiding these pet foods. You should also look for the list of ingredients and look out for chicken by products. Labrador allergies are known to be caused by pet foods with chicken by products.
Other allergens such as molds, grass, trees and sometimes other animals, are not so easy to avoid. In this case your pet will need regular injections to boost its immune system to fight the allergies.
