The ones that I've just mentioned. Cortisone is safe, but I have to admit, we cannot use it regularly. It's a powerful drug, but it's a great drug, but it does come with some side effects, so we do have to use it cautiously. The second is Apoquel. The Apoquel tablets that I mentioned are great for managing allergies. It doesn't work with every dog, but it can be a great resource. And third is Cytopoint. Cytopoint is an injection. We do have to see them for the injection, but it works with a vast majority of dogs. I love the way it works with virtually no side effects. Those are the first three things I'm going to at least consider depending on what I see with the pet in front of me. At home, if you don't have anything else and you want to try one of the over-the-counter antihistamines, you can try Benadryl, Allegra, Claratin, or Zyrtec. They are safe. Obviously, safety is the issue here, but they just don't work well. If you want to try them, I have dosages on one of our handouts. Keep your expectations low. But the bare-bones minimum is to bathe them. If you have nothing else that you can start with, get them in the tub. If you're not able to bathe your dog, take a wet towel or wet cloth and hold it onto your dog in those itchy areas. It's only going to last for a short while, but it's better than nothing. Hopefully, that'll give you some tips on things you can try before you get them to us. Anything to keep your dog from being uncomfortable because these dogs are really miserable when they have allergies.

First, get rid of the fleas. It's pretty simple. It's so easy nowadays, but please don't run over to Walmart, Costco, Sam's club, or pet stores to buy your flea products. What most pet stores are using is either Frontline, which you probably heard of before, which is now a 30-year-old product, or a generic version of Frontline. We have products that do a beautiful job of taking care of fleas. They're much safer and light years more effective. The two that we generally reach for dogs are Bravecto, which is a three-month or one-month product, and Simparica, which is a one-month product. We also have two heartworm medications that also incorporate flea protection. One of those is the Simparica trio. It's for heartworm, fleas, and ticks. Then we have Trifexus, which is for heartworms and fleas. We have another one called Advantage Multi, which is a topical product for heartworms and fleas. As far as what we can do to try to help treat your pets goes, once they have them, first get rid of them. That's crucial. It will be an ongoing issue if you don't get rid of the problem. What you can do in a pinch is give them a bath, and please don't use Dawn. Although if you don't have anything else and want to try it, that's fine. Just don't make a habit of using Dawn. It's for your dishes. It's not for your pets. You do not need to go out and even get a flea shampoo. Simply bathe your dog. Any shampoo will be able to wash off some of the fleas. That's definitely going to make a big difference. But first, at least take the fleas out of the environment, and give them some relief with a bath. Sometimes, if they're really itchy, you can go to the local pharmacy and get a cortisone spray for itching that can work in a pinch. Otherwise, a lot of these dogs come in and are absolutely miserable. They've ripped all or a lot of the hair out, their skin is raw and oozing, and we definitely need to see them. We will typically reach for a cortisone injection, or we can use Cytopoint or Apoquel. I like to use cortisone because it works effectively. It works for about three to five weeks, allowing that skin to start healing. Those are the best ways to try to treat or manage those dogs with flea problems.

First, let's identify. There are four different types of allergies we see. In order, the most common ones we see are seasonal allergies followed by indoor or what we call environmental allergies. The third would be food allergies, and the least common, surprisingly to most people, are flea allergies. The treatments depend on what the allergy is. If it's fleas, we have to get the appropriate flea medication. If it's food, we're going to try to identify what the source of the food is and then change the diet and get away from that ingredient. When it comes to seasonal and indoor allergens, it becomes a lot more complex mainly because we want to identify the season or seasons of the year causing the problem or if it's a year-round problem. There are lots of ways we can try to manage those problems. We generally have three different medications we'll commonly reach for. One is cortisone, or what we call Kenalog. That's an injection that we commonly give. Many veterinarians use prednisone tablets. Perhaps you've had an experience with prednisone or prednisolone to manage allergies. The newer products we've had for 6, 7, 8 years now. One is called Apoquel, and the other's called Cytopoint. Apoquel is a tablet, and Cytopoint is an injection. They don't have the side effects that cortisone does, so it makes them a great choice. We have to see the pets in order to decide what's going to be the best course of action to try to manage or treat the allergies.

It depends on your groomer, and I mean that sincerely. In most cases, depending on the degree or the nature of the behavior problem, if it's an aggression problem, then yes. That's going to be a huge challenge for groomers. They are not trained for that. They're groomers. What I would suggest, however, is some veterinary clinics that do have some in-house grooming and would be the best resource. The reason is that at those veterinary clinics, they can provide some supervised sedation for those pets. Whereas that's not the case at your typical grooming facility, veterinary clinics can do it. Trying to find a veterinary clinic that also offers grooming might be a little bit of a challenge, but that would be a discussion to have with your groomer prior to bringing a new dog. Don't let them discover that your dog is aggressive the hard way.

Yes, absolutely. Your dog should be on flea control, whether they go to the groomer or not. We do see fleas outside for nine months out of the year in this area. Fleas will live inside the other three months out of the year, meaning January, February, and March. Typically from April all the way to December, we do see fleas. You don't want your dogs to have fleas in the first place, and the groomer sure as heck doesn't want you bringing a flea-infested dog into their facility. Even though they would be able to bathe your dog, they may or may not have flea products. That's not what they're there for. The good news is we've got great flea products. We can take care of that problem. With vaccinations, there are a couple of considerations. Rabies, of course, is required by law. That's a given, and I promise you, every groomer will want to ensure that your dog is vaccinated for rabies. Why is that? Quite simply because people can get rabies as well. This is not just a dog or a cat problem. This is potentially a people problem as well. That's why it's mandated that every dog and cat be vaccinated for rabies. Horses too. They're vaccinated for rabies as well, for those of you who have horses.

For the other vaccines, we recommend distemper parvo for every dog and cat because it does not require contact with another dog to get the distemper and parvo. Lastly, the other one we strongly recommend is the Bordetella vaccine. Most groomers won't require a distemper parvo or the Bordetella because there's no human contagion with those. However, there is a high risk of transmission from one dog to another dog, even if they're not in direct contact with one another. If your kid is a kindergartner and two or three kids are coughing and sneezing, you probably don't want to take them to school that day because they're going to come down with something. The same thing goes for if somebody unknowingly takes their dog to a groomer and they might have an upper respiratory infection or kennel cough of some sort. They can easily spread it to the other dogs in the facility, even if they're not in direct contact. So, by all means, I highly recommend the distemper parvo as well as the Bordetella vaccine. And, of course, the rabies vaccine is required by law.

As far as getting a bath at home goes, it is up to you. Often, a lot of dogs just don't cooperate, and what should be a 20, or 25-minute experience turns into an hour circus. Nobody wins in that situation. Your dog's traumatized, and you're traumatized. No, don't do it. It's just easier to try to take them someplace else to be bathed. We often find that sometimes just getting your dog out of the environment helps. Maybe take them to a local farm supply or feed store, someplace where they do have do-it-yourself bathing. We have a couple of locations where that is available, and a lot of people love to take advantage of that because they don't have to destroy their own bathrooms and get them all wet, and dogs are shaking all over the place. Let them do it someplace else, not in your house. During the summertime, do it outside if you need to. But as far as the mechanics of actually doing it goes, it really boils down to if your dog cooperates or not. If they do great, try it yourself. If not, by all means, take them to a groomer. Especially if you are going to get a haircut, they will also be bathing them.

No. Contrary to the mythology that you hear or read on the internet or hear from a lot of veterinarians, there isn't a "too often" to bathe your pet. Think about it. You get the Labrador that goes into the water every day. Is that too much? No, not at all. What does matter if you're going to be bathing your pet is the shampoo. There are different shampoos for different purposes. We would have some shampoos for dogs with excessively oily skin, for example, if we had a Cocker spaniel with an oily texture to the coat. We want to dry those dogs out somehow. We want to degrease and get some of the oils out. But in general, the vast majority of the shampoos and the ones you would typically buy off the shelf, no, you could bath those dogs on a regular basis. There are a couple of considerations. We carry about three or four different shampoos for specific purposes. I have one that we use for general purposes. It's an aloe and oatmeal shampoo. You've got aloe in there, which is a skin moisturizer. The other component, oatmeal, has a little bit of an anti-itch benefit to it. You can bathe your dog every single day, and you're not going to dry their skin out if you use that combination.

I realize a lot of clients are not able to bathe their dogs with any regularity, and that's fine. Worst case scenario, you can at least take a wet cloth, not a pet wipe or not a baby wipe, a wet cloth, and just get your dog damp with a towel or a towelette. If you can do that regularly, at least that's something you can do to try to help with your dog's skin coat. You cannot bathe your dog too often if you're using an appropriate shampoo. Then it becomes a matter of how cooperative your dog is and how much time you have. If your dog isn't really cooperative with getting a bath, if it turns into a rodeo, I don't recommend it because everybody's exhausted from the experience. But if your dog likes to get in the shower with you, go for it. That's fine. Do it as often as you want to. I like an aloe oatmeal shampoo. It is the general shampoo that we do have other shampoos, uh, for specific, uh, health purposes for skin purposes.