First off, I'm not a huge fan of topicals in dogs. We use them periodically. Dogs are great lickers, and when they lick, they remove the topical, and it may or may not be healthy for them, and that is usually the case. The other thing is when you apply a topical to a bothersome area, it just draws their attention to it even more. It's like if you have poison Ivy and you scratch it, it itches worse because you drew attention to it. So I'm not a big fan of topical. However, I'm a huge fan of the omega three and omega six fatty acids, which can help to supplement the skin's protective barrier and helps to take away inflammation. They need to be formulated for pets, and there are some good products out there. The Bayer free form is my favorite, and I feel like it's the most effective. But use one specifically made for dogs. CBD is becoming a question more and more for us. Unfortunately, here in North Carolina, we really can't comment on CBD. We're not even allowed to legally. Let's just say that nothing I have read has shown me that it can help with skin issues, but the jury's still out. There's a lot of research still to be done. People think coconut oil and CBD cure everything, so just try it. We don't really recommend that.

One of the best things is just good grooming. We see lots of skin issues that can be prevented by just keeping your pet combed out, keeping the mats down, keeping the coat clean, and bathing with something like an aloe and oatmeal shampoo, which tends to be very safe, cleaning your dog's ears, not letting drainage occur or build up around the eyes. Some general maintenance can keep a lot of these issues from ever occurring. Personal hygiene and the products you use make a difference, but we'll get onto that.

Depending on the severity, dermatitis can be anywhere from uncomfortable to very painful. A hotspot that many people have heard of is acute moist dermatitis. It's a very inflamed area that oozes and becomes infected, and yes, those are very painful for dogs. I frequently treat those with anti-inflammatories and pain medicines, and sometimes sedatives because those dogs are so uncomfortable. So yes, dermatitis can be very stressful and very painful. They come up very quickly, and the itch is just so bad that the dog makes the problem worse. Something starts it, and they scratch it, and it makes it worse, and it's just a downward spiral cycle.

If you suspect your dog has skin issues, whether it's an infection, irritation, or anything questionable that you find on his or her skin, please call us for an appointment. You can avoid needless suffering for your dog, and it can be a rather long intensive treatment process sometimes, but proper diagnosis can often cure or alleviate some skin issues pretty quickly. The longer the skin condition continues, the worse and the more involved it can become, and the harder it is to treat.

Contact is obviously just touching something. I touch Kyle, and if I'm allergic to Kyle, I'll get an inflammatory response right here. This is like a chemical burn, or I tell people, even something like an ant bite could be considered contact dermatitis. It occurs acutely as opposed to what we call atopy or pollen allergies that occur over time.

Flea allergy dermatitis, fortunately, is becoming a lesser concern for us because flea products nowadays are so good. When a flea bites, they inject a small amount of saliva with an anticoagulant. The anticoagulant keeps the blood from clotting so that the flea can take its blood meal. Some of the saliva stays behind, and many dogs are allergic to the saliva. So a flea bite causes a dog to itch and can cause him to itch for days or weeks. That's what flea allergy dermatitis is. It's actually not an allergy to fleas, but the flea saliva, and those dogs need flea control, and usually, something to help with inflammation. Who would have thought a flea has enough saliva to cause a problem in a larger animal?

Food allergy dermatitis is a little more specific. A dog who has food allergy dermatitis has skin problems due to the diet they're eating. When I talk to people about food allergies, it's not that their dog has a problem with Purina, Hills, Science Diet, or Blue. It is the allergen. It's beef, chicken, corn, wheat, soy, or something in the food they're having a problem with.

Many people want to change foods because they think their dog has a food allergy. Well, I'll be honest, most of the over-the-counter foods are very similar, and it's hard to diagnose food allergies that way. So we do this with what we call novel protein diets, alligator and green pea diets, kangaroo and potato, and duck is frequently used. It's allergen sources the dogs never had before, so they really can't be allergic to it. We also use hydrolyzed proteins, which is chicken, and your dog may be allergic to chicken, but they've broken the chicken into such small pieces, hydrolyzed the proteins so that the dog's body no longer understands it's eating chicken. So it can't be allergic to it. So there are special ways to go about that as we work through food allergy dermatitis.

Food allergy testing is really difficult because you have to feed that novel protein and nothing else because there are food allergy tests out there that are crappy tests. They're a waste of people's money. I don't do them. When we do food allergy testing, we're actually doing food allergy trials, which means we put the dog on one of these specific foods and nothing but that food for six weeks, no cheating. No McDonald's French fry, nothing from the table, and no dog treats. Nothing but this food for six weeks. And if they get better, they are food allergic. That's a tough test, though. Few can pass it, and it's not the dogs that determine that usually.