Food allergies are relatively common. We'll go over the detailed history and see if your dog has had skin and ear issues before. Then we will also go over what the diet is typically for your dog. Usually, it's going to be based upon the history and then also doing a food trial. Switching your food around will not cause an instant change. It takes a good eight to 12 weeks for your dog to have all those proteins taken out of their system. We see if your dog will respond by switching your dog's food up using over-the-counter dog foods. That's generally not going to cut it. It's usually prescription-type dog food, and they have to be on this food trial for eight to 12 weeks solely before we can say definitively that your dog has a food allergy.

A contact allergy is whenever your dog touches something that they have an allergic reaction to. That can be something on the floor like if you used a particular cleaner or even just like in people, they can be allergic to certain laundry detergents. It's something they have touched that causes them to break out.

Most of the time, it's going to be scratching, shaking their head, and discomfort as far as their skin or ears go, and those areas will also have redness to them.

They are a lot more common than you would think. If your dog’s scratching is occasional, that's pretty normal, but your dog should not be scratching nonstop. That is not a normal thing. We see at least a couple of patients a day that will have some type of allergy that we diagnose.

The most common things that we will see are your dog scratching, losing hair, red skin, chewing at their feet, and scratching their ears. Those are generally the most common types of things that we'll see.

They can be painful. I try to give the analogy of when we have had a vaccine. You're generally a little sore. The vaccine itself has a needle, so it is going to sting a little bit. Most dogs tolerate it pretty well. And especially if we can distract them with a treat, they don't tend to mind. But they will usually be a little sore and perhaps a little more tired than usual that day. But generally, after that, they bounce back.

As far as that goes, if your dog has had an allergic vaccine reaction before, we will generally give them a Benadryl injection and potentially even a pain injection to try and help minimize that as a possibility.

There can be, just like any vaccines that a human will get. There are risks associated with vaccines. But from our studies, the overall risks do not outweigh the benefits that the vaccines provide. And so, as far as the risks go, you're going to have the possibility of allergic reactions, swelling, or that can be things as far as an actual vaccine-type reaction that can cause some swelling and discomfort down the road. So, there are risks that you have to certainly keep in mind.