Do dogs suffer from seasonal allergies?

For sure. We have dogs that I would notice in their chart that every September, they come in. And that's because we're going to have certain things bloom or pollinate during that time of year. And so that dog might be highly allergic to that thing. And I always tell people your dog may be allergic to numerous things. And as long as they stay in low amounts in the environment, it's not a problem. But as they increase, you're going to start to see symptoms. And as they decrease, the symptoms will begin to go away. And what we're going to do is we're going to help that dog during that peak time when they're having issues in the season with topical therapies and oral medications, making sure that we have the infections under control. And for those reasons, you do need to work with your veterinarian to make sure you're on the best treatment plan, so your dog can feel comfortable and you can all sleep well at night.

They do. Most of the time, it will be spring and fall, but some animals also have problems all year long. They will have those allergies just like whenever we have sinus infections, our watery eyes, a snotty nose, and possibly an ear infection that comes up, or they will be scratching their belly or chewing their paws.

Absolutely. That is actually the most common allergy we see when dealing with skin allergies in dogs. Humans would typically react to various things in the environment, such as pollen, and dogs would as well. Their immune systems react by causing inflammation in the skin. That disruption of the skin barrier leads to secondary infections in most cases.

We see seasonal allergies a lot. The complicating thing is that it'll just be seasonal in a lot of dogs because they're allergic to certain things determined by the season. But just because your dog has issues multiple times throughout the year or sometimes year-round doesn't mean that it's not "seasonal." By "seasonal," we mean environmental allergies. Because some dogs are allergic to so many things and the consequences are so severe, they will still have problems throughout the year, not just in the spring or summer. So it's not as clear-cut in that regard.

Yes, they are allergic to things through the different seasons. In spring, we have all the flowers blooming. We have all those grasses pollinating. In the summer, we have a lot of moisture and mold. Everything is still blooming out there. In the fall, we get the dying grasses and trees, and we have more mold. In wintertime, animals are coming in more, so there are indoor allergies to things that might be indoors. Seasonal allergies are the most common allergy that we see in our dog patients.

Dogs can suffer from seasonal allergies. It's a little bit more difficult here in Florida since we don't have as many seasonal changes.