What is a contact allergy in dogs?

Contact allergies refer to the primary allergies that dogs have when they're walking around or laying down in your house. Some dogs are allergic to house dust mites, and they're everywhere. No matter how clean your home is, you have house dust mites. And you probably have some mold there too. So the dog is exposed to them on their skin, and the antigens of these substances penetrate through the skin, and the dog's body creates what is essentially an over-response. And that's going to cause the histamine release, which causes the itching and discomfort for your dog.

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.

Contact allergies are things that a dog comes into contact with within the environment that triggers a certain reaction. When some dogs come in contact with particular things, it causes a certain type of allergic reaction that leads to hives, facial swelling, sometimes vomiting and diarrhea, or even in, in severe cases, collapse. It can be really dangerous. That's one class of allergies. Another type of contact allergy won't cause such severe hypersensitivity, but it can cause the immune system to respond abnormally, leading to inflammation and secondary infection. That type of allergy is what we typically see in allergic dogs.

A contact allergy is when a dog is lying on maybe a surface that has something that they're reacting to. The most common would be a detergent or maybe a chemical that was sprayed in the environment. They're just laying on it for long periods of time, and their skin starts to have a reaction from being in contact with that allergen. It's not very common.

A contact allergy is when they've lain on something or sat on something that's very irritating to their skin.