What is contact allergy dermatitis and how is it treated?

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.

We don't see contact allergy dermatitis as much as we do the other forms of allergies. Contact allergies are primarily from either some sort of material or a plant that can cause an adverse reaction to the skin. The primary causes in dogs are drinking water or eating out of plastic or a stainless steel bowl, in which case, we recommend using a ceramic bowl. We generally see dogs with a lot of irritation around the face, nose, or chin. Those are common areas where contact allergy dermatitis from feeding bowls show up. Plants can also be responsible for contact allergies. We think of something like poison ivy. Obviously, we see a bad rash in people. It's possible to see that on a dog, but we generally don't see it nearly as often as in people.