A cat’s food allergy is a difficult thing to assess. Once it has been determined that a food allergy is the problem, the diet of the cat needs to be examined. Cats can be irritated by sarcoptic mange (scabies), fleas, and inhalation allergies (seasonal pollens for example) but a food allergy has been cited as one of the itchiest afflictions for a cat. Store-bought cat food tends to be seriously processed. Food colorings and a general lower quality of ingredients can play into this. A recent diet change can be also be the culprit. Most interesting however, is the fact that the determination of a food allergy can only really take place if all fleas are eradicated from the pet. A flea bite can at times produce a similar allergic reaction that of a food allergy.
There are several other factors that need to be discerned before a food allergy can be the “arrived upon” diagnosis. Cats will display their discomfort through unkempt hair, continual scratching of infected, crusty skin and possibly even recurring ear infections. Food allergies produce similar results to sarcoptic mange, and flea reactions, but they are a form of atopy. Atopy is characterized by irritation to areas of the body that hasn’t been in direct contact with the allergen. This is why it is very important to determine if the atopy is food related or inhalation related. Pollens, dust, and dust mites can all provide atopic dermatitis similar to that of a food allergy.
After eliminating the other potential irritants, the diet cat’s can now be adjusted. The next step is a hypoallergenic food trial. This is a four to eight week period of time where foods are fed to the cat in order to determine which produces the allergic reaction. During this period of time, if a food doesn’t bring about an adverse reaction, it is a good idea to adopt that food to the pet’s regular diet. Some suggest home cooking as a solution. The test diet can have home-cooked servings of chicken, fish and even tofu added as part of the attempt to determine the food allergy of a cat. There are also specialized foods available for purchase that help a cat owner determine food allergies. A cursory search of the Internet shows that there are specialized cat foods available in order to “mix-up” your cat’s diet and determine what works and what doesn’t work. Common meat products such as herring, turkey and chicken are available.
Sometimes a longer diet trial is needed. The ideas of a continuing inhalant allergy or a fresh round of scabies still being the culprit are things to consider. Furthermore, one has to be completely sure that the food that they are feeding to the cat is the only food that the cat is taking in. A cat’s food allergy is hard to determine, but with patience, and proper trial and error, it can be determined and your pet can be healthy in a relatively short amount of time.
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Posts Tagged ‘Allergen’
With over 6 million pet lovers opening their homes to birds for a total of approximately 16 million birds, and considering over 50 million people in the U.S. alone suffer with allergies, it’s not surprising that pet birds and allergies find themselves on a collision course. Here are some interesting facts about bird allergies that may help you or another bird lover who suffers from allergies.
It’s not the dander it’s what’s in it.—-Many believe that it is the dander, dust, and feathers that trigger allergic symptoms. The fact of the matter is that it is the protein in these particles that is the true allergen. Breathing these fine particles over a prolonged period of time can cause symptoms that range from mild to life threatening in severity.
Dried fecal material is bad news.—–Cleaning the cage daily reduces the amount of dried fecal particles that can be sent airborne due to daily activity by the bird and humans. It contains the same allergen that dander, and bird dust contain, all of which can carry viruses and bacteria airborne.
Most of these viruses have potential to affect birds more than humans, but there are diseases such as psittacosis that affect humans as well. Thorough and regularly cleaning seems a small price to maintain the health of both birds and humans.
Symptoms can change.—–There are some people who have been exposed to birds all their lives without problems. Then suddenly without warning they exhibit very definite signs of being allergic when in close contact with the bird. This is not totally unheard of, and should this happen, great care should be taken to avoid more serious health problems.
Wheezing can be a serious problem particularly if asthma is an existing condition. Shortness of breath and/or a constriction of the throat are all serious symptoms and medical attention should be sought immediately.
Normal development equals dander.—-As long as you have your bird, there will be dander, dust, feathers, and fecal material. These are all a natural part of your bird’s growth and development. So if your condition is so severe that you are unable to be around the bird, unless you undergo allergy shots to reduce your sensitivity to the allergen, you will need to limit your time with the bird.
These things can help reduce allergens.—One of the best ways to reduce the allergens that birds create is to filter the air. Try using a HEPA or high efficiency particle arresting vacuum that filters the air before sending it back into the room.
The same type of technology is available in air purifiers. By definition a cleaner that uses HEPA technology must be able to remove 99.97% of airborne allergens that are.3 microns or greater. This type of filter can easily remove bird dander, dust, dried fecal material and feathers from your air 24 hours a day in a cost effective way.
To clearly explain what the cause of allergy is to you, let me start with this one of the numerous examples of allergic reactions. A household animal, dog, was brought into a house. After three month the dog was brought in, mum begins to experience itchy nose and throat and episodes of sneezing. One of the children in the house also develops chest tightness and coughing, especially when the dog is in her bedroom. The rest of the household (dad and the rest of the children) have no reaction (allergy symptoms) to the presence of the dog irrespective of the degree of contact they have with the dog.
What happened was that, mum and one of the children in the house (in which dog was brought) were allergic or developed allergy toward a foreign substance on or in the dog. Thus, the manifestation of the allergy symptoms in the mum and one of the children. But dad and the rest of the children are not allergic or did not develop allergy to the presence of the dog. Foreign substances (such as that from the dog) are called antigen. Antigens are substances capable of triggering or causing production of antibodies.
The antibodies are produced from immune system. Immune system is a body’s organised defense system against foreign invaders (antigens), especially infectious agents. Antigens may lead or may not lead to an allergic reaction and the consequent allergy symptoms. Any antigen that causes allergy symptoms (or allergic reactions) is referred to as allergen. The function of immune system in our body is to mobilize its defensive components to the site of invasion or infection in order to destroy the intruders, the foreign substance (antigen or allergen if it causes allergy or allergy symptoms). The immune system destroys antigens or allergens in two ways. When the immune system components have contact with the antigens or allergens, they respond by producing antibodies or immunoglobulins (Ig) – the first way. There are five types of these antibodies – IgG, IgM, IgA, IgD, and IgE.
The function of the antibodies in the destruction of the invaders is to attach themselves to the surface of the foreign substances and thereby make the foreign substance easier for the immune cells to destroy- the second way immune system functions to destroy invaders. The function of the immune system described above is a normal process in everybody. In a person that is not allergic to an antigen, the antibodies are produced in normal quantities to successfully fight the foreign substance and there is no any development of any allergy symptoms. However in allergic person, IgE is produced in excessive amount in response to the same antigen and this result to the development of allergy symptoms. Not that the foreign substance or the antigen or the allergen will generally cause allergy in the human body, not that the substance is harmful by itself, it is just that in some people, in the process of immune systems getting rid of the antigens, there is overproduction of IgE antibody. Such people are said to be allergic to the substance. Overproduction of the IgE is called hypersensitivity.
A person who is allergic to an antigen or allergen doesn’t start manifesting allergy symptoms or allergic reaction immediately he or she is exposed to the allergens for the first time. It takes times, months to years, before one starts showing the manifestation of the allergy symptoms. The period between the first exposure to the allergen and the manifestation of the allergy symptoms is called sensitisation period. During the sensitisation period IgE is being overproduced. Also during this period, as the IgE is produced, the IgE will be coating certain explosive cells that contain degrading chemicals. After the sensitisation period, another exposure to the allergen (such as dog dander or allergen cited above) leads to reaction of the allergen with the immune cells already coated or sensitised with IgE. This results into the cells releasing the various chemicals they contain, such as histamine. These chemicals, in turn, cause inflammation and the typical allergy symptoms. This is how the immune system becomes exaggerated and move to cause an allergic reaction when stimulated by an allergen in individuals which are allergic to the allergen.
Dog allergies of all kinds are just as common in dogs as they are in humans. Dog skin allergies are one of the most common forms of allergies that you may experience. These allergies are characterized by having your pet chew, lick and paw at her itchy skin, her eyes and nose may have some sort of discharge (usually a clear discharge) and there may be digestive upsets involved. Skin lesions are another sign that your dog is probably suffering allergies of skin.
What Causes Dog Skin Allergies?
All allergies are a result of our immune system being hypersensitive to some sort of substance (which is referred to as an antigen or allergen). Dog skin allergies can show up at any point of your dog’s life, though they tend to come about during the first five years of your dog’s life.
The most common of the dog skin allergies involves dog fleas. The saliva of dog fleas will often cause the area of skin where the bite occurred to become incredibly itchy and irritating.
There are also atopic dog skin allergies, which is the result of your pet inhaling some sort of substance that does not agree with their immune system. These allergens are similar to the inhaled allergens that bother humans, such as dust, mold, dander, and pollen. This type of allergy usually is noticeable when your pet is quite young (under 6 months in age) The best way to try and stop atopic allergies is to keep your home and the area that the dog lives in very clean and well ventilated.
How are Dog Skin Allergies Diagnosed?
Where the skin lesions are present on the body will often help the veterinarian decide if your dog has an allergy or not. Your veterinarian may also put your dog on some sort of a flea medication, and different foods may be tried so as to rule out whether or not your dog is having a dog food allergy rather than an allergy of skin. Blood tests and allergy testing may also be involved in more complex cases.
How do you Treat dog Skin Allergies?
Unfortunately, allergies are very rarely “cured”; it’s more a matter of trying to control them and to keep them in check. Antihistamines as well as corticosteroids are popular ways to treat allergies, though some pet owners are also choosing “immunotherapy”. This type of therapy is a bit controversial as it is not guaranteed to work, though if it does, it will take up to 12 months to work properly.
Aspirin is the useful medication which is used in the patients for treatment by reducing the inflammations and pain. Originally it is derived from the plants extracts. Nowadays, aspirin is prepared up synthetically. numerous of alike artificial, non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory medicine with alike properties are as well available.
Well Aspirin allergy might occur due to various reasons from mild to the severe allergic reaction to aspirin could occur. The common Symptoms that may occur are flushing, blocked, itchy rashes, soft noses and sometimes severe difficulty while breathing or could cause asthma, generally in an hour of intake of the tablet. The treatment is possible but the Testing for the aspirin allergy is very difficult as why the allergic reaction to the aspirin and identical correlated pain-killers take place is very uncertain. Whereas there are no such dependable blood test and skin allergy test that has been confirmed to be so useful for excluding or confirming allergy to these medicine. The common and only method to do is to do the graded open confront under the strict checkup supervision. The Challenge checkup is not forever necessary but might sometimes be recommend to confirm that the sensitivity exist, or to show the security of the unrelated drug.
Most of the patients experience from the nasal polyps, aspirin allergy and asthma, a situation commonly known as aspirin triad. Most of the Aspirin allergy develops in the later years of life, even if previously it has been well tolerated. Frequently asthma is the later beginning as well and every sufferer might not be that allergic to the inhale allergen like the dust mite, moulds, animals and the pollens. Most of the Patients with this state produce the increased amount of leucotrienes. The Leucotrienes are the inflammatory chemical that is produced by the white cells which could increase the inflammation of the nose, lungs, and sinuses and may trigger up on the gooey noses and wheezing, As a result it worsens up to asthma and in the form of accelerated polyp growth.
If the aspirin has problematic results in the patients there are other medicines that might also be supportive we also come over the asthma medication known as the anti-leucotrienes as for example accolade, Singular that could also be used up in this circumstances. Unluckily, they are at present very expensive. The Side-effects of the aspirin desensitization could result in Stomach Irritation, bleeding at elevated doses, ulceration and Tinnitus “ringing of the ears are rare”, easy bruising are the common form.