Dogs and Allergies - by A Vet and Her Bully

If your dog’s been licking their paws, scratching, or battling those frustrating ear infections — you’re definitely not alone. We’ve had so many messages lately about allergies, so this week we reached out to someone who truly gets it.

Meet Gabriela, a brilliant vet and proud XL Bully mum to Iris 🐶💛.She kindly took the time to share her honest, vet-approved advice — not just from the perspective of a professional, but as someone living it day-to-day with her own pup.

From treatments and diet trials to what actually worked for Iris, her insights are a must-read for anyone dealing with itchy paws and allergy flare-ups.

Here’s what she had to say 👇

Disclaimer: Legally, I (Gabriela) can only prescribe medications to my own patients (the ones under my care, at work) – the purpose of this article is educating dog owners – it is your responsibility to discuss with your Vet.

Symptoms: recurrent ear ‘infections’, licking the paws, scratching, losing fur – when all the other possible causes have been excluded (for example: fleas, foreign body inside the ear or paw, underlying diseases such as hypothyroidism, Cushing’s disease etc).

At the moment there is no specific ‘cure’ to stop the symptoms completely, so the most important is to establish an ongoing management plan hoping to keep allergies under control as much as possible.

Luckily, there are many options – sadly, none of them will completely avoid a flare-up every now and then!

1. Steroids (Prednisolone tablets) – personally, I would only use this as a ‘worst case scenario’; due to possible side effects, especially as long-term management: immunosuppression (making the body less able to fight other diseases when needed, like infections), this medication is also contraindicated for those patients who already have kidney disease or diabetes; they will also cause an increase in appetite, thirst and urination – monitoring general profile blood tests are highly advisable every 3–6 months;

2. Apoquel tablets – the way I describe this medication to my clients is ‘a little safer than steroids’ – it should be started at a loading phase (2 weeks, twice daily), followed by maintenance phase (once daily) – possible side effects also include immunosuppression, making the dogs more prone to skin infections and even neoplasia (the ‘C’ word) – this drug is contraindicated for dogs who already have a history of neoplasia (any cancerous lump, for example) – monitoring general profile blood tests are highly advisable every 3–6 months as well;

3. Cytopoint injections – based on my experience, this is what I would first try (my own dog has been on this medication for a few years, until it stopped working!) – it is supposed to be very safe, rare side effects have been reported (continue reading for guidance on this matter!) – there are some rare cases when it does not work, however it is very effective most of the time; minimum gap between injections is 4 weeks, although it is not wrong to use it less often – my advice to my clients is to give us a call and book the next injection when the symptoms appear again (but not less than 4 weeks from the previous injection);

4. Allergy testing/Immunotherapy – the newest one is called PAX (from Nextmune) and it should be more accurate than the previous ones, they say to trust the environmental results but still not completely sure about the food ones (during the course, the speaker said to only trust the negative results regarding the food panel, but not the positive ones) – the injections protocol is quite easy, but it might take 6–9 months to see results;

5. Diet trial – this should be hypoallergenic, but please be aware: not any food that is labelled as such is medically hypoallergenic – as it must be hydrolysed protein, such as: Hills Z/D, Royal Canin Hypoallergenic, Purina Hypoallergenic, Virbac Hypoallergenic – they have dry or wet, you could use both options if that helps, but the trial must be strict, for at least 8 weeks, some other studies say even 12 weeks (yes, I know, not giving treats to your cute baby is incredibly difficult!);

6. Cyclosporine – named ‘Atopica’ as the licensed drug for dogs, which is also an immunosuppressant, regular blood tests are also required; I will not go into further details at this stage, as dogs rarely need this medication for allergies, in my experience;

7. Supplements – I couldn’t say which one is best, with my own dog I have seen improvement since we have been using Omni, however she is also on immunotherapy injections – I know there are many options, I don’t think it’s wrong trying some of them, but please check with your Vet first – it would be PAWsome if your dog’s allergies would be well controlled only on supplements!

I do want to mention ‘grain free’ diets in this article as well, as sadly many people think they are ‘the best of the best’ – unfortunately, as Vet professionals, we are aware of so many other studies that are not ‘advertised’ to the general public: although there is no official study to fully confirm this, there are multiple other studies and articles showing that grain free diets might make the pets more prone to develop heart disease, this is usually caused by a lack of taurine; so, unless they are truly allergic to grain, I would avoid these as much as possible.

Generally speaking, for any drugs, the datasheets are available online, on ‘Noah Compendium’ – including literally everything about each medication, a truly reliable source – I hope one day everyone will check there before listening to random advice elsewhere!

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Let’s give a huge thank you to Gabriela and her beautiful XL Bully, Iris for taking the time to share this with us 🐾💛

If your pup struggles with allergies, we hope this has helped you feel a little more informed — and a little less alone.Have a question you’d love us to ask the vet next? Or something you’d like support on for a future Supportive Sunday?👇 Drop it in the comments below — we’d love to hear from you!