Love Is In The Air And So Are Allergies

February 13, 2025

Sprinting through grassy meadows, rolling around on flower-filled hills, and playing in the breezy spring air may seem like a dream for your pet, especially following the chill of winter. But the incoming season brings with it much more than the beauty that the winter season stripped away; it also opens a season of allergies — and itching — that can have your pets preferring the great indoors.

Dr. Christina Gentry, a clinical assistant professor at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, prepares owners for the symptoms and necessary remedies of seasonal allergies that are on the horizon.

Look What The Wind Blew In

When the warming weather begins luring owners and their pets outside for walks, it’s important to remember that spring outings expose pets to an influx of allergens that can affect their furry friends’ health.

“In general, at least 10% of the canine population are known to suffer from allergy season,” Gentry said. “This time frame usually coincides with the spring season, as the trees start releasing pollen around Valentine’s Day each year.”

Some of the environmental allergens your pet may encounter in the wild include tree, grass, and weed pollens as well as outdoor molds. While many people associate environmental allergens with the outdoors, they can also exist within your home, in the form of house dust mites and storage mites, which are prevalent year round; the effect of multiple allergen sources can sometimes make seasonal allergies even more extreme for pets. 

In addition, while seasonal allergies tend to peak when plants are in bloom, allergic reactions may persist even after blooming is over because allergens remain on the surfaces of grass and in the home environment, according to Gentry. 

Allergy season can also be extended because of how far allergens are able to travel with the wind.

“Allergens can move many miles,” Gentry said. “We typically think of pollen moving within a region, but there is documentation that red cedar allergens — the cause of winter-cedar fever — can move from north Texas/Oklahoma into Canada with the right wind directions.”

Non-Stop Irritation

Humans commonly react to allergies with upper respiratory signs such as sneezing and eye redness, but these reactionary symptoms are uncommon in dogs, according to Gentry. 

Instead, pets that are affected by seasonal allergies are frequently observed exhibiting the following symptoms:

• Itching
• Scratching
• Licking at the skin
• Biting and chewing at the skin
• Rubbing/rolling on grass, floors, and furniture
• Rear end scooting

“It is important to remember that dogs’ immune systems contact the allergens mainly via a skin route, with the respiratory system playing a much smaller role,” Gentry said. “This is why we see skin and ear signs in dogs with allergies much more commonly than respiratory signs.”

Searching For Relief

Because diagnosing allergies in companion animals can be quite difficult, veterinarians will often start by ruling out all other possible causes of an itch, such as parasites or food allergies.

If these allergens have been ruled out or are being concurrently managed, a veterinary dermatologist like Gentry will move onto allergy testing through methods such as performing a blood draw used for serum testing or an intradermal (into the skin) test after sedating the dog.

“This allows veterinarians to create immunotherapy injections or prescribe oral immunotherapy in order to best combat the effects of the allergy,” she said. “Other tests that are available online using hair or saliva are not accurate and are not recommended in reference to pet allergies.”

Mark Your Calendar

With avoidance of allergens being nearly impossible, since common allergens can be found both indoors and outdoors, the first step in managing seasonal allergies is keeping watch for clinical signs.

“Based on a pet’s history, an owner may already know that the dog has allergies every spring/summer and they should create a proactive strategy with their veterinarian to limit the severity of the clinical signs,” Gentry said.

Gentry also recommends bathing affected pets one to two times per week with a shampoo specified by the pet’s veterinarian to decrease allergen accumulation on the coat. 

“Owners should contact their veterinarian if there are any clinical signs associated with allergy, but especially if there is hair loss, odor, or redness to the skin, as this may indicate a skin infection that is secondary to the allergic skin inflammation,” Gentry said.

By staying on top of bathing and any other prescribed medications, owners can help ensure their pets’ spring is as painless — and itchless — as possible.

Pet Talk is a service of the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University. Stories can be viewed on the web at vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk. Suggestions for future topics may be directed to vmbs-editor@tamu.edu.

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