A Holistic Approach to Managing Your Pet’s Allergies

A holistic treatment focuses on every aspect of the pet's overall physical and mental health. The holistic approach aims to eliminate the symptoms by first identifying and treating the root cause behind those symptoms.

So in order to reduce allergic reactions like itchy skin, holistic treatments focus on removing the source of those symptoms instead of merely treating them. This is a temporary fix that doesn't always come with a long-term solution.

Most pet allergies are due to either food allergies or environmental allergies and when allergy symptoms develop, your pet can become extremely uncomfortable. Now it's important to find out what triggered the allergic reaction and how to remove it. This will often require natural remedies that have their origins in traditional chinese medicine and herbal medicines that contain anti-inflammatory properties and won't upset your pet's digestive system.

Pet owners want their pets to be healthy and happy and, when it comes to pet health and wellness, the holistic approach is often the fastest way to provide relief for all kinds of common and not-so-common allergy symptoms.

Holistic Treatment for Pets

Whether it's seasonal allergies, allergic reactions to food, or environmental allergens making your pet miserable, the source of those allergy symptoms could be related to other physical or mental conditions. If your pet is experiencing skin lesions, hair loss, or other types of skin issues and inflammation, even ear infections, all of these may be playing a significant role in your pet's immune system response and negatively impacting your four-legged friend's health and well-being.

Taking the holistic approach to implementing a treatment plan that is truly effective means adopting a different view towards veterinary care and the actions taken to examine, diagnose, and develop the best strategy for addressing the issue:

Treat the Cause, Not Just the Symptoms

Conventional veterinary care typically treats the symptoms that are being experienced by the pet instead of identifying and eliminating the source that has triggered those symptoms. When it comes to providing allergy relief to the pet, a quick fix treatment like a topical spray, steroids, or a special medicated bath will only provide temporary relief if the reason for the itching, respiratory tract issues, and other painful skin issues and inflammation isn't determined.

Your pet's body may be showing signs of a larger problem that needs to be addressed, it might have something to do with your pet's food or your pet is lacking a vital nutrient that can be introduced through a series of supplements.

But even natural remedies are only effective if you know which remedies to incorporate into the treatment regimen and the best way to do that is diagnose what's causing the allergic reactions or allergy symptoms. A weak immune system or environmental allergies could be the culprit. It's important to know what is causing the problem so you can eliminate that instead of just masking the ailment with symptom relief.

Conventional Prescriptions are Not Always the Best Medicine

Holistic treatment often requires natural remedies to support a balanced immune system response and provide long-term relief from the cause of your pet's allergic reactions. Antibiotics and prescriptions for strong medication could be adding insult to injury, especially when treating chronic conditions. This could lead to your pet becoming over-medicated and, in the case of year round allergies, long-term conventional medication treatments such as steroids or immunosuppressants could be impractical solutions. It may be dangerous to continue exposing your pet to such harsh chemicals and compounds on a routine basis, due to side effects that may give your pet more discomfort, digestive tract issues, and a weakening of their immune system that makes them more susceptible to other health problems.

An alternative to conventional veterinary medicine are herbal options and treatments such as massage and acupuncture that are healthier in the long run and often provide more effective relief for treating the cause of the condition instead of just the symptoms that have emerged because of it.

For instance, acupuncture can be highly beneficial for treating a wide range of food allergies in dogs and environmental allergies that are affecting your pet's quality of life.

Herbal Remedies

Vitamin supplements could be useful as well as a change in diet, particularly if the allergic reactions are food-related. But there are also many types of herbal remedies that can give your pet the relief from the cause of these allergies. Medicinal mushrooms offer a variety of properties to curb allergic reactions, licorice root can provide an anti-inflammatory response for itching and skin irritation due to allergies, and nettle is an ideal solution to decrease histamine production and reduce inflammation brought on by allergens that trigger itchy skin and hot spots. Any allergy treatment supplement program should also include ingredients that help to modulate the immune system, such as quercetin or phytosterols, since allergies are essentially caused by an overactive immune system.

These natural remedies have all been shown to provide pets with relief from chronic allergies.

Holistic Treatments and Your Pet's Quality of Life

The holistic approach to your pet’s allergies relies on a wide-ranging approach to your pet’s overall health as these allergic reactions could be a sign of a larger, more prevalent problem that may not be a dietary issue or an environmental one. Consider your pet’s home life, the stress levels that you or your pet are dealing with on a regular basis, the level of activity and exercise that your pet is getting each day, because all of these along with any physical health challenges that may be presented by your pet combine to paint a full and complete picture of your pet.

When every aspect of your pet’s well-being is considered, that holistic approach to diagnosing the pet’s allergies can be far more impactful and effective for not only identifying the root cause of the condition but curing it so the symptoms don’t return again in the future.

This will make for a much happier pet and your worries will be put at ease too. We all love our pets so much, we want to do everything we can to make their lives better.

That’s what holistic veterinary care offers and it can often be the most useful solution for managing your pet’s allergies.