Managing Your Pet's
Skin Conditions

Helpful Tips

Environmental allergies are the most common skin conditions and are most often chronic. This means they demand lifelong management and often require a multi-modal approach. You probably won’t be aiming for a cure but rather to reduce the frequency, intensity and duration of flare-ups.

Ideally, you want your pet to avoid the allergens completely, but this is not always possible. A vet will often recommend some or all of the following:

1. Tick and flea control needs to be meticulous and is vital.
2. Medication:
   • Immunosuppressive medication, such as cortisone or even stronger options but these can have serious side effects
   • Antibiotics to treat skin infections
   • Antihistamines to reduce itching
3. Nutrition.

   For Adult Dogs and Puppies:

   Hill’s Prescription Diet Derm Complete is the only clinically proven nutrition for both food and environmental allergies.¹ It's a novel protein diet made with egg, which avoids 96% of food allergies in dogs.²

   For Cats:

   Prescription Diet z/d is suitable for managing skin conditions caused by food allergies.

4. Topical treatments as recommended by your vet, such as medicated shampoos, dips and ointments.

Nutrition

 

Itch relief

 

Antiparasitics

 

Antibiotics

 

Shampoo

 

Topicals

 

References:

1. O’Neill DG et al. Prevalence of Disorders Recorded in Dogs Attending Primary-Care Veterinary Practices in England. Plos One 9(3): e90501.
2. Mueller RS, Olivry T, Prélaud P. Critically appraised topic on adverse food reactions of companion animals (2): common food allergen sources in
   dogs and cats. BMC Vet Res. 2016;12:9.