SPECTRUM ALLERGY TREATMENT
The Spectrum Advantage
Proudly Tested Over 1 Million Pets Since 1989
Spectrum Veterinary isn’t just known for its accurate allergy testing but has also made a name for our comprehensive approach to treatment. Since there is no known “cure” for allergies and the prospect of avoiding all the things your patients react to is unrealistic, we turn to hypo-sensitization to help us most effectively manage animal’s allergies.
Elimination of allergens
The elimination of allergens aims to completely avoid contact with the allergens. This method is the fastest way to get results, but is often not an option; this is certainly the case if there is hypersensitivity for multiple antigens or in the case of hypersensitivity to grass, tree pollen or house dust mite which are very difficult (if not impossible) to avoid, for example.
Symptomatic Treatment
The group of drugs that are used to treat only the symptoms of the allergy is called symptomatic medications. Examples of this type of medications are antihistamines and corticosteroids.
Duration of effectiveness
Drugs to treat the inflammation, such as corticosteroids (prednisolone) and cyclosporine, are excellent at suppressing the allergic reaction. However, these medicines do have significant disadvantages, especially when they have to be given as long-term therapy over an animal’s lifetime as is the case with allergies. For that reason, it is advisable only to administer these medications for short periods.
Corticosteroids and antihistamines
Antihistamines are not very effective in dogs: 10-15% effectiveness.
Symptomatic therapies
Can be useful for the following categories of patients:
-Season-related atopy during only a few months every year.
-Animals of which one suspects the presence of Atopy, but in which the causal allergens cannot be identified also known as atopic-like dermatitis
Essential fatty acids
Essential fatty acids will help to optimize the coat of your animal and has an anti-inflammatory effect.
Immunotherapy
Allergen-specific immunotherapy tries to make the patient less sensitive or not sensitive at all to the substance to which it is allergic by injecting the animal with the allergens in increasingly larger doses and at increasingly longer intervals.
Patients that have symptoms for more than 3 months can be considered for allergen-specific immunotherapy. The pet parent needs to be made aware that this is a lifelong treatment, in which the animal is never completely cured, but rather the disorder is kept under control.
Results
The proportion of dogs that respond well to the treatment is about 75%1. It will take time for the treatment to have any noticable results.
Hyposensitization
Hyposensitization is the gold standard of medical treatment for some types of allergies. Our treatment sets are custom built based on your animal’s allergy profile, containing allergenic extract designed to gradually introduce your animal’s immune system to the offending allergens and increasing their tolerance. It is available in sublingual oral spray or subcutaneous injections.
Drops
Sublingual allergy drops are a great solution for pet parents who prefer a needle-free option and/or have animals that have had issues tolerating allergy injections in the past. Proper and consistent administration is key.
Injections
Each set contains 3 vials of increasing potency: green, blue, and red. It is important to note that allergy treatment requires lifelong maintenance, which consists of 1 injection per month. Compliance is the key to success with allergy injections! In order to help you remember when to give injections, be sure to download our App or build a custom calendar online.
How Does It Work?
Yes, Pet's CAN Have Allergies!
Spectrum’s allergy test, SPOT, is a laboratory-based serum allergy test performed under the supervision of a licensed Veterinarian. If you suspect your animal has allergies (related: list of symptoms), contact your Veterinarian to rule out any other possible diseases. If it is in fact allergies, you Veterinarian will draw a small amount of blood and ship it to tour labs in Phoenix, Arizona. Once a sample arrives at our labs, it is labeled and examined for quality. Then it is run through our proprietary testing where the blood is introduced to regionally specific allergenic extracts. Based on how the serum reacts when introduced to the extracts we are able to accurately pinpoint your animal’s allergies. Once we have completed the testing, the only safe, effective, and long-term allergy treatment works to not only increase an animal’s tolerance to offending allergens, but with Spectrum Veterinary, it also provides the convenience of a steroid-independent testing methodology. This allows us to keep the animal comfortable during the diagnostic phase until such time as hyposensitization treatment begins.
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