In order to provide the best Havanese care for your precious puppy possible, you need to have a vet picked out before you bring your Havanese home. This is not always possible, but it is the most desired circumstance. You need to know where the emergency vet is and decide who is going to be your Havanese’s main vet. Depending on where you live, you might have several vets to choose from.
Hopefully, your dog won’t get any of the allergies effecting Havanese, but it can happen. It is far less stressful for your dog and you to have a vet chosen in advance, since the both of you will being a lot of him or her. Although Havanese are a relatively healthy breed of dog, they still are prone to getting allergies like all dogs can. These allergies are mostly allergies to foods, chemicals or even pollen.
When your Havanese has allergies, they will be affected in their skin and in their digestive system. Sometimes dogs get allergies to pollen and ragweed like we do, but this is rare. Skin scratching and “hot spots” (bald, red, sore patches) may or may not mean a food allergy or contact with an irritating chemical like a laundry detergent, doggy cologne or saliva from a fleabite. Make a note of when the scratching started and tell your vet.
If your vet does not have all of the diagnostic tools they need at their practice, they will have to send out to a lab. Your dog will need blood work and a skin scrape done, at least. Your dog would pay for these tests for you, so you should do no less to provide the most ethical Havanese care possible. If the dog doesn’t stop scratching, they can rip themselves open and then require expensive surgery and treatments for infection.
Havanese, fortunately, have not shown signs of being more prone to allergies than other breeds of dog. When they get allergies, they get allergies most common in all dogs – skin allergies, food allergies or allergies to medicines. Just as it can be a long time of trial and error to determine just what a person can be allergic to, it takes an equally long time to determine what your Havanese is allergic to.
If your Havanese starts scratching so bad they bleed or leave red, hairless spots, your dog probably is suffering from an allergy that can affect Havanese, which can affect other dogs, too. Havanese allergies are usually never contagious wither to humans or to other dogs. Your dog is most likely allergic to some sort of plant, a food ingredient or a chemical in laundry detergent or shampoos.
Your vet will most likely ask you a lot of questions about anything that touches your dog. This would include cleaners, plants, gardening supplies and toys. You two will have to work like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to hunt down and point the finger at your dog’s allergen.
This might seem like a lot of work, but it’s merely a change of habits. It will be worth it to give your Havanese the care he or she deserves.
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