Allergies are a fairly common ailment in pets. While humans don’t generally consider the presence of food, flea, or environmental allergies as a significant cause for concern, pets can experience long-term consequences from untreated allergies, negatively impacting their day-to-day life and causing skin lesions and discomfort.
If you want to get pet insurance to cover your pet’s allergy investigations, including allergy testing, medication, and treatment, you’ll need to make sure that your pet is insured prior to the health condition arising for the first time. Otherwise, if allergies have been present before you get insurance, they are classed as a preexisting condition and are not covered by insurance in most cases. So, it’s hard to give a simple yes or no to this question. It’s entirely dependent on the individual pet’s circumstances, the insurance company you’re looking at, and their policies.
What Are Signs of Allergies in Pets?
Allergies in animals mainly exhibit differently from allergies in humans. Pets are susceptible to many of the same allergens that commonly affect humans, but the signs will differ. Coughing, sneezing, and a runny nose are all common symptoms of allergies in humans, while in animals, we see a variety of signs, from the common skin itchiness to more rare digestive or respiratory signs.
Allergies are fairly common in dogs, but cats can suffer from them, too. They are statistically one of the more common reasons for vet visits in dogs each year, while atopic dermatitis takes the 10th place for vet visits in cats.1 The number of cats diagnosed with environmental allergies has increased by 11% in the past decade, while the number of dogs with allergies increased by 30% in the same time.2
If you are looking for a plan that covers allergy testing, we recommend checking a few different companies to compare policies and find the one that best fits your needs. But remember, you need to have your pet insured before any allergies are present. Otherwise, the condition is classed as preexisting and is unlikely to be covered by insurance. This means that it’s best to insure your pet from a young age, knowing how common allergies are, while the policy will also help with other conditions that may arise over the years.
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What Kinds of Allergies Can Pets Have?
Pets’ allergies are typically divided into three categories: environmental, flea bite saliva and food allergies. Food allergies are precisely what you’d expect them to be, allergies to food protein your pet ingests. Environmental allergies are allergies to something present in the pet’s environment, like dust mites, mold, storage mites, or pollen, while flea allergies are caused by flea saliva.
Oftentimes, pets are allergic to more than one allergen, and some may have one or more types of allergies at the same time, such as food and flea bite allergies.
How Do You Treat Pet Allergies? Is Testing or Treatment Covered?
Treatments will vary based on what kind of allergies your pet has to begin with. Before your vet starts recommending allergy testing, there are a lot of other causes, such as bacterial and fungal skin disease, parasites, autoimmune skin conditions, and others, that need to be ruled out first. Oftentimes, your vet will take hair and skin samples, as well as perform certain blood tests. Considering allergies as a cause for your pet’s signs includes a process of elimination. A referral to a dermatologist is also often recommended.
There are several allergy tests available on the market, but they all have their pros as well as limitations, and the results should be interpreted by a veterinary professional. When it comes to food allergies, one of the more common ways to identify the culprit is to put a pet on an elimination diet or feed a hypoallergenic hydrolyzed protein diet for at least 8 weeks.
Allergy testing can cost between $200–$400 per pet or more, but it greatly depends on the location, whether the clinic is a referral center, the extent and necessity of other testing that rules out nonallergic causes of skin disease, as well as how extensive the allergy panels are. If you have a pet insurance policy covering allergies, your insurance will usually cover this testing. Still, it’s always essential to ensure that you understand the policy guidelines and limitations. Ask your insurance company whether they cover allergy testing and treatments.
Pet allergies can be managed often with lifelong anti-itch medications, antiinflammatories or corticosteroids, diet modifications, hyposensitization or desensitization, environmental modification and reducing some of the allergens, regular baths, and more. If your dog has food allergies, they’ll need to be put on limited-ingredient or prescription pet food to ensure they don’t get exposed to the allergens causing the signs.
Some pet insurance policies may cover the cost of prescription pet food for your pet, but it’s best to ask about this in advance to ensure you’ll be covered if your pet requires prescription pet food.
If your pet has an environmental allergy, you may need to bring out the big guns of medical intervention to get your pet some relief from their signs. Anti-inflammatory medications, including antihistamines, corticosteroids, and oral allergy medications, work well for alleviating some of their signs.
Shampoo therapy uses a regular bath with a hypoallergenic shampoo to relieve inflamed or itchy skin. Your vet may recommend desensitization or hyposensitization therapy for environmental allergens, which involves exposing the body to a small amount of the allergen so the immune system has the chance to get desensitized. These treatments may be covered under a plan that covers pet allergies, but ask your insurance company in advance.
Final Thoughts
There are many factors to consider before you can be sure a pet insurance policy will cover allergy testing and treatment for your pets, such as when the condition started in relation to the policy. We recommend comparing all your options to determine what pet insurance is best for you and your family. If you aren’t sure if something is covered, ask the insurance company; their job is to help you understand your plan.
Featured Image Credit: olgagorovenko, Shutterstock
