The expectation is that an itchy pet improves in winter, because the pollen has gone. A good number of Surrey dogs and cats do the opposite. The licking steps up in November, the ears start flaring again, and owners reasonably conclude that whatever they were told about allergies must have been wrong.
What changes in a closed-up house
Three things happen at once, and they pull in the same direction.
The indoor allergens get a bigger share. House dust mites live in bedding, carpet and soft furnishings all year round. They are not seasonal in themselves, but your pet’s exposure is: the windows shut, the ventilation drops, and the animal spends far more hours lying on the surfaces where mites live. For a pet whose allergy is driven by dust mite rather than pollen, winter is their difficult season, not their easy one.
The air dries out. Forced-air heating pulls humidity down, and dry skin is itchier skin and a less effective barrier. This alone will not cause an allergy, but it reliably makes an existing one feel worse and turns mild flaking into real irritation.
Fleas do not stop. A heated house keeps the life cycle ticking over all winter, in the sheltered microclimate deep in carpet and bedding, instead of pausing with the cold outdoors. Owners who stop cover in the autumn are the group we most often see in February with a flea-allergic animal and no fleas findable on the pet, because an allergic animal grooms them off efficiently.
What it actually looks like
Owners look for a rash. Pets show you behaviour instead.
- Licking or chewing the paws, especially in the evening. The hair between the toes goes rust-brown on a pale dog, which is saliva staining.
- Face rubbing on the carpet or the furniture, and scratching at the muzzle and around the eyes.
- Ears. Recurrent ear problems in a dog with no swimming history are one of the most common ways an underlying skin allergy announces itself. If the ears keep coming back, the ears are the symptom, not the problem.
- Redness in the thin-skinned places — armpits, groin, belly, the inside of the thighs. That underside pattern points to an environmental allergy. Irritation concentrated over the lower back and tail base points to fleas instead, and plenty of pets have both.
- Scooting or licking the base of the tail.
- Patchy hair loss from over-grooming, which in cats is often done entirely out of your sight. A cat with a bald strip along the belly or the backs of the thighs has been grooming, not losing hair.
- Small scabs along the back and neck in cats, found by touch rather than by eye.
- A greasy coat or a musty smell, which usually means a secondary overgrowth has set in on top of the original itch.
That last point is why this gets worse rather than plateauing. Scratching damages the skin barrier, bacteria and yeast that live on every animal take advantage, and the overgrowth itself is intensely itchy. By the time a pet smells, there are two problems, and the second one needs addressing in its own right before anybody can judge how bad the first one is.
Our allergy and skin care appointments are built around exactly this, and our in-house laboratory is how we identify a secondary overgrowth rather than guessing at it, because looking at the skin cannot tell you what is growing on it. A painfully swollen ear, a hot spot that has appeared overnight, or skin that is broken and bleeding goes through urgent care.
What helps, in order of how much it helps
- Keep flea cover running through the winter, on every animal in the house. This is first because it is cheap, it is certain, and stopping it is the single most common reversible cause we find.
- Wash the bedding hot and often, theirs and yours if they sleep on it. This is the most direct thing you can do about dust mite.
- Vacuum the places they lie, not just the open floor — the sofa seams, under the bed, the corner they have claimed.
- Get the humidity off the floor, but not high. Aim for roughly 40 to 50 percent. Below that the skin barrier suffers; above it you start favouring the dust mite you are trying to reduce. A cheap hygrometer settles the question better than guessing.
- Bathe more than you think, with the right product. Bathing physically removes allergen from the coat and is genuinely useful rather than cosmetic, but the wrong shampoo strips the skin and makes everything worse. Ask us which and how often.
- Rinse the paws after walks. A bowl of lukewarm water by the door. It takes off road salt and the outdoor allergen they then lick off all evening.
- Ask us about dietary support for the skin barrier, which has some evidence behind it and is a sensible long-term addition rather than a quick fix.
- Come in rather than cycling through products. There is a good deal we can offer for the itch itself now, and the choice depends on what we find, the animal’s age and what else is going on.
One thing to avoid: do not reach for anything from your own cabinet. Several common human remedies are unsafe for cats in particular, and others will quieten the signs just enough to make the picture unreadable when you do come in.
Our hours
We are open Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm. We are closed on statutory holidays.
Itching is miserable but it is not an emergency, and our hours cover it comfortably. A pet who has chewed the skin raw overnight, an ear that is suddenly painful and swollen shut, swelling of the face or muzzle, or any difficulty breathing is different. If that happens when we are closed, go to an open emergency hospital rather than waiting.
Common questions
Could it be the food?
It can be, in a minority of cases, and food reaction tends to itch year-round rather than seasonally. Working it out properly takes a structured trial over weeks, and the blood and saliva tests sold for this are not reliable. Talk to us before you start changing foods, because a half-done trial answers nothing.
My dog’s ears keep coming back. Why can we not just clear them?
Because recurrence means something is driving them. Clearing an ear without addressing the underlying allergy is chasing the smoke. The ears stop recurring when the cause is managed.
Is it mites? Should I worry about my family?
House dust mites are everywhere and are not passed from pet to person. Mange mites are a different thing, some of which are contagious, which is one of the things the skin sampling checks for.
Will my pet grow out of it?
Most do not. Allergic skin is usually a lifelong thing to manage rather than cure, which sounds worse than it is: well-managed allergic pets are comfortable most of the time.
How much bathing is too much?
It depends entirely on the product. With a suitable shampoo, weekly or even more often can be appropriate during a flare. With the wrong one, monthly is too much. This is worth asking rather than assuming.
Speak to the team at Tynehead Animal Hospital
If your pet is licking their paws through the evening or the ears have flared again, book a visit rather than another product. Bring a list of what you have already tried, and tell us whether flea cover has been continuous.
Published by the team at Tynehead Animal Hospital.
This article is educational in nature and is not a replacement for hands-on assessment of your own pet by a veterinarian.
Tynehead Animal Hospital
8645 160 Street, Unit 112, Surrey, BC V4N 1G4
Phone: (604) 547-2227
Hours: Monday to Friday 9:00 am to 7:00 pm; Saturday and Sunday 9:30 am to 4:00 pm; closed statutory holidays