Anyone's Dog Allergic to Their Cat

I'm in a quandary. My dog has been scratching himself and nibbling at his feet all summer. I was hoping with the change of season he would stop but not yet! I've changed out the ingredients in his food (homemade by me) so that its grain free and also no sweet potato or high glycemic veggies only low. I wipe him with a damp cloth after he's been outside to eliminate pollens and other allergens. I wash his bedding regularly and am now bathing him with an aloe and tea tree oil shampoo (oatmeal free) every 7 to 10 days which is ok because the shampoo is non-drying and its recommended for weekly bathing. The only other thing that I can think of is I brought a lovely little stray cat into our home in February of this year (2015). Thankfully they get along very well albeit my dog, Happy, does get a little "put out" when he sees me petting and loving Pi, my cat. I am praying that Happy isn't allergic to Pi so am asking if any of you have or have had such a problem. Can anyone think of a solution if Hap is allergic to Pi other than giving Pi away. That would break my heart. My vet does do allergy testing but charges $295 for the testing alone. Then there would be treatment to follow of course. At this particular time that would be very hard on my budget. Of course if the problem gets worse I'll just have to bite the bullet and do it. Can anyone offer help????

I suggest you take your dog to vet before you make an assumption that he is allergic to your cat (which is extremely rare and has never really been proven).

Dogs lick and chew at their feet for multiple reasons. Some are unknown (behavioral obsession); others could be due to grass or other allergies, corns, puncture wounds, an encapsulated splinter of some sort, or even interdigital cysts, tumors, cancer or an auto-immune disease of the nail beds or claws.

 

You've altered his diet, but it could be a secondary fungal infection that is lingering. 

My sister had a black lab that incurred a small wound to his paw and licked it chronically. After the wound healed, he developed granulomas due to the incessant licking.

Whatever is causing it, only a vet can diagnose and treat it.  

P.S.: Be sure you are properly diluting the tea tree oil and using no more than a  0.1% solution as anything stronger can be toxic to your dog (or cat). 

Fyllis said:

 
I suggest you take your dog to vet before you make an assumption that he is allergic to your cat (which is extremely rare and has never really been proven).

Dogs lick and chew at their feet for multiple reasons. Some are unknown (behavioral obsession); others could be due to grass or other allergies, corns, puncture wounds, an encapsulated splinter of some sort, or even interdigital cysts, tumors, cancer or an auto-immune disease of the nail beds or claws.

 

You've altered his diet, but it could be a secondary fungal infection that is lingering. 

My sister had a black lab that incurred a small wound to his paw and licked it chronically. After the wound healed, he developed granulomas due to the incessant licking.

Whatever is causing it, only a vet can diagnose and treat it.  

P.S.: Be sure you are properly diluting the tea tree oil and using no more than a  0.1% solution as anything stronger can be toxic to your dog (or cat). 

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Thank you Fyllis. I got off the phone moments ago with my long time vet and he thinks its seasonal allergy as we have had a VERY dry summer and now early fall. I have an appointment for next week and he has a new allergy medication that is not steroid and reportedly does a great job for seasonal allergies. Naturally he will examine Happy for any other possible causes. If this turns out to be something other allergy we will give him the allergy testing in the winter which is good because I'll be better able to afford it at that time. I know its important to see the vet and Happy has regular visits throughout the year its just that at this moment I have a lot of other financial obligations. In other words, it didn't happen at the best of times. That's life!

P.S. The tea tree oil is in a commercial shampoo. I didn't make the mixture myself.