Veterinary Blog

Are your pet’s days punctuated by bouts of foot-flicking, ear-flapping scratching? If you’re uncomfortable listening to the constant chorus of claws making contact with skin, imagine how your cat or dog feels! At True Care Veterinary Hospital, we take pet itching seriously, and we’ll help you uncover the source of your pet’s problem so we can put a stop to all that itching.

Pets will scratch or sometimes bite at a spot on their body for a variety of reasons, including allergies, boredom, and bugs. Let’s take a look at a few of these.

Yes, you read that right: flies, the kind that people find endlessly irritating, are also vicious pests. Commonly found near livestock or waterways, black flies (or buffalo gnats) attack their prey’s skin repeatedly. While they don’t spread disease like other parasites, they can trigger a full-blown allergic response in pets. As they are ubiquitous in the warm, humid months, flies bite pets with greater frequency in spring and summer. Luckily, there are ways to combat their terrible effect on animals.