Hi Penny,

Thanks for your question.

Before we discuss treatment, the first thing I want to say is that it’s not all that impossible to avoid grass. It’s great that you’ve identified this as an allergen for your dog as most people are not lucky enough to know what their pets are allergic to. A natural grass allergy treatment for dogs would be to try to find areas in your neighbourhood that have less grass or you could do more pavement walking. I know it’s probably not something you want to do but it would avoid the exposure to grass as an allergen and possibly make this condition easier to control.

You can certainly consider a trial on antihistamines. They are easily obtained and quite safe so you can try them on your own. I always recommend that you choose an antihistamine and use it consistently for 2 weeks to determine whether it works or not before discontinuing it. If the symptoms do not improve, then you can move onto another one. This is important because we often see that a patient will respond incredibly well to one kind of antihistamine, but then have little to no response to another one. I encourage you to take a look at our resource about antihistamine medications for dogs that includes a chart that outlining the various antihistamines and corresponding dosages and watch our video for more information about over-the-counter antihistamine use in pets. I’d like to mention that treating allergies can often be more successful if you use multiple treatments and not just one. Please take a look at our article about the different treatments for allergies and how they can be done at the same time to improve the control of the condition.

Good luck!

Dr. Clayton Greenway