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My dog has constant skin problems. Are home allergy tests accurate?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Border Collie | Female | spayed | 1 year and 2 months old | 15 lbs

Best at home allergy test that I can buy?? I have been to the vet 5x or more for skin problems for my dog and they aren't helping.

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Angel Alvarado, LVT

Licensed Veterinary Technician

Published on February 8th, 2020

Allergies can be very frustrating to diagnose since they have multiple cause (flea allergy, food allergy, environmental allergies or a combination). Consider an exam with a veterinary dermatologist to determine if Luna has allergies and what she may be allergic to. Discuss allergy testing, food elimination trials, hydrolyzed diets and antihistamine use with the veterinarian. Allergy tests using hair or saliva samples are unvalidated and unproven. Save your money on the home tests and use the link below to find a dermatologist. https://www.acvd.org/tools/locator/locator.asp?ids=16_Find_Dermatologist

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Dr. Elizabeth

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    I think your best option for allergy testing is through your veterinarian rather then spending money on an at home test which is not likely very sensitive. Heska is one of the best allergy testing companies: https://www.heska.com/products/allergy/ The therapy carries about an 80% success rate. Atopica is another option to address allergies but it does not work in the same fashion as the Heska product. I recommend to speak with your vet about these options.

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