What is Allergy Testing?

There are different types of allergy tests including blood, saliva and intradermal testing. At the Animal Allergy & Ear Clinic the form of allergy tests that we perform is intradermal skin testing, because it provides the most accurate results. Intradermal testing involves shaving a small area of skin, usually on the side of the chest, and then marking the skin in the locations for testing. Then we inject a very small amount of each of the 74 antigens within the surface of the skin. The antigens are specifically chosen from indigenous trees, grasses, weeds, molds, insects and dust mites that are known to be common allergens in the region.

By monitoring and recording the skin’s reactions to each antigen our veterinarians are able to determine exactly what your pet is allergic to, and we have those results for you the same day as
the test.

The test results are used to make a serum that is specific to each patient. This serum, also referred to as allergen-specific immunotherapy, is used to retrain the immune system to be tolerant of the allergens. For more information on immunotherapy, please visit our immunotherapy page!