What is flea allergy dermatitis and how is it treated?

Flea allergy dermatitis, fortunately, is becoming a lesser concern for us because flea products nowadays are so good. When a flea bites, they inject a small amount of saliva with an anticoagulant. The anticoagulant keeps the blood from clotting so that the flea can take its blood meal. Some of the saliva stays behind, and many dogs are allergic to the saliva. So a flea bite causes a dog to itch and can cause him to itch for days or weeks. That's what flea allergy dermatitis is. It's actually not an allergy to fleas, but the flea saliva, and those dogs need flea control, and usually, something to help with inflammation. Who would have thought a flea has enough saliva to cause a problem in a larger animal?

Flea allergy dermatitis is an adverse reaction or reaction to a flea bite, causing your dog to have excruciating biting, scratching, licking, itching, chewing, hair loss, and developing sores. I want to make this very clear. Just because the dog has fleas does not mean they have an allergic reaction to flea bites. Every dog's going to bite and scratch and chew because of the fleas. But when we see these dogs coming in with hair loss, sores, and red and raw skin, they have true flea allergy dermatitis. Understand that not every dog that has fleas will have that intensive reaction, but those dogs that do have that adverse reaction are suffering a lot of discomfort.