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The immunological puzzle
We encourage pet parents & horse owners to discuss allergy testing & treatment options with your veterinarian. In the rare case of a flare-up or other side effects, be sure to contact your veterinarian immediately.
Our testing is a valuable piece in your pet’s immunological puzzle. Your veterinarian works with you to connect those pieces. Together you’ll determine what’s best for your pet after reviewing their entire puzzle – beyond the pieces we can see.
While we love helping you pinpoint and treat your pet’s allergies, bringing all patient-specific questions to your veterinarian ultimately leads to the most comprehensive (and effective) recovery plan!
Frequently Asked Questions
Never settle for less when it comes to your pet’s health. Learn about our SPOT Platinum+ Serum Test.
This is a tailored treatment for your pet or horse, designed to stop allergy symptoms from affecting its overall health, comfort and quality of life.
Whether you’re a veterinarian, pet or horse owner – we’re here to get you on the road to long-term allergy relief! Our SPOT Blog provides accessible tips, guides, and inspiration.
A comprehensive collection of videos dedicated to allergy testing and treatment, best practices, and what to do when you have an increase in symptoms.
An allergic reaction is one in which an individual reacts to a normal substance in the environment. These substances are called allergens and include pollens, molds, animal hair, house dust, fleas, foods, and many more. Allergens cause reactions through skin contact, inhalation or ingestion. Allergic animals possess IgE antibodies to the specific allergens. These antibodies cause biochemical changes in the body which produce allergy symptoms.
The cost of the test is determined by the clinic ordering the test. If you believe your pet has allergies, we encourage you to contact your veterinarian or find a Nextmune approved clinic and call for exact pricing.
Dogs, cats and horses can have allergies, just like humans. More than 30% of all skin irritations in these animals can be attributed to allergies. The right approach (i.e. diagnostic tool and hypo-sensitization methodology) can set you on the best path towards happy, symptom-free (or greatly reduced) patients and satisfied owners. For a comprehensive look at common symptoms please click here.
Allergens are cumulative in their effect on animals. The more allergens an animal is exposed to at any one time increases the chance of allergy symptoms, as well as the extent of the reaction. The easiest way to picture this “threshold” phenomenon is to think of drops of water in a bucket, sooner or later the bucket will overflow, much as the immune system “overflows” beyond its threshold. For this reason, time of a symptom’s onset is not necessarily an indication of what the animal is allergic to. An animal with food and pollen allergies may only show symptoms in the summer (when the pollen count is at its highest) because the pollens push it over the threshold.
The best form of treatment for allergies is avoidance of the offending allergens. In most cases, however, this is not possible. Steroid drugs are often used for short-term relief of symptoms, but prolonged use of steroids can have serious side effects. Hypo-sensitization (allergy shots or drops) is another alternative. In this case, treatment sets are formulated specifically for your patients based on their allergy test results. We have two different types of treatment and it is important that you consider all aspects when deciding which delivery method you’d prefer. Read more about our treatment options here.
Since dogs and cats cannot be hyposensitized to foods, elimination is the only form of treatment. We have been successful in treating food allergies by recommending the avoidance of anything that has a reaction when tested.
Nextmune has partnered with PawDiets to provide a personalized interactive food list. The list populates using information from your pet’s allergy report and includes commercially available foods, free from the ingredients to which your pet tested positive.
*If they are already on the refill and doing well they are able to breed and continue on with the refill. **If on sublingual and wanting to breed they would need to be at least in the 4th refill to be able to continue on. If on 3 or less refills they would need to stop the sublingual all together till babies are born and weaned off and then start up again.
Adverse reactions are extremely rare, and any reactions if they do occur, should only be temporary and non-life threatening. While serious reactions are rare, the most commonly reported are an increase in your animal’s symptoms, swelling at injection site, or increased itching and/or redness. Rare, but serious reactions can develop quickly and include hives, vomiting, diarrhea, abnormal drowsiness, facial swelling, or collapse. When the increase in symptoms are related to hypo-sensitization, they typically occur within 48 hours following an injection and are easily reversed.
Also known as allergen-specific immunotherapy, is the process of increasing your animal’s tolerance to the allergens they’ve tested positive for. Allergies are not “cured” in the traditional sense. Instead we introduce small, controlled amounts of the allergen (which your animal has reacted to), into their immune system. This type of exposure will retrain their immune system to deal with future exposure to the allergens and over time decrease their symptoms.
Don’t panic – simply, stop treatment and contact your veterinarian with the following information:
Treatment Questions
- Date of last dose
- Dosage amount
- Vial color
- Your animal’s symptoms
- When symptoms occurred
Unsure if a reaction has occurred? Don’t hesitate to stop treatment & call your veterinarian
You will continue treatment, but on a modified schedule.
If vials have left unrefrigerated please contact your veterinarian to determine if replacement vial(s) are necessary.
While you should make every effort to follow the schedule, a day or two either way shouldn’t make a major difference. If it has been more than a few days, contact your veterinarian with the following information:
Treatment Questions
- Date of last dose
- Dosage amount
- Vial color
- Your animal’s symptoms
- When symptoms occurred
In some cases, animals have too many offending allergens to include in a single set and remain effective. Therefore, we break those allergens into two separate sets to ensure each allergen is absorbed properly, achieving the maximum effect. If you have two sets, give one injection from each set simultaneously at different areas of the body.
The timing of your refill depends on your animal’s treatment type:
For injections
After the final dosage in the treatment set is given
For drops
If your animal is under 22 lbs, after approximately 120 days of treatment
If your animal is over 23 lbs, after approximately 70 days of treatment
Contact your veterinarian for maintenance vials. Treatment usually arrives within a week or so after your veterinarian orders, giving you plenty of time before the next treatment is due.
Since allergies are a lifelong problem, our allergy management system is usually required indefinitely. As your animal’s immune tolerance increases, the time in between injections also increases. After approximately 5 months, you will only be giving injections once monthly. Drops, however, will remain a daily occurrence.
Unlike other medications, allergy treatment is a long-term process. Your veterinarian has recommended this route because of its effectiveness (up to 90%)* and absence of harmful side effects.
With injections, vials A and B build your animal’s tolerance, but it’s in vial C where you can expect to see improvement. Both treatment options (injections and drops) should garner results in about 4-6 months. However, results can vary from animal to animal. Some respond quicker than others.
Nextmune is committed to your animal’s allergy management. If you are at least 6 months into treatment, and/or
are at the 0.8ml injection of Vial C and still having symptoms, contact your veterinarian.
We consider a success the effective elimination (or significant reduction) of symptoms. This also should reduce the need for steroid or relief medications.
Nextmune is committed to ensuring success for pet parents and horse owners who are dealing with animal allergies. We have put these documents together to help you on the path to long-term allergy management. Each patient receives a personalized allergy result booklet and a treatment diary. Inside the results booklet, you will find your animal’s results, as well as information on their allergies and how to give them the highest quality of life. The treatment diary is included in every treatment set we manufacture – whether the animal is using drops or injections. In the treatment diary, we outline the animal’s dosage schedule, how to administer treatment, what reactions to watch out for, FAQs, and much more.