Flea allergies?

[brittmk0922]

My dog doesn't have a direct flea allergy, what she has is atopic dermatitis which is a general oversensitivity of the skin. That means that anything that might 'aggrivate' the skin for her is 100 times worse. Flea bites, mosquito bites, food allergies that cause a skin reaction... they all mean she loses all her hair, breaks out in bright red hives. We realized this this hard way as she was a shelter find and the food I fed her right from the beginning was chicken based. We now know she's allergic to chicken...

To avoid flea problems we do use Revolution. Also I bath her regularly in a pet tea tree oil shampoo as the smell of that repels them. If I take her anywhere where I think she might be at a higher risk (for example when we walk the one local trail, which is all surrounded with just wild grass, etc) I make sure to bath her as soon as I get home to avoid problems. Its a little more work than our other dog, but it seems to be working as we haven't had a problem in the last couple years since I started all this...