My Dog Won’t Stop Itching! She Doesn’t Have Fleas, Hot Spots Or Allergies. Vet Said It’s A Heat Rash??
I’ve changed her food to a good, high-quality lamb and rice meal. She takes 3 benedryl pills daily. I’ve tried anti-itch creams, oatmeal soaps, fungiside sprays, multi-purpose creams and jels. But nothing seems to help. She gets a dose of Advantix every month and has for the last 2 years so it’s not a reaction to it. The vet said it’s a heat rash but she spends the whole day inside in the air conditioning and laying in front of a fan; it’s not a heat rash! We’ve ruled out ringworm, mange, hot spots, mites, allergies and because nothing has changed the vet didn’t think it was stress or boredom. What more can I do? She’s miserable!
Tagged with: Allergies • Doesn't • Fleas • Have • It's • Itching • Said • Spots • Stop • Wont
Filed under: Flea Allergies In Dogs
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Well, try Sulfodene you can that that at wal-mart in the pet area. It is made for hot spots but it have helped me in the past with my dogs itching.
Also dogs can change and the Advantix could be giving a problem now.
What is the food called? Did you vet tell you to buy it? Some times they say it is a great food but it is not. Also Royal Canie is a very bad food for days.
Try a different vet. Heat rash isn’t always caused by exposure to prolonged heat, but I am sure your dog goes outside.
my dogs get seasonal allergies, no kidding. They took an antihistamine pill, but the real kicker was a cortisone shot, worked every time.
Be careful with the sprays and the soaps, you might actually be aggravating it more. Dogs (unless super dirty) shouldn’t be bathed more than once every 2 weeks – as you deplete the natural oils in their skin and can cause irritation and dryness in their skin, so back off on the bathing and see if that helps, too.
Have you checked to see if she has dry skin? One of my dogs does. But doesn’t scratch that bad.
I would get a second opinion if I were you.
Heat rash isn’t necessarily caused by heat. If you don’t believe your vet you should get a second opinion. The vet could possibly give her a cortisone injection to help with the itching.
Heat rash — also called prickly heat or miliaria — is a common condition in which areas of the skin itch intensely and often feel prickly, or sting, due to overheating. Heat rash looks like tiny bumps surrounded by a zone of red skin. It usually occurs on clothed parts of the body, such as the back, abdomen, neck, upper chest, groin or armpits and goes away on its own within a few days. In severe forms, however, heat rash can interfere with the body’s heat-regulating mechanism and cause fever, heat exhaustionheat exhaustion, and even death.
Heat rash occurs most often in hot, humid conditions, but you may develop it in cool weather if you are overdressed. It’s most common in infants. Active people, newborns in incubators, and bedridden patients with fever also are more likely to get heat rash.
What Causes It?
Heat rash begins with excessive perspiration, usually in a hot, humid environment. The perspiration damages cells on the surface of the skin, forming a barrier and trapping sweat beneath the skin, where it builds up, causing the characteristic bumps. As the bumps burst and sweat is released, you may feel the prickly, or stinging, sensation that gives this condition its common name.
Medically updated by Cynthia Haines, MD, WebMD, August 2005.
SOURCES: Centers for Disease Control. Merk & Company
use baby powder on her it smell good and will dry out the skin well enough to take an itch away , if you wet it it will itch so get a powder
Has it gotten worse with lamb and rice? Some dogs do not react well to that particular “flavor” of dog foods. My Lab/Retriever can’t have them because his skin reaction.
. Massage it into her skin, and let it sit. If she wants to roll, that’s fine. It rubs it in more. After about five minutes, rinse her out. Don’t power hose her off, you want the shower mode or something that will gently rinse it out.
I’m sorry your dog is so miserable!
Try giving her a true mud bath. I know it sounds funny, but it might work. Depending on where you’re located, you might be able to find mud, or you might have to make some. Not the type of mud commericialized for human use but dirt-mud. Make sure it’s thick and gooey and you’re wearing old clothes
I don’t know if this works, but I hope it does.
Another cause of itchy skin is vaccinations. The vet won’t tell you that one. We have been over vaccinating our dogs for 50 years. The vets who invented the vaccines did not do a duration of immunity study. They just assumed that the shots should be given every year. Dr. Ron Schultz, professor of pathology and immunology at Wisconsin University, published a duration of immunity study on all vaccines in 1999. Current protocol on vaccines at all 27 US Vet schools is now 3 yrs. That will be changing as more studies are done.
Read the University of Wisconsin web links below:
Also read the links in Dr. Bob Rogers’ web site
Get a second opinion.
hmm…have you changed her food recently? somtimes my pup will get skin allergies if something in his diet changes.
or perhaps you have other animals that may have given something to her? or did she get into something when you walked her or while she was outside?
sounds like you’ve tried almost everything…poor thing! good luck!
I woiuld recommend going to another vet for a second opinion… It could be something physically wrong with her, has your vet done blood tests? Also, something you didn’t mention, I don’t know if you’ve done it or not… Change her food bowls to stainless steel.. We find at times that really helps.. Sounds simple, I know.. But plastic bowls harbor bacteria and sometimes eliminating those will help.