My Dog Is Excessivly Itching Every Where!!!?
Ok so our three-year-old Shepard mix is itchy. She is a rescue from Virginia just before hurricane Katrina made land fall.
We love her to death but she is so itchy. Her ears, neck, chest, face, tail, stomach, all four legs especially her hock’s, ok her entire body is itchy. Along her spine she has patches of flaking skin and sparse hair due to biting and scratching. Her chest is becoming red and inflamed. Her hocks are very red and have little hair.
Her itchiness came about two months after we got her. At first we though flea’s or mites she was tested and the results were negative. Slowly she started loosing hair around her eyes and mouth (it grew back). She was placed on fish oil, anti microbial baths, allergen free foods, no foods that were possible allergens (so basically she got two different treats one was salmon and one was venison), and a lotion she was less itchy for a few months and she was super itchy again. She was switched to a salmon food and everything else stayed the same she got better and then worse a few month later. She was tested for everything from roundworm to lime disease to hyper thyroid to scabies to mites and everything in between.
Right now she gets three medicated baths a week, two oatmeal baths a week, two fish pills a day, one splash of extra virgin olive oil in her food, fish oil added to her food, Solid gold seaweed powder (it has flaxseed and seaweed and other stuff) in both meals, she is brushed twice a week, Benadryl every day, and science diet (the only food that helped her itchiness). We have tried Vectra 3D, Advantix, Revolution, and Advantage the Vectra and Advantage did nothing, Revolution so so, and Advantix was good but did not stop the itching. All that and she is still itchy.
We have ruled out peanut, dairy, chicken, bovine, duck, venison, and lamb allergies.
All the leaves (which she loves to run through) are raked out of her reach. We don’t use pesticides, we vacuum every day, we use hypo allergenic detergent, all the pet beds are cleaned weekly and shook out side daily, the carpets are shook daily, we don’t use bleach or any non plant based chemicals in the house, her toys are washed three times a week, and we dust only when she is out side.
We are at our wits end. Have you ever had a super itchy dog? What did you do? Are there any remedies we have not tried? Could it be pollen since she is from Virginia and we live in New England?
Sorry its long =)
Tagged with: Every • Excessivly • Itching • Where
Filed under: Flea Allergies In Dogs
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Have you ruled out corn, wheat, soy, beef, egg, and dairy? THESE are some very common food allergies in dogs. Science Diet might not cut it for ruling out those things — try something like California Natural, which you can get at a specialty pet food store.
Mold is another culprit of allergies, which is much harder to find and get rid of in your house. It could also just be the pollen, which you can only try your best to reduce it in the house and keep your dog clean.
My boxer has awful seasonal allergies. Right now she’s taking 75mg of benadryl twice daily, and still she will chew on her paws and lick her stomach when she thinks I’m not looking. She has tiny hives all the way down her back. I try to reduce her exposure by keeping the house clean, and by bathing her more often with a very mild, natural oatmeal shampoo, usually followed with an Aveeno Oatmeal bath (just a thick mixture of a packet with one large cup of water, slowly poured all over her, then let it sit for a few minutes). Other than that I just have to keep an e-collar on her when she can’t be supervised, so that she doesn’t lick and scratch so much that she gets worse.
More on dog allergies here.http://www.peteducation.com/category.cfm…
And just yesterday I found these great tips for reducing allergens in the home:http://www.healthhouse.org/consumer/tips…http://www.housekeepingchannel.com/a_730…
Check this site for ratings and reviews on dog foods.http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/
Also add some omega-3 oils to her diet to condition her skin and coat from the inside out. Adding 3 or 4 fish oil pills with each meal should be sufficient, along with a vitamin E supplement (fish oil depletes vit. E, so if you give one you must give the other also).
could be dry skin use i put a teaspoon of wesson oil in my dogs food 3 times a week it helps but the oil back in her skin.
I have had the same problem with my lab. Your dog has severe allergies as does mine. I had to shave her and have been rubbing her down with cocoa butter everyday, it does provide her some skin relief. Also my vet said to give her benadryl everyday. My vet said any OTC allergy med. is safe for a dog as long as its NOT (D) form (decongestant). I live in east Texas and we have extreme allergies here as perhaps where you live is the same.
What do you have on your rugs. Do you clean them with something hypoallergenic? What is it with flax seed and seaweed? That’s a dog not a cow. You aren’t pulling any vegetarian bigotry on the poor dog are you? Are you sure that kind of stuff isn’t the problem?
I’m allergic to wool, and very allergic to dust mites but they are sinus related. Are your rugs wool?
I was itching for a year when I started using fabric softener. Are you using any of that on the dog’s stuff, or putting it a dryer that had clothes with softener. Wash out the dryer and washer if you have and put the dogs stuff through without any of that contacting it.
Yep, been there done that.
The biggest causes of allergens for dogs are COOKED proteins, grains and over vaccination.
The only thing that worked for me was the raw food diet.
Various meats, meaty bones, offal (10% of the diet) raw whole fish, eggs and shell etc.
And no bathing, let the natural oils in the skin do their job.
I was told my dog had all sorts of allergies including grass.
Research the raw food diet, theres loads of info on the net.http://www.rawlearning.comhttp://www.claremiddle.com/articles/arti…
Add; Try rinsing her in water with an oatmeal stocking.
My mom’s dog has the same problem. We live in Fl. and we don’t know if it’s the pollen or whatever, but it’s very irritating to the dog and to us to see her itching and scratching everwhere. She was takened to the vet given 2 shots, but it’s not working. The vet says that she has an allergy.