My 5 year old dog, a female shitz shu, started scratching and her skin turned red and felt hot the touch. We took her to several vets, all of who felt it was an allergy, but no one could figure out what she was allergic to. We changed bedding, food, shampooed carpets. We gave her tablets to prevent fleas, although I have never seen one on her. We also changed the shampoo to a pet shampoo with oatmeal and alovera in it. We give her,on our vets advice, 12.5 mg every 4 hrs, of Benadry.The vet has given her several steriod shots which had no effect at all. We do not have the money to keep taking her to the vet.She’s a beautiful little dog who has been a great companion to my husband who is recovering from a stroke.Does anyone have any idea what may be going on. Thank you, and our dog thanks you.

My dog was treated for fleas two weeks ago at the vet. For the past 3-4 days she has been scratching profusely and has caused some sores. She was not scratching like this before the treatment. On Sat I noticed she had a sore on her tail that was bleeding a little and she kept gnawing at it and biting it. I called an emergency vet line and they told me to give her benedryl and neosporin. None of it worked. Does anyone know how much an allergy shot would be on average at a vet?

I have a 3 yr old Black Lab that started scraching about 4 months ago. We have spent a fortune between the 2 doctors we are seeing (one is an allergy specialist) getting allergy testing done, fixing ripped ears with surgery, antibotics for the infections, shots, creams, food trials, shampoos, and pills. NOTHING has helped. We checked for mange 4 seperate times (they came out neg.) and have had someone come out and inspect the house for fleas (neg. also). My 2 other dogs are not having the same problems. He is now living in a e-collar and is miserable because he can’t itch. My husband and I don’t want to put him to sleep, but we have run out of options. PLEASE any suggestions at this point would help!!

To start off, my 11-year-old Chow/Shih-tzu mix has skin allergies (we think it may be seasonal), so when we saw her itching alot a couple of months ago, we thought that it was because of that. So we switched her food to Nutro Natural Choice dog food along with a half can of wet food at night which we mixed in an all-natural supplment powder, fish oil, and a multi-vitamen pill for senior dog. During the day, we would give her a fish oil pill, and twice a week she would get a bath with a anti-itch shampoo that I got from PetSmart. We tried that for about a month, and didn’t really notice any difference.
The next month, we kept her on the all-natural diet with the supplements; but, this time when I gave her a bath, I noticed a couple of fleas on her backend. So I immediately went out and got a flea spray from PetSmart to see if that would work—-it only works to kill the fleas that are on her; it doesn’t stop them from coming back though. So I then went back to PetSmart, and got another flea product to put on her back—that didn’t work. Then I got another flea product that had more good reviews then the last one, along with a all-natural anti-itch spray and anti-chew spray for my dog. The anti-itch spray only works when it’s wet so that doesn’t last long; and the anti-chew spray didn’t really deter her from chewing on herself, and after we sprayed it, everyone in the house was able to taste it.
A couple of weeks ago (after trying everything), I took her to the vet to see if they could finally get rid of the fleas. They gave me a shampoo for irritated skin, predisone, and a steroid pill along with advantage flea treatment for her and my inside/outside cat (which has shown no sign of having fleas on her). They told us that we should Fog the house and outside—–my parents said that we can’t fog the house because we have an in-home daycare business so it would just create a big mess for us to clean up in the daycare, ect. And they thought the backyard was pointless, because my dog goes everywhere outside (different neighborhoods, dog park, downtown, woods in the back of my house)—and we doupt that those people fog their own homes, so when my dog comes into contact with that area there will probably be fleas there. So they went out and got this flea spray (recommended to us by a couple different people) for inside the house—-we washed everything, moved alot of stuff around, and then vacummed everything. We then vacummed the carpets and everwhere that my dog went for the next week, and sprayed again on Sunday. Whenever I do wash (every coupl of days), I always wash my dog’s bedding too. She still has fleas.
Now, my dad thinks that it would be best and easier for us to get my dog shaved down so that we can start from scratch with trying to fight off these fleas; along with buying her and my 12-year-old cat flea collars. I asked the vet about shaving my dog down, and the vet said that it would only irritate my dog’s skin more which I told my dad and other family members—–they all seem to agree with my dad now because we did try everything that the vet said (besides fogging the house and yard), and that didn’t work. So any ideas would be greatly appreciated because I really don’t want to pay someone to shave my dog when that’s not really going to work or help make the process of getting rid of fleas easier. Thanks!

with my dogs. They poop outside, I would never allow a dog to poop/pee on a dang pee pad or newspaper, they eat food, not poop and they do what I tell them too. I don’t have problems with dog itching, because I had them evaluated for allergies then I researched food and how to treat allergies. I treat fleas with Frontline Plus and I get them vaccinated. You aren’t going to get a dog if your parents don’t want it.
WHAT am I doing wrong?
legit: Does it get on anyone else’s last nerve with this type of question? How have they tried everything when the problems are still there?
Why can’t they figure it out, puppies aren’t born trained, vets diagnose allergies, fleas croak with preventatives, dogs don’t get diseases if vaccinated. There are no vets in here.
Is dog research some kind of taboo thing?
OK this is kind of a rant but good grief!!!