1) In the summer, your dog itches, would that be some kind of plant allergy or heat rash? He scratches over the ears (where I’ve read dogs sweat) and tummy. No flea. Some minor redness.
He’s no Saint Bernard but a thick-coated poodle. If shaving him clean makes a noticable difference, and you know he feels more comfortable, I would do that.
2) My dog’s brown-turned-rosybrown nose suddenly became brown again. I know this is known as “winter nose”, but my dog’s nose had never before reverted to brown in his 4 years of life. He’s mostly an indoor pet, although he loves to snuggle to the window. When we go jog, it’s usually past sunset or real early in the morning, so it couldn’t be the sun. Should I be concerned about this pigmentation change? Any dog owners sharing similar experience?

I thought she had a thyroid problem but it doesn’t look like that is the issue either. And she doesn’t have fleas.
I am stumped and she is miserable.
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!

fleas in it but i am kinda scared about bombing the aparment. Will the fleas continue to live even though they will not be able to live on my dog b/c of the frontline? Its september and starting to get cold so that may factor in on the fleas thriving in a colder enviroment. Is there any safer affective way to treat my apartment? I dont want to bomb since i live in a apartment and is not totally safe AND one of my dogs has skin allergies. I want stop these lil pest from biting me and i want them out of me and my animals lives!!!!

They both scratch more than they should but some times one more than the other. They are white dogs so you can see if they have fleas and I cut there hair short just to make sure I was not missing them. ( no fleas) I changed there food to a very good quality of food. I was told from this lady that runs this store for good food for dogs and cats that they need more meat in there diet then grains. So she said that I should use this brand that has fish one bag , chicken the next bag and buffalo the next all same name brand. It is so they get all of what they need. I took them to a vet who told me that it could be allergies. that is why I changed the food. She also told me to give them childrens benadril ( I have tryed ) I thought it might of worked not really sure.
The thing I don’t understand is if it is alergies why both of them?
So I do the flea treatment monthly
changed food
give benadril
changed shampoo to sentsitive stuff
I can’t aford to keep going to the vet and not get any answers
If any one has any other ideas I would love to hear them.
oh ya they keep getting ear infections which I was told from the vet that is was caused from the alergies.
They are both a year and they are Bichon Frise
any Ideas