Question by KAY: HELP.. My dog wont sleep?
Okay..I have a little bichon frisé and hes already on antibiotics that the Vet prescribed for his allergies. He scratched is neck really bad and the vet had to trim the hair raw to the skin. So you can amagine that hes in pain and he dosent sleep at all since he has no ways to get comfortable.
Is there anything i can give him that would help him get some sleep… Like half a Gravol..or something?? But remember hes already on antibiotics….. :S:S
Thanks for the advise. I actually just called the Vet and unfortunatly nothing can really help him at this point… We just have to play the waiting game until the medication hits in.

Best answer:

Answer by crack_wh0re_x
Don’t give your dog anything without checking with your vet first as it could react with the antibiotic l suggest calling them asap the poor little thing they may give him pain meds

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Question by totravel01: My dog won’t stop biting hard around his crotch!?
I noticed my dog has been itching and scratching himself more and more since late last week (it was mainly just behind his ears and shoulders) – I gave him a bath on Thursday thinking it was just that time. On Friday, I noticed he was licking and biting really hard on his inner hind legs and crotch area. He has bitten so hard on his inner leg that he has broke a little bit of skin and I have noticed some small pink bumps (or bites?) all around his crotch. I have stripped all of the sheets, pillows, blankets and cleaned everything in the house really good. I gave him another bath tonight (Sunday) just in case for whatever reason we hadn’t gotten the soap all off the first time. He is still biting and chewing and I don’t know what to do! I am sure he is miserable and want to help him but not sure what to do! He gets his flea medicine every month like clockwork and is an inside dog. He is supposed to be on a no-wheat diet for potential allergies (though he does sneak a treat in here and there). He has never had any issues like this since we adopted him 2 years ago! He has more “allergy” type issues with his ears and anal glands filling up. It is October and the allergy season is pretty much over (although, it has been warmer than normal here) any ideas? I’m hoping it’s just an allergy issue and nothing else!! Could it be a spider bite? We have noticed a lot more spiders running around outside! I don’t want to take him to the vet if I don’t have to as it gets to be so expensive and I feel like I get brushed off as I tend to worry about the littlest things (he is my baby, and I want the best for him!) If it makes a difference in breads, he is a basset hound.

Best answer:

Answer by silly!
he could be getting bitten from the spiders, or other bugs outside. i would treat the house with bug bombs, too. also, dont let him sleep near the walls, doors, or windows, and bugs could crawl in and directly bite him. if it helps you, you could get him some light colored bedding if you dont already have it, so you can see if its something he is getting attacked by when he sleeps. also, if you have carpet, you should put down some flea and tick powder, just in case he did get a flea and you didnt see it. the flea and tick powder will kill any flea and ticks and their eggs thats in the carpet. if all else fails, he may have a skin condition. dogs can get those like humans, and may require some special lotion or medicine to supress it.

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Question by CrisaRei: My dog has a staph infection that just won’t go away!?
I have been to three different vets and they all conclude it is staph. One did a skin scrape, the other checked visually, and the other skin scraped and gave her an injection to prevent fungus. One gave her antihistamines, antibiotics, and a shampoo (this was most effective). After her supply ran out, the bumps still were not gone (there were there less, but not completely gone) so we started again, and it seems worse now.

I adopted her from another family, and she showed no symptoms. She was six months old at the time, and a month after I adopted her she started showing signs. I switched her dog food from Purina to Iams to Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice. I’m thinking about switching her back to her original dog food to see if she is allergic to dog food, after that I plan on switching her to a lamb diet without corn, beef, pork, or chicken – things most dogs are allergic to.

However, I do not think it is a food allergy since her only symptoms are scratching, pustules around her neck and back, and watery eyes. She has no diarrhea, has one bowel movement a day, urinates normally, and is still her normal self.

I think it is a contact allergy and now I take her outside using a leash to control where she goes. I noticed that her staph got slightly better since she doesn’t go into the bushes anymore.

I plan on using a hypoallergenic detergent as well since I believe that month after i adopted her not only did I change her dog food but I changed the laundry detergent I use.

I have no more ideas on how to deal with this. The vets aren’t really listening and think that this is just common. The second vet said she was allergic to gnat bites and told me to put children’s bug off on her, and I did, but it did not help.

It is cold now – there are no bugs, and her staph is still here.

The vet visits have cost me over $ 500 and I’m so stressed out. I contact the previous owners, they have yet to get in touch with me.

She is also almost a year old – ten months now. A year in December. She is a Miniature Pinscher and she is not spayed. I do not want to get her spayed until her infection is completely gone.

I have visited numerous canine pyoderma sites to try and figure it out, and I think I know so much about staph I can probably diagnose another dog (just kidding). But I have read countless numbers of sites…

Does anyone have any other suggestions on what I can do to determine what she is allergic to?

again, her symptoms are:
itching
watery eyes
pustules
loss of fur around pustules
licking of the pustuled area

other than that, she is perfectly normal.

I pointed the watery eyes out to my vet and she said it was normal in her breed, but I don’t think so…
she is currently on antibiotics, medicated shampoo, and antihistamines for the itching.
No, I have not done bloodwork. I may try that actually. I am allergic to dust mites as well so I have dust mite covers on my bed and we do frequently vacuum and I dust a lot, I don’t use my air purifier anymore, but I could do that as well.

I will wait for some more possibilities because I am open to various ideas. But thank you for that information.

Best answer:

Answer by plotch
The most important thing is to not let her scratch….or lick… at all. That is how the staph stays bad and gets spread. Cleaning her with a good anti-bacterial soap would be good. If possible, get her on an anti-biotic as soon as possible, and try an anti-itch cream.

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Question by Sidney C: Fleas on linoleum in bathroom – won’t die!?
We have two dogs, both under 10 lbs. They tend to get fleas pretty badly during the summer, even though they only go outside to do their business. Our oldest dog has now even developed a flea allergy and bites and scratches until he causes open wounds on his skin and loses fur! In the past couple of weeks they have gotten fleas badly again, and brought them into the house. We have carpet in all rooms except for kitchen and bathroom – we have no fleas in the kitchen, we no longer have them on the carpet (as we vacuum frequently and have sprayed the carpet), but they have invaded the bathroom and WILL NOT DIE. The bathroom is linoleum, and very small! I thought there was no way for them to continue living on it, but they have proved me wrong. I have sprayed twice with two different flea sprays (that worked on the rest of the floors), washed the bathroom rugs several times and tried removing them for a while, vacuumed around all edges of the bathroom, and have steam mopped twice. Today we even flea bombed the entire house, in hopes that we would finally solve the problem… it actually made the bathroom situation worse. I walked into the bathroom for the first time after bombing and had six on my foot at one time, when before the bombing it would be two on me at a time at most. What do we do?? My husband and I are expecting our first child in less than two months and we don’t want to be dealing with this any longer! Please help!!

Oh, and today we sprayed our yard (again) with a concentrated flea killer. We have also applied frontline to our smaller dog and Comfortis to our older dog about a week ago – they still have fleas. The meds have always done the job of killing their fleas before, but not this year!

Best answer:

Answer by Ajulutsikael
If the Frontline isn’t working switch to Advantage. I had this problem before and you have to just spray the yard, house and deal with the dogs.

If you’re going to vacuum, use Borax on the rugs, its usually very good. There is a barn spray that I used a while back when I had a huge infestation and it worked wonders. It’s called LD-44z. It works, trust me.
I used this spray while pregnant with no problems, I just didn’t breathe in.

Also, fleas can live up to a year without feeding.

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Question by XxKarToonxX: My dog won’t eat her food? I think she might not like it?
Kay, I know this is a long one, but if you’re a pet owner, I’m sure you’ll understand!

I have a Pekingese, she’s about 13 years old. It’s been a couple years that she’s being picky eater! I try to switch brands and flavors each time I buy her food, but she always ends up leaving half of it there! She always leave the light and dark brown bits of her dry dog food. I always end up throwing away the bits she won’t eat. Yesterday, she was out of food so I went to the store and bought her a bag of Kibble ‘n Bits Homestyle Chicken dog food. I got her one of the big bags; and when I got home and filled her bowl, she refused to eat it. I know for a fact that she was hungry because her bowl had been empty since I got home from school and my mom hadn’t noticed she was out of food. I was previously feeding her the same dog food but Homestyle Beef flavor and I thought I’d change it up for her. She hasn’t touched her dry food since yesterday and all she’s eaten is half a can of Pedigree Chopped Beef wet food…She’s actually also very picky about wet canned food too! I think Chopped Beef flavor is the only one she eats!

Here’s some other info about my dog:
- Other than human food, as far as I know, she doesn’t have allergies…although I think those Beggin’ Strips bacon treats are as bad as human food is for her!
- She’s had many different brands of dry dog foods before; mainly Purina, I think.
- I think she became a picky eater when we went on vacation to Mexico one year. I don’t know what kind of food we bought her there after she finished her dog food from home…that was years ago though, could that still have anything to do with this now?
- She doesn’t have any scheduled times to eat. Her food is there in her bowl, changed constantly, and covered when we know for a fact that she won’t be eating.
- She’s used to eating around others, her food and water bowls are near the kitchen, so privacy and distractions are generally not a problem for her.
- We don’t give her human food (she has “allergies” to that and her skin tends to like open up & can get infected…it’ll look like a really bad scrape, she’ll scratch at it a lot, and it really seems painful for her. She’s been given meds for this about 3 times already. One of her vets said that since she had it once, she’ll most likely keep getting it.)
- She does, however, always hang around the kitchen, especially when we’re cooking, to see what she can pick up. Or my little brother sometimes leaves things lying around. but this isn’t a constant problem.
- She has boiled chicken and boiled rice mixed together as a kind of special food. One time she got very sick (whole other long story) and nearly died. After she got better, the vet told us to give her boiled chicken and rice to encourage her to eat. But it’s really rare if she does eat this since my mom doesn’t make it for her too often. So i don’t think she’s distracted with that..

….I think that’s it…Again, I’m really sorry this is SO long but I’m really worried because she hasn’t eaten well in nearly 3 days! I appreciate all suggestions,,,as long as they’re not dumb. lol
Please and thanks!

Best answer:

Answer by Wakada
You may think it is bad for your dog to eat the same food for its entire life, but it is important for it to have a steady diet, so STOP buying different food each time you are at the store. Your dog is in its later years of life, make one last switch to a dog food for elderly dogs, it doesn’t need as much protein as it did earlier in life.

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