Itchy Scratchy dog - Page 3

check your local area....

http://www.accuweather.com/canada-city-list.asp\

I am going to say mite? Make sure everything is washed, if it is really cold there hang everything out to freeze dry. Hot water and hot dryers will also kill anything on fabrics. Keep up with Revolution once a month all year round. Without looking at the skin, to see if there is a secondary infection due to the scrathing and one dose has helped. You could do a skin scraping to see if you come up with anything, but sometimes you will not see anything. Look at me I missed walking dander on Arnold the kitten. Was easily treated with spray on Frontline every two weeks for three treatments.
Always,
Cee

Try Burns Holistic Hypoallergenic complete food, completely natural will sort your problem out within six to eight weeks 18.5% protein 7.5% oil. The Alert range is cheapest option, you should also see a big diff in overall condition and your dog will pass very little.

My GSD female had extreme itching that kept me up at night (she's crated in bedroom), and I'm pretty sure she had sarcoptic mange. SM is really hard to get a positive when getting a skin scrape because it's different than demodetic mange (demodex).  Demodex lives on the hair follicle - easier to get a positive.   I'm a vet tech, so my vets thought it had to be air allergen of some sort, until GSD finally had red welts (look like hives almost) under her armpits, which are actually the sarcoptes mites furrowing under the skin.   Since her immune system was fighting the mites; as she is very healthy, it took a long time to actually see the cause because her whole system had to "break" so to speak to see the outright manifestation.  Once we saw the welts, we began treating for SM. 

Revolution will treat SM as a side benefit, but it may not completely rid your dog of the mite.  The best way to treat is at least a set of 3 Ivermectin injections 2 weeks apart.  I'm pretty sure my dog had the mites from when she was a pup to almost  a year old and we just kept having outbreaks.  She does still chew from time to time, but it isn't the kind of gnawing that kept me up at night.

Sure sign of a food allergy is if your dog is chewing, scratching and getting ear infections, etc ALL YEAR ROUND, if you're seeing different degrees based on season, it's more likely an inhaled (pollen, etc) allergy.

Thank you Izmelda, alot of good info there. 

As others have mentioned, it can be a number of things, as you know. One possibility to remember with the change in season is the heat in the house. Like clockwork, I have a dog that drys out as soon as I hit the heat switch in the winter.

If you have noticed a lot of itchy skin questions come up around now each year. If you have tried all the other remedies, turn down the heat or crack a window where the dog sleeps. You can also try a fan where the dog sleeps.

In my case, a house that was too warm/dry heat caused my problems 100%.

Good luck!

Pharaoh's skin gets a bit flakey at times.  He is in the house a lot.

I tried Salmon oil but it didn't really get the job done.  I understand that many dogs do not do well on Salmon oil.

There was another thread that talked about sardine/anchovy oil.  I am going to get some.



I buy tins of sardines (no salt packed in water).  If I give him a half tin daily is really works wonders on his skin.  The problem is it STINKS!  So, I will probably switch to the odor free oil.

Michele

 Hello,

I got my male when he was 8 months old and had no problems with itching.  Untill we brought him home.  I had taken him to the vet and she ran an allergy test on him, and it came back that he was allergic to: Dust Mites and also Flea dander.
 I have a concotion that I give him a shot of every month and he does fine.  I believe it is best just to take your dog to the vet and let them do the allergy test to let you know exactly what is bothering him.  It helped me out emensely.  Because before that I went through the changing of the diets and the flea meds and nothing was working.  

1 omega-3 fish oil gel cap a week. poke a hole to make sure the dog doesn't pass it before the gel cap releases the oil