dog scratching

[oknow]

has anyone else run into the problem where their dog is starting to scratch excessively?
and if so were you able to find anything to help ease the problem for them.
I have heard from a couple dog owners that their dog's seem to be scratching more this winter.
and to head off the the ........ comments she has been washed and so she is clean.

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[Mikej]

Just a little Googly thing. I thought I'd heard of the Epsom Salt and/or baking soda treatment. With as dry and cold as this winter has been, I'M ITCHING TOO!


Itchy Dog
There are more then 500 different things that can cause your dog to be itchy. If your dog is scratching all the time it is important to find out what is causing the itch. This can be quite difficult. While there are many common causes of canine scratching, it can take quite a bit of detective work to figure out the culprit. Try not to scratch your dog itchy spot for him. Believe it or not, scratching the itch, will only make the dog more itchy.
There are several things you can do to ease your dogs itch while you try to figure out, with the help of your vet, what is causing the irritating itch.
1. Bathe the dog regularly in cool water. Warm or hot water will only make the itch worse. Soak for 5 to 10 minutes. Adding some Epsom salts, baking soda, or colloidal oatmeal (like Aveeno) to the water will increase the soothing effects. This will provide only a temporary relief lasting from a few hours to a few days. After the bath, pat the dog with a towel. Do not rub the skin, this will only increase the dogs itch. Do not use a hair dryer on a heat setting. A cool (no heat) setting would be okay. Heat and rubbing the dogs skin will increase your dogs itch, making the bath ineffective.
2.Fatty Acids, found in either marine oils or evening primrose oil, can be very effective in easing an itch. You can try giving one of these fatty acid supplements. It will take several weeks before the benefit will take effect, so they are for treating long term problems rather than an on-off irritation. You can find these at your local health food store.
3.Antihistamines can sometimes be effective with short term itches. For example; insect bites or a flare-up of hay fever. You can use an over the counter antihistamine such as clemastine (Tavist), chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton) or diphenhydramine (Benadryl). Be sure to consult your veterinarian first. Your vet will give you the proper dosage and tell you if this will be a good thing to try for your dogs problem.

 

[pakrat57]

Try adding a little cooking oil to his/her food, the dry winter may be causing its skin to dry up a bit. If it's bad you could give it a childrens Benadryl.

 

[Bigbaddude]

I had to switch to a higher quality food for our lab and the itching went away in acouple of weeks.
Witchazel seem to help a little when she was itching the same spot.

 

[rufus]

Dinovite

 

[BVB]

BBD hit on the head. try a no Corn, Wheat or Soy based dog food, Diamond makes a good product at a reasonable price.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Too much bathing removes their natural oils and gives them dry skin. Agree that better food helps but as soon as we stopped bathing our rotties with shampoo the fleas and dry skin went away

 

[Gunwheeler]

BBD hit on the head. try a no Corn, Wheat or Soy based dog food, Diamond makes a good product at a reasonable price.

BBD and BVB hit on the answer...........

 

[rick49]

I had the same problem and it took a lot of detective work to narrow it down. It was noted above how many things can be the source of the problem, it numbers in the hundreds.

I worked with my vet and we were able to narrow it down considerably with a blood test to source the problem. Every dog like every human is different so what worked for Mugs was specific to him and a blood test will take the guessing out of the mix. It wasn't cheap but my dog, like yours I'm sure, deserved getting to the bottom line as soon as possible. The itching drove me nuts I can only wonder about the poor dog.

What I found out...the blood test came up with 3 main areas of probable cause and grains were not on the list. If my memory is correct my vet said in about 10% of itching problems an allergy to grains is the cause. This is based on a chart she showed me from a study done by somebody, sorry don't remember who.

Food mites are found in almost all dry dog food and Mugs was very sensitive to their bites. Solution...if you buy dry food in bulk portion it out in freezer bags and store in the freezer until you need them, (wet dog food doesn't have mites because they are killed in the heat processing.). Freezing doesn't kill the mites but keeps them from reproducing as fast. By the time say a 25 lb. bag is used up the mite population is huge, and if you buy in 50 lb. sacks, way up there.

House or dust mites can also affect animals so get the old Kirby out and use it regularly and cleaning, read washing, bedding in hot soapy water also is key.

The blood test gave me the number 1 cause of his itching...pollen from Russian Thisel (sp) I will have to put him on a allergy shot this spring...since the late fall and so far this winter no to very little itching which leads me to believe the test results, since there is no pollen in the air right now and he is eating the same brand of food, only I keep the bulk of it frozen until its needed.

Mugs is 8 and I was told dogs like humans can get allergies as they age.

Those few paragraphs above cost me about a grand in vet bills and all the trial and error stuff I tried. If I remember right the blood test was $250.00

Hope your pooch and you get a handle on it.
Rick

 

[oknow]

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I should've of download things down a little bit. she's been on the same dog food for about six or eight months no problems until just recently. If she gets a bath about once a month, month and a half. When I get back home I'll have to try some of the suggestions out
thanks

 

[jbett98]

We always used a tbsp of cod liver oil and a raw egg every other day for dry/itchy skin during the winter months.
My first wife raised Great Danes and to keep the food bill way down, I would buy beef scrap trimmings from a local butcher by the pound.
I also picked up free vegetables from a local fruit market.
We would chop it all up, toss it into a big canning pot and cook it over a propane burner outside.
This stew would be mixed in with dry food and when you are dealing with Great Danes you need to find a good way to save money on food, because they will quickly eat you into the poor house.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Haven't bathed our rotties in years, but they do not live in our upstairs clean living space. They come up to visit in the winter but go back to their inside heated kennels. As soon as the bathing stopped the problems stopped (We do use baby wipes sometimes on the stinky parts)

 

[U201491]

has anyone else run into the problem where their dog is starting to scratch excessively?
and if so were you able to find anything to help ease the problem for them.
I have heard from a couple dog owners that their dog's seem to be scratching more this winter.
and to head off the the ........ comments she has been washed and so she is clean.

Switch to Bil-Jac food and stick with it. Add a bit of Cooked Chicken about 3 times a week.
We have stuck to this for 40 yrs and never have vet bills, skin problems and our dogs average
16 to 18 years. Taku lived to 20. Canines are carnivores and need meat and fat and maybe a small amount of vegetable , not floor scrapings feet and beaks and fillers, which is what most foods are.
Quality food is the key to good health for any canine, be it wolf or wiener dog. (genetically they are identical)

 

[Black Dog]

The wife and I have always had real good luck with a good quality LAMB and RICE dog food.

 

[U201491]

The wife and I have always had real good luck with a good quality LAMB and RICE dog food.

Rice is to a degree digestible, but not many carnivores thrive on rice.
Their looks have changed because of breeding but their digestive systems
have remained the same for the past 12,000 years.

 

[44mag2ndamend]

Corn based dog foods can make a dog lose so much fur you would think they have the mange. I went threw this, changed his food and gave him some raw eggs on top, 2 weeks later he was almost back to normal.

 

[U201491]

Corn based dog foods can make a dog lose so much fur you would think they have the mange. I went threw this, changed his food and gave him some raw eggs on top, 2 weeks later he was almost back to normal.

Grain and or corn based feeds are no good for canines of any kind. They need meat and intestinal fats. It is in their genetics. It is what they are. People have a hard time comprehending that. Think of a wolf, What does it eat. Well a dog is genetically the same. In 12 thousand years their DNA remained identical to a wolf. They need the same foods. I personally do not believe in raw, and prefer cooked to avoid parasites.Deboned chicken, liver, beef. Most dog foods are slowly poisoning your canine friends. Bil-Jac is the only processed food we have never had issues with but still with a 2/3 meat mix. We have raised pure wolves and many dogs. Their diets were all kept the same. The number of times we have needed a vet in the last 50 years can be counted on one hand. And every canine we have raised has been raised in home. Yes even the 2 pures. That makes for a different lifestyle

 

[Oregonhunter5]

It's better than licking its butt.
That smells like Miley cirus.

 

[Rix]

I switched to a "limited ingredient" dog food called natures choice.
Dog has been good since then.

 

[cookie]

Good food for dogs is like good food for people.