My staffy has itchy skin!

[probablynotthere1]

My poor dog is suddenly super itchy and I wondered if anyone had any advice.

She is 6, neutered and never had a problem before. She is not prone to fleas and although I flea and worm her regularly I've never ever seen a flea on her.

We moved house on 1st Dec and she has been itching since, it started off mild and now its got to the point where she has bald patches on her flank and bum area. I took her to the vets where they suggested its probably an allergy and we should try to break the itch cycle with a course of steroids. The tablets seemed to help a -tiny- bit, but she was still itching. Now the course is over and she's just as itchy as ever.

I'm not sure if it is something in our new house thats bothering her, or possibly food related (we switched from aldi food to sainsburys) but it could be anything!

I am reluctant to go back to the vets because I know how expensive the allergy testing will be, we've just had our cat go through a £600 tooth extraction so our emergency fund is non existent.

I found a dog allergy test on amazon for £89 so I'm tempted to try that first. Has anyone tried one?

[Ihaventgottimeforthis]

Why don't you try switching food back first? Or even starting her on a raw diet which may help?
What is different in the new house - carpets?
Once the itching cycle starts it is tricky to stop, but our lab sorted his coat issues out when we switched from cheap biscuits to raw.

[RoseDog]

Are you giving her piriton? Our itchy Staffy has 2 a day, we have no idea what causes her itch either, she's a rescue and she's only been with us since June, we think it could be partly behavioural, we bath her one or twice a week with an oat and honey shampoo as we have worked out the dirtier she is the more itchy she is!

We also feed her a raw diet but no idea if that makes a difference!

[Adarajames]

Grains are often a trigger for dog itching, as well as sugar beet, all of which you find in dog kibble / biscuit foods, so as op said, switch back to one you used to use and see if that helps.

Get some salmon oil, fish4dogs do a good quality one, and feed that.

Have you got a garden in the new place, does it have any different plants to your previous place as could be something like that setting it off?

[Girlintheframe]

Our Ddog suffers from itchy skin. We changed him onto Millie's Wolfheart food, give Yumega all year round plus piriton which have all really helped.