Please help Harley and me before I lost it completely, shave him and slather him in calomine lotion!!!

[ormirian]

Dog scratches. Constantly. He doesn't have fleas. I comb him regularly to check and he gets frontlined. I also brush him regularly to remove moulting fur. Poor beast is so fed up.

I am wondering if it's an food-related thing. He doesn't seem to like all the dried foods so he has bog-standard tinned meat and mixers and until a few months ago this was OK. Is it worth changing his diet? Any tips if so? Any tips otherwise?

Thanks

Have you taken him to the vet? Definitely try hypoallergenic food.

Has anything changed in your home in the last few months.

One of my rescue dogs had allergies. I got her allergy tested and she's allergic to so many different things she needed immunotherapy injections to improve her condition!

Do get him checked thoroughly by a vet. I did and they ruled out mites, lice etc.

The main things i do are feed her wafcol salmon and potato diet as its hypoallergenic the difference was immediate she is highly allergic to grains and meats.

Food bought in small bags to reduce storage mites.

Wooden floors to reduce dust mites and hoovering lots.

Advocate flea and mite treatment every month.

Wipe face after eating and paws after walks.

Hypoallergenic shampoo and only bath occasioanlly.

Good luck.

My dog gets massively itchy if he has cereals. He also has digestion problems if he has too much protein or fat in his diet so he only eats expensive food that I buy from the vet. Every now and then he gets his mouth around something like toast that the DC have dropped on the floor and scratches for about 3 days.

I use these products for my itchy boy - they really help.

Try changing to raw food - itching/scratching might go on for a few weeks more but it's worth persisting. He may be allergic to the grains (fillers) in the food he's eating.

Join raw feeding UK Facebook group - they will have good advice for you if it's a route you want to go down.

My dog is going for allergy testing. We are claiming for it through his insurance. We just can't get to the bottom of what has triggered this with him so hopefully will get some answers.

Please have your vet do a skin scrape, he could have mange.

Thanks folks. I am making a vets appointment. It may be a food allergy or it may be something else but we have all had enough (including the Harlster).

Poor boy, it must be horrible for him
Look at your household cleaners too as they can cause allergies. I once had a dog who was allergic to febreze

I'd place money on food.

My Staffy used to itch something rotten. Vet suggestion basic elimination diet first. He stopped scratching straight away when we removed cereals.

He is now on a completely grain free food. If I had the space in my kitchen for another freezer, I'd have him on raw.

I don't really use a lot of sprays and chemicals owllady. And nothing new.

personalclown - I have also stopped feeding him his mixer. Just tinned dog food. I gave him some boiled rice with it this morning. Am going shopping for some better quality dog food later. I don't have room for raw food in our freezer either. Funnily enough when we first got him he had a dodgy tummy - rescue had him on Wellbeloved for sensitive stomach but he stopped eating it hence moving to the tinned food and mixer - his tummy has been fine since then.= - just the itching in the last few months

I also read that CH can make it worse - it dries the skin. Once suggestion was to add flax seed to food for the oil.

Can't see the vet until Saturday morning. Really hoping he doesn't suggest any anthistamines - don't want him on those if we can avoid it. Or scarily expensive food!

I had my dog tested she has allergies that make her scratch and bite her paws, as she's allergic to some sort of pollen or something from trees (can't remember off hand) she's on a constant low dose of steroids which keep it at bay, otherwise her skin can get infected her ears get infected and she bites at her paws until an ulcer forms.
I don't give her dry food anymore as she's allergic to storage mites, and I bath her with an oatmeal shampoo which costs £13!

I think she's allergic to dust mites too.

I second raw feeding too and could manage with one freezer drawer if I had to.

And whilst I have no wish to tar all vets with this behaviour, be a little wary if they have a wall of Hills or Royal Canin and then tell you that their low allergy food is the only recommended option

Try getting some organic pure coconut oil (Tesco, Sainsburys do it) try teaspoon with his food and also rubbing into his skin. A lot of raw feeders swear that it helps.

I had one drawer of small under-counter freezer and I could fit in food for at least a week in there... so space is not really an issue if you can get food from local butchers. If you have local Morrisons they're very good on raw food for dogs - stock bones, ribs, pigs trotters etc at very cheap prices.

If it works, you'd be saving a heap on expensive medications anyway.

Antihistamines are not the bad boys it is steroids you want to avoid.
The most common allergies I am seeing now are house dust mites and storage mites. So house dust using either Acclaim or Indorex will help control these, freezing toys regularly washing dog beds every 4 days and lots of hovering.
Storage mites are found in all dry foods, they become allergens when the food is exposed to air, this can be prevented by keeping food in air tight containers and never opening more than 60 days food at a time.
One labrador who was terribly affected by storage mite allergy was really helped by us washing his face after every meal (his face was worst affected).

Lonecatwithkitten are you a vet? The vet prescribed prednisone a low dose he said was for a website size dog (mine's a lab) she takes one every other day. I know they probably aren't great but it's the only thing that's worked and we've tried most everything, she's had it since 4 months and she's now 10 so it's been a long time.