Why is my black lab so itchy?

[Nellymay]

My 5 year old lab seems to be scratching himself a lot recently and we know it's not fleas. He's had a bit of a bad time in the past 6 months or so: he lost his life long companion our 11 yr old lad to cancer - they weren't good friends, in fact 5 yr old was the boss and they were always together, then he injured his leg after slipping his lead chasing a cat and had an altercation with a car, then in august we moved house.

Now he's got this itch especially around the base of his tail and his back and haunches - it really irritates him and he nibbles at it and it's irritating and worrying to us to hear and see it. We took him to the vet about 4/5 weeks ago and they couldn't find any obvious reason no flea or any bits of flakey skin to put under a microscope and they thought it might be that our new house is warmer - he does scratch more at night and in the morning morning when the heating is on.

I'm giving him oil in his food to see if that helps.
Has anyone any idea what it could be? Should we go back to the vets?

Anyone???

My itchy dog has a moisturiser! A spray from the vets when she gets a bit dry and flaky, she's also on antihistamines and evening primrose oil capsules.

Thanks Beamer I'll try taking him back to the vet again :)

Have you changed his good recently? Or your washing powder??

*food

We had the same with our black lab. Vets couldn't find anything we put a cone on him for a couple of days and bought some tea tree spray from pets at home. He's stopped now and fur is growing back the vet did say it could be just a bad habit when bored or stressed. If I see him go for his back I spray with tea tree and show him the cone no way does he want the cone back!
I've also read that a lot of dog food has started using cheaper ingredients and this us leading to a lot of dogs having reactions. I've switched from bakers to iams ATM. As bakers is getting a lot of bad press right now.

No food is the same it's a dry gluten free one called autarky. T tree spray sounds good!

Poor wee man. Our dog itched for a while when we changed her food, so we changed it again and she is fine. We have also started giving her cod liver oil tablets, and she gets oily fish about once a week. We feed her IAMS at the moment too, and it seems to suit her, though I have been toying with the idea of a raw food diet (bit of a thought as I am a veggie!)

Why don't you try a change of food and if you don't see a difference maybe anti histamines?

The antihistamines my dog is on are v cheap - the vet said she could take 4mg Piriton (human kind) which cost about £10 for a months supply from any pharmacy - don't get them from the vet. I'd get your dog checked by a vet though and see what they recommend.
My dog is also on a low allergy diet.
Her skin is much better than it was a couple of months ago.

we took in a Doberman bitch for a couple of years a while ago that develops severe itching (scratched off an nipple - ouch!). Changing her food and cutting out all treats fixed it.

what food is he on now?

Did they check anal glands?