Itchy skin advice pls

[Girlintheframe]

Our 6 months old pup is SO itchy! His skin, his paws, he just can’t seem to stop scratching!

We have tried medicated shampoos and adding salmon oil to his food. We are off to the vets this morning to see if they can give him an anti histamine.
If your dog has problems with itchiness what has helped?
TIA

you need to find out what the cause is. Strip back to basics. No human food or treats. Stick to his normal food, wipe his paws when he comes in from his walk. Our boy is now 6 and suffered for years with itching and was truly tormented. He was on steroids for years and got fat an unhappy. He is on apoqeul and in truth we really dont know the cause. He is allergic to fleas but we had to stop giving him human food and he has James wellbeloved and apoquel and he is a happy boy. Hopefully for yours it will be easy...

Thanks for your reply.

He doesn’t get human food and is on James Wellbeloved. Was planning on changing to Millie wolf heart as that claims to be hypoallergenic. Vet has given us some piriton but it has limited effect.

Hopefully the change of food will help

My dog (poochon) is now 3 hes been itchy for as long as I can remember. I bought stinky stuff and within a week it stopped! I add it to his food once a day, (he is fed a raw diet). Vet also gave us piriton which just spaced him out so we stopped it after a couple days. We tried so many different things with him, limited diet, shampoos etc to be told he’s probably allergic to the air??? I can highly reccomend stinky stuff and so can Pooch x

Are you sure it’s not fleas?

My dog is flea allergic and one bite makes her very very itchy (but you can’t find any evidence of fleas or flea dirt because she doesn’t ‘have’ fleas) and she will then often develop a yeast infection.

If the paws are light coloured, can you see any red/brown staining?
Which would suggest a yeast skin infection.

As would a weird cheesy, oily, rancid odour to the coat.

I would make sure it’s not fleas your dealing with, they are the most likely cause of itchiness and sometimes the itching can persist for a few weeks after all the fleas are gone.

And stinky stuff, I believe, is basically neem oil and is indeed excellent.

It could be environmental.
It could be diet
Sure it isn’t fleas?
Mine has issues with yeast. Chicken bothers her. As does grain.

Pup has been treated with Drontal and has another dose to have in 2 weeks. Put it on him on Saturday and he is still furiously scratching. We are always up to date with flea/worming as he goes to doggy day care and I’m well aware how quickly he could catch something.
He has always been itchy but it seems to have shifted up a gear since Friday so maybe it is a bite??
Will have a look at stinky stuff too, thanks!

Drontal is a wormer.

What do you use to flea him?
As Wolfie says, Drontal does nothing for fleas as it is a wormer!

Some of the flea medications are not terribly effective anymore because fleas are resistant to it.

Most vets for example don’t use frontline anymore because it is largely ineffective.

I use Johnson’s (active ingredient 250mg imidacloprid, same as Advantage which works for us).

And what are you using on the house?
90% of fleas are in the house, in floor cracks, soft furnishings etc not the pet.
If you aren’t using a good flea spray with insect growth regulator regularly (every four weeks for mine) your dog will be suffering bites.

Sorry not Drontal, it’s called Stronghold.

Can’t remember what the usual one is called but it’s prescribed by the vet. I don’t think it’s fleas as we flea/worm regularly plus have 2 cats and neither of them appear itchy but I could be wrong.

Vet wants to treat with stronghold then try hypoallergenic diet for 6 weeks.

I will use the stronghold again in 2 weeks but also change his food and see what happens. Would rather avoid the vets hypoallergenic diet if we can. Will order stinky stuff too to see if it will give him some relief

Ask your vet for some Malaseb, it's a shampoo, it's kind to sore skin and very good. It will last you a long time and hopefully, give instant relief. I wouldn't put anything on his skin at present, unless it is approved by your vet.
A hypoallergenic and grain free diet, is a good start.

Okay, animals can often carry fleas without itching so that’s not very reliable.

Of course, your dog’s itching might be absolutely nothing to do with fleas at all.
But they are the most common cause and very insidious.
A flea allergic dog can literally have a flea hop on, bite and hop off and be itching for weeks.
So, it makes sense to absolutely 100% rule them out.

Are you flea spraying the house regularly aswell?
You need to be.

Malaseb, correct me if I am wrong posters, is a yeast killing shampoo?
If you can’t see red/brown on feet, if the skin isn’t flaky and/or if there isn’t a strange, cheesy, engine oily type odour it’s unlikely to be a yeast skin infection.

Stinky stuff is very very gentle.
Far more gentle than malaseb.

I have just had a look on the website and there seems to be a ‘non stinky’ version which appears to be the cream but without the neem.
I am only familiar with the original stinky stuff cream that contains neem, which is very good. And very stinky.

Oh my gosh! Just checked one of the cats tummy and definitely evidence of brown ‘spots’ in his fur which I’m positive are fleas!
I actually feel quite physically sick and totally perplexed as all animals are treated regularly with vet prescribed treatment.

What spray would you recommend for the house please?

I have a 3 year old black lab cross with dry itchy skin. He has needed a dose of steroids to get on top of it on the past, he also has IBS so is on Eukaneuba FP diet for skin/allergy issues. I keep on top of it by shampooing him every week to 10 days with a prescription moisturising shampoo, I agree with pp Malaseb is too harsh for dry skin, only good for clearing up an active infection. I thought regular shampooing would dry his skin out more but it has help hugely, a few days after I shampoo all the dry scurf comes to the surface e on his coat, he is much happier and less itchy 🙂 you can tell if fees by scraping sample of skin where any flecks are onto light background and adding water if they go red/rusty colour it’s flea poop!

Tell if fleas, not fees! Bloomin autocorrect...

Yes, I am afraid your fleas are resistant then to that particular medication.
I’ll google what the active ingredient in Stronghold is in a minute.

Some of the store bought flea stuff is pretty much the same as vet prescribed.
For example, the active ingredient in vet prescribed Advantage for a medium dog is 250mg imidacloprid.
But Johnson’s dog flea spot on for medium dogs is also 250mg imidaclopid and it’s far cheaper.
So check the label.

My house flea spray is ‘Bob Martin clear plus’ (active ingredients permethrin, tetramethrin, s - methoprene).
I think it’s excellent and it kills dust mites aswell which is great for me as my DS has asthma.

That said, the Bob Martin spot on that you put on the actual animal has been linked to nasty allergic reactions, particularly in cats so definately don’t buy that!

But the Bob Martin clear plus house spray is really good.
I have heard things about Indorex spray and RIP fleas house spray aswell.

**heard good things

Avoid store bought stuff. Little of it is effectual. If you’ve been using frontline up until now then it’s rubbish.
We use advocate for cats. Nexgard for dogs.
If you need to treat the house then Indorex

A quick google suggests the active ingredient in Stronghold is Selamectin.
That is definately prescription only, you won’t get any unbranded in pet stores.
Strong stuff from the sounds of it that is unlikely to be affected, it’s used to treat a number of parasites.

Was it dirt you saw or an actual slow moving flea?
I am wondering if rather than the fleas being resistant if maybe the fleas you saw were dying so the spot on is working because it is killing as soon as the fleas bite..

Which is fine for a non allergic animal but in an allergic animal the bite will cause nasty itching.

In which case the source of infection is definately your house.

In addition to treating the house I think you should use a repellant product aswell on the dog.
It won’t kill the fleas but it will stop fleas jumping on and biting him.

CSJ make a good spray one.

wolfie it depends what the active drug is and what concentration.
A store bought flea product containing Fipronil for example probably won’t work too well because I am fairly sure that is the active ingredient in Frontline. Which is generally ineffective now.

We have been using eliminall for all the pets.

First noticed pup scratching about 6 weeks ago so took him straight to vet for more flea treatment as he had to be weighed each time. He seemed to stop for a bit but then started scratching again but I thought maybe skin irritation (breed are known for having allergies). Wasn’t until this Saturday when the scratching ramped up that I took him back to the vet who prescribed stronghold with a repeat treatment in 2 weeks.
Vet checked and we have checked pup but can’t see anything to indicate fleas but the cats definately have them. Have just managed to check both of them and to be honest think we have become lapse about treating them every 4 weeks.

Thanks so much for all the advice!

What breed is it?
Because my breed is also prone to allergies but also something called MDR1 sensitivity which can affect what medicines you use.

Still definately 100% do the house.
And get a repellant spray

Also, a quick google suggests eliminall is fipronil.
Definately try something else - a lot of fleas are resistant to fipronil

Thanks so much, will go speak to the vet this week and see what else they can give me for the cats.

Pup is a Spanish water dog. His hair is brown and curly and has a wool like texture. They can be prone to allergies and alopecia.

Off to order some spray for the house. It’s like when your child has head lice and you can’t stop scratching

Yes, horrible little bastards fleas are ☹️
I am sure you’ll get it under control soon.

MDR1 won’t apply to you then as it’s only herding breeds affected, look into repellant spray for dog aswell.

It doesn’t kill fleas so still need house stuff and spot on but it does prevent them jumping on so he doesn’t get bitten (spot on kills once they have bitten)