best supplement for itchy skin and ear troubles

[Happytodayhappytomorrow]

The choice is huge.

Is it only trial and error to see what works best for our dog?
Are the more expensive supplements worth it?

It’s worth checking out their diet first - itchy skin and ear troubles sound like an allergy to me. Worth keep a food diary for a few weeks to see if there’s a trigger.

Like PP - I would be looking at allergies before going down the supplement route, personally.

We like cooper and Gracie for the itchy skin spray and Pro Pooch for the ear cleaner.

However biggest impact for us was switching to grain free diet as we discovered that's what was making my dog so itchy.

Sorry just realised you asked for a supplement. What I listed was a skin spray and ear cleaner. However this did really help when my dog was itchy whilst we was transitioning to grain free

Thanks for the posts. In the past we have tried checking his diet to see if something triggered it. He’s been raw fed (Honeys) and we tied eliminating various proteins but nothing made a difference. We’ve tried him on Butternut and no difference again.

I will go back though to looking at his diet and keeping a diary
Could something as innocuous as carrot cause itching do you think?

Apoquel has helped our dog lots, along with a grain free diet.

I would try a true hypoallergenic diet first, something like Purina HA. If it clears up then you know it is dietary and can isolate each potential allergen one by one, for example try some fish and see if that flares up. One of mine can only eat one specific kibble and almost everything else causes the itch or the ears to start.

I would also speak to your vet about allergy medication before wasting time on supplements, they won’t work if the thing causing the problem is still there!

Once we had eliminated all the things that bothered her (chicken, tripe, eggs) and added salmon oil to her food, we found that Thornit powder was amazing. As in, stopped her ears bothering her overnight.
She had seen several vets and had various anti biotic drops too.

@Leonberger

I would try a true hypoallergenic diet first, something like Purina HA. If it clears up then you know it is dietary and can isolate each potential allergen one by one, for example try some fish and see if that flares up. One of mine can only eat one specific kibble and almost everything else causes the itch or the ears to start.

I would also speak to your vet about allergy medication before wasting time on supplements, they won’t work if the thing causing the problem is still there!

Honestly, do this.

Allergies and intolerences are pernicious and it really is a great benefit to spend the time working out if and what might be at the root here.

Is Purina HA the one that is beige looking, and dry?

Have you seen a vet? Not all allergies are dietary, some are environmental. There are no supplements that will cure an allergy, he likely needs medication.

Yes it’s like Rice Krispies. Unfortunately in order for it to work it must be hydrolysed protein. I believe there’s hills ZD which is wet. If you trial it and the dog improves massively you know that’s your issue.

Personally I would try and get a vet appointment for allergy testing or a trial of medication. It’s really pointless messing about until you know the root cause or at least can guess if it’s food/environmental.
Food is easier to deal with as you can isolate the source of the problem, environmental is harder and you would probably need something like cytopoint or apoquel.

I couldn’t imagine a life of itchiness so I did try and get mine sorted as best I could!

This has been an ongoing issue with the poor dog for a few years now.

He's been on a completely restricted diet (I'm not sure if it was the Purina HA. It was a very beige kibble thing, really dry and tasteless)

He's had skin allergy testing at the animal hospital.

He's been on Apoquel and Cytopoint but neither helped.

I've just had a load of raw food delivered so I'm going to restrict him to one protein and not feed ANYTHING else at all and see if there is any difference. He's been on long term steroids too and we weaned him off them. It's looking like that was maybe a mistake but we'll try the food restriction again and see if we have any positive results.

He hasn't always been as itchy as he is now. Something must have triggered this particular incident. But I cannot for the life of me thing what I've done differently.

No change in dog food
No change in cleaning products
No change in laundry products
No change in training treats.

Only thing can be that the steroids have now completely left his system (we did it slowly and he finished his 'quarter tablet every other day' last week).

Back on the steriods?
Or try the diet again?