Itchy dog

[Tulipvase]

Hi

We will be speaking to a vet but just after any thoughts/advice.

We have a 3 year old black lab. She is fed on Forthglade wet food and has been for about 2 years. It seems to suit her well and last year the vet commented on her condition and said whatever we fed her seemed to be good for her.

Recently we have noticed more scratching and licking, particularly her front legs and her armpits. I can’t see anything obvious and the skin doesn’t seem inflamed at all. She is on regular flea and worming treatment from the vet and it hasn’t changed at all. She now has a bit of a bald patch on one leg.

I can’t think that anything has changed to cause this.

We wondering if the food could have changed? I have emailed Forthglade but not expecting much of a response. We are tempted to try chappie for a bit as we know she is ok on it but long term I don’t think it’s a great option.

I also wonder if it’s become a bit of a habit? Rather than an actual physical issue?

Appreciate any thoughts anyone might have.

Our lab started this, and chewing her paw pads, at a couple of years old. We ended up swapping her to a hypoallergenic dry food which sorted the issue within a week.

Thank you.

We had terrible trouble with her and dry food, took awhile to find something that seemed to suit her. I’ll have a look and see if you can get hypoallergenic wet food.

I did read something about food allergies starting around age 2/3.

My older male (castrated) recently developed itchy ears. We had a course of drops and antibiotics from the vet, following a swab test, which cleared it. He is back itching, clear swab test, so we have removed wheat and poultry from his diet.

Thank you, yes thinking we will definitely have to do some kind of exclusion diet. Pretty sure the food she has is already grain free.

Have you started to use anything different in the house, carpet cleaner, floor cleaner, spray polish, washing liquid for his bedding, anything? It’s surprising what they can be allergic to. One of mine was terrible with Shake n Vac years ago when it was popular, I didn’t use it but someone we visited did.

Not that we can think of. We did get a new sofa recently, I did mention that to my husband today.

We also wondered if she is just a bit damp maybe from it being so wet? I do dry her off but maybe not enough.

We also, cough, have never given her a bath. 3/4 of the year she’s in and out of the stream so I’ve never really felt the need as I didn’t want to damage her coat. But maybe we should be?

What does the vet think?

We have an 'itchy' 4 year old lab. Like you, no sign of redness or rash. He had a couple of short courses of steroids from the vet last year which seemed to break the scratching cycle for a few months. A lot of our walks are on moorland and vet suggested his skin might be irritated from running through prickly gorse, so he scratches and then his skin is irritated so he scratches more.

We don't bathe our labs. There's the occasional hosing then towelling if they get caked in mud or roll in something unpleasant. Otherwise they get very wet in the rain regularly and then get a brisk towelling - we think that's enough. We also brush them regularly with a shredder brush to remove loose hair (and dirt).

We have an appointment next week.

Im wondering if it’s something similar for us. I hope so as I’d to hate to change her food as it really suits her.

@Tulipvase - did you manage to see a vet? My lab has started up with his itchiness again today - chewing his paws and front legs.

@BeadedBubbles We had to move the appointment to next week but we changed her food last Sunday and I think she is less itchy. We will still go next week though. It’s mostly the inside of her front legs, not her paws. And ears etc aren’t affected either. I’m not sure the food isn’t a coincidence as we haven’t swapped to anything hypoallergenic. Forthglade did reply to me and said they haven’t made any recent changes to their recipes.

I did wonder if somehow we are getting fake forthglade as we buy it from Amazon….but think that’s probably a bit of a stretch lol.

My dog bites her paws and itches a lot every autumn/winter and then it vanishes again in spring time. The vet said some dogs have allergies to leaf mold from the fallen leaves. It's probably not the case for yours if the allergy has only just started but could be something similar/seasonal?

Possibly. We have considered the fact it’s been really wet and muddy where we are and wondered if that was irritating her skin too. I’m hopeful the vet will be able to tell if it’s something like that.

Did you solve the issue op?

Just seen your reply, as I’ve started looking for help again.

We saw the vet last year, she prescribed steroids, they worked but as soon as we stopped them, the itching returned. Vet suggested we could try a long term medication, apoquel I think but we haven’t done that yet. She got much better for a few months, we went to grain free and poultry free food. Basically fish based. But in the last month or so, it has got bad again. We wonder if it’s a pollen based issue as opposed to food.

Vet basically implied we may never get to the bottom of it but I’m still looking at things.