At my wits' end with my dog's itching and swollen glands

[Skiffypop]

I have a 6yo pug.

I am just at my wits end with her itching.

I've tried so many foods from tails to butternut box to happydog to raw feeding.

I cannot do raw feeding as I do not have the freezer space any more and I have had health problems recently and I just never liked it.

But she has been on forthglade for a while and was still itchy so i tried her on scrumbles and her anal glands swelled up to a cyst and exploded 😭 This happened 3 times when trying to move her off forthglade because its so expensive

But even on forthglade she is so itchy, but at least her glands dont swell.

But this morning she has non stop been biting her paws, shuffling around, flecking, scratching. Shes obviously so, so uncomfortable but I don't know wtf to do anymore.

I have 2 other dogs to feed too and I'm not a rich person.

Im so fed up of it and she must be too :(

Sorry posted too soon and now she has these in BOTH her back legs and I don't know what they are from?? Biting herself?

im not sure this is helpful.But I have a shih tzu.

the only food she can have is Canagen. Otherwise she is a mess.

i have to empty her glands every 2 weeks or so or her bum starts getting quite smelly. Just a little comes out, but it feels better to almost stay on top of it. She doesn’t mind it and just do it quickly in the bath.

i do think the food can make a massive difference. But it is PAINFUL finding the right one.

good luck!

Have you been to the vet?

My itchy dog had multiple allergies, both environmental and food. He had to have hypoallergenic food, a low dose of steroids and twice weekly baths using medicated shampoo.

She's been to the vet everytime her anal glands have impacted and they noted it was because of a change of food, so to keep her on forthglade.

But even on that she is super itchy but I'm scared to try another food incase it happens again. She was quite poorly last time.

I am calling them in the morning in light of these things on her legs.

I think it may be rubbing from the leather couch when she is trying to bite her back end and spinning round, with the pressure/weight resting on her ankle against the leather?

@Skiffypop Has the vet not suggested anything for the itching? If you have insurance, ask for a referral to a dermatologist.

My dog was similar and like pp he has food and environmental allergies. They can test for them and give you a list but I think they don't often suggest it because it's a few hundred pounds for the test. Ours was a few years ago now so not sure exactly if the price. It's definitely worth considering if it's within budget though because it totally changed his life. He had targeted immunotherapy once a month for the environmental allergies (one small injection, costs about £350 a year) and if we stick to food he's more allergic to he lives a normal life

Wonder if Stoolright would help for the anal glands?
It's a seaweed supplement available online. Specifically for anal gland issues.

For the itching, have you tried a fish diet? Might be worth a try but it sounds like it needs something more from the vet.

My dog breeder said most allergies are chicken allergies. Are the foods you’re trying non chicken. No chicken treats? I moved to fish and then realised was still feeding chicken treats!

My spaniel has similar issues every Spring.I've taken him off mixer/complete food and replaced it with a mix of bran flakes, Weetabix, brown rice and vegetables.He still gets a wet food and that's usually Lily's kitchen(great value on Amazon) or Burns (really well priced on Whatever next ).
The vets opinion is that higher fibre naturally helps drain his anal glands.They've also suggested histallay or piriton and given me the appropriate dosage so I can buy it over the counter (be careful to pick the correct dog appropriate version) and this has helped deal with the itch in the short term.Longer term he doesn't seem itchy and I put this down to the change of diet.

Cytopoint injections really help some dogs too.

My dog has a seasonal allergy and colitis. We get Apoquel from the vet for the seasonal allergy, it works really quickly so we've no need to keep her on it, we just give her a tablet when we see that she's starting to lick excessively, stops the itch trigger in the brain apparently. And she's on Hills low fat id original canned wet food. It is expensive but it is giving the best result out of everything we've tried so far. We also buy tinned pure pureed pumpkin and she gets a big spoonful of that in each meal for the fibre, helps to keep her regular.

She has good insurance so will ask about tests, hopefully I can get an appointment tomorrow.

It sounds awful but the flecking and licking is driving me insane. I know she can't help it but it goes through me!

Take your dog to the vet. Could be allergies or summer allergies.

Read my 3rd post.

Hi op, I do feel for you and your dog. We have English Bulldogs, and they are prone to skin and itching problems as well, so I do sympathise. An immediate soothe for itchy spots is Aloe Vera, we get the 1kg tub from Amazon, less than a tenner the last time I had to buy it. It cools and cleans, seems to instantly calm the itch down. If the dog then licks the area, it doesn't harm them. For the itchy paws, this I believe comes from the build up the red yeasty residue that seems to originate from diet. The last time the one dog we have that is prone to this had a flare up, I treated it by soaking each paw as long as I was able to keep each paw in the jug, in a 10:1 (100ml water to 10ml Dettol). This kills off the bacteria. Dettol is perfectly safe to use as a douch, it's on the label, and I have used it on my own face after surgery wounds became infected. I used the same ratio and it didn't sting me but it did rapidly halt the infection. Foodwise, a few months ago we switched to totally no chicken products and Raw. I see you can't use raw, but eliminating the chicken flavoured products is easy to do. It seems to be working, all the red yeasty build up of gunk in their ears has gone, touch wood no red itchy paws or cysts between the toes. Anal glands are all okay currently as well. So in short, slap on Aloe Vera liberally to soothe the sore spots, Dettol douche to bathe and kill off yeasty areas and try to avoid any chicken products. Hope this helps, best wishes.

My BostonxFrenchie rescue has severe allergies.
She’s on Fish4Dogs salmon kibble, Apoquel tablets px by the vet and is definitely allergic to chicken and lamb.
She’s bathed with hypoallergenic dog shampoo.
It’s completely changed her life.
I would definitely recommend fish based food.

I've tried salmon based food before. I always try and avoid chicken products as Ibread it's usually this that causes problems.

She has an appointment today at 3.

@Skiffypopapologies I haven’t RTFT as I’m about to go into a meeting but one of our pugs had allergies and tried apoquel, cytopoint, mange treatment, steroids, medicated shampoos, hypoallergenic food (I think I’m forgetting a couple of bits we also tried!). We ended up getting a blood profile done and he needed immunotherapy coupled with steroids. Hope she gets on ok at 3pm, good luck x

I was thinking the leg sore spots are from stretching round weirdly and pushing to get to itchy bits.

I had a miniature Dachshund years ago which had various behaviour issue when she came to me. One was repeating a certain move which caused fur to rub away and make her sore but she kept on!