[Sam375]

Hi everyone-
I have been MIA for awhile, extremely busy.

I thought I would post my problem with Harry.
He is constantly itching anymore.
He has some small red spots, here n there.
Sometimes his ear flaps are red/hot ( NOT INFECTED)
And he scratches/bites from head to toe, including his feet.
So, with that said, lets say it is NOT a food allergy, then what shampoos, ointments, drugs, supplements, treatments have you used on your dogs problem skin?
Can you please give name, place where purchased and type of problem(s) it helped?

He was a year old october 15.
His skin has no flakiness.
Harry had been on Wellness core ( grain free, protein based) fish, and then I did switch him to wellness with grains fish, and am now switching him back to core fish. To try and rule out the food as the issue.
He did have a medicated bath at a groomers which did not help.
He does not appear to have any evidence of fleas.
He does not wear a flea/tick colar or have any spot on treatment.
His shampoos have been ones I have used before on him with no problems.
I tried Benadryl but didn't really seem to do much.
His belly doesn't have any hotspots, he is starting to get a few small dot type scabs towards the ends of the underside of his ears.
I hate seeing him constantly at himself

 

[Jammies]

Our sheltie has the same problem and we took her to our vet who sent us to a dermatologist. She is on medication which does help. She is allergic to the environment...grass, trees, etc. Let's see, is there a bubble for a dog to live in???

 

[Sam375]

Our sheltie has the same problem and we took her to our vet who sent us to a dermatologist. She is on medication which does help. She is allergic to the environment...grass, trees, etc. Let's see, is there a bubble for a dog to live in???

What medication and what were the results of the medication?

 

[ama0722]

Could he have earmites or something going on in his ears? Is this the main area he is itching.

Isabelle has had bad fall environmental allergies since we moved to SC (I go through this and now my husband was just diagnosed with seasonal asmtha as well!). My vet was the first to offer shots but I wanted to avoid that if possible. She gets itchy as soon as she comes back in from going outside and she itches her back like crazy. So I actually cut down her back given her benadryl for kids and have used hydrocortisone spray for dogs that I got from the vet and an alternative that I like as well has been colloidal silver spray. Those have been able to stop hot spots thus far and she is back to doing a lot better. She now actually likes the sprays too, I think she has finally realized their effect.

Amanda

 

[Sam375]

He is irritated from head to toe, so wouldn't ear mites be just in the ears and they would be dirty?
He is starting little scabs on the tips of his ears and will once it a while shake his head, but I thought he would need to have dirty ears too.
I was thinking of doing the spot on REVOLUTION. Covers mange mites fleas ticks, etc.

 

[lfung5]

Scudder get this too. Fred has a couple scabs from time to
time. My guys are always on some kind of flea and tick control even in the winter. My vet told me it was a staff infection and it took over 2 weeks of antibiotics to clear. I wasn't convinced that was the proper cure. He still gets scabs from time to time. In fact, both my boys have some now. I really think it's an allergy to the high grasses they come onto contact with on our hike. I tried benadryl or maybe it was bactine ointment applied right to the scab. That's cleared them up pretty fast. Might be worth a try!

 

[SMARTY]

Did your vet do a scraping for Demodectic Mange? It starts as little red bumps and then can bloom into something more severe. 99% of all dogs carry the mite that causes this. Some dogs will have just mild irritations at different times.

The site below site has the severe cases but some good info.

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/demodectic_mange.html

 

[TheVintageVamp]

I wouldn't use any sort of a spot-on flea/tick treatment if he has open sores or raw areas on his skin. I would think that could cause even more problems.

We had a cocker spaniel that had a terrible time with skin problems/allergies. Have you checked for any sort of a yeasty smell from his ears? Magic would get yeast infections inside his ears. We got drops from the vet for that. We finally discovered that part of his problem was the systemic flea medication he was on (Program) and the rest was other allergens. The vet gave him a two week course of low dose steroids (prednisone) and took him off the Program and put him on a grain free diet and supplemented with Linatone. This took care of his skin problems fully, as long as we watched him close. If he showed any signs of a hot spot, we immediately treated it with sulfodene spray. This seemed to stop them in their tracks for him.

I really would take him to the vet first to get their thoughts and maybe some immediate relief for him. You don't want secondary infections cropping up.

 

[Tom King]

I've never seen a skin irritation that this stuff won't fix-from a hotspot on one of our farm dog's legs to a place on a Scientist friend's arm that had been treated by two different Dermatologists with no success and was over a year old.

http://www.chrissystems.com/peace.htm

 

[DanielBMe]

I think the first thing you need to determine is if it's a food allergy or airborne allergy. Definitely sounds like some type of allergy.

Do you find Harry is chewing/licking the tops of his paws or licking the pads? Is he scratching his muzzle at all? Is he primarily just scratching his ears and sides?

If he is licking/chewing the tops of his paws and not really scratching his muzzle, then I would say it sounds more like an airborne allergy, ex grass, pollen, ragweed, dust mites. If he seems to be licking the pads of his paws and scratching his muzzle or even rubbing his face into the carpet quite a bit, then I would guess that it's food related. Ear infections are also quite common with food allergies.

My guys are both allergic to beef. Within hours of feeding them beef, the scratching turns up and I can see them licking the bottoms of the pads.

I would first try to rule out food but moving to a single source protien. Fish is good but you need to see what else is in the food. Try to move away from any grains.

It could take up to 3 months to see an improvement. You also need to look at what treats you are giving. YOu need to be diligent. Once you do that for a few months then you'll get a better idea. If the scratching doesn't stop, then I'd do an allergy test.

You also need to track if there are times when you notice the scratching increases or decreases. I just went through all this so know how difficult it is.

 

[irnfit]

This problem is so frustrating. Sometimes after feeding Kodi chicken, he will rub his muzzle on the rug. But, he doesn't do it all the time. So, is this an allergy to chicken? And he had been doing so well with the itching. Then a few days ago, he was scratching like crazy. I put him in my lap to check him and sure enough, two fleas. It has been very mild here, in the 50's, so those little ba#%*ds are still around. He is so allergic to fleas I think he just hears the word and starts to itch. Don't rule out fleas. If the dog is outside and gets bit, the flea can just hop right off and you wouldn't see any signs.

 

[Jammies]

I've never seen a skin irritation that this stuff won't fix-from a hotspot on one of our farm dog's legs to a place on a Scientist friend's arm that had been treated by two different Dermatologists with no success and was over a year old.

http://www.chrissystems.com/peace.htm

Tom, does this actually cure the problem or just stop the itching? Do you know how often you have to put it on the dog? I've read the testimonials and this might be just what we need for our sheltie!!! It sure would beat the expensive medications that we buy from our vet!

 

[Sam375]

He had 2 baths yesterday, which have seemed to help. I noticed that his inside ear flaps were less red after the baths and this am his ears look decent.
He is still itchy this morning but maybe not quite as bad, but is itchy from head to toe.
His ears really have no sign of infection, and he does get at his feet...basically everything.
I did order the revolution as he doesn't have any really open wounds...yet.

I did have him at the vet, he just sort of was like...could be a food allergy, but didn't think it was much to be concerned with but since he never stopped it seems to have escalated alittle...

Went back to his grain free fish food, Between that and the revolution I am hoping it will clear up.
I will be ordering the colliodal spray today, to try and ward off anything from starting worse on his skin.

If it is a flea allergy, how long would a bite make his system go crazy for?

 

[Missy]

Awwww. poor Harry. One thing about allergies, is they can develop them out of no where...so the same food, shampoo, etc. may in fact be causing this. Did the vet seem to think it could be bacterial? how has your weather been, if Harry is slightly damp a lot of the time from going in and out of rain or dew, I would look into bacterial. In which case, this shampoo really worked for Cash.

Amazon.com: ChlorhexiDerm 2% by DVM (8 oz): Kitchen & Dining

the hard thing is you have to never leave them wet-- blow dry every time they come in or are bathed.

Once when he had a reaction to a bug bite and would not stop itching all over the vet gave us this leave on cream rinse and cleared it up.

http://www.entirelypets.com/releco1.html

good luck. I know how frustrating itchiness can be for man and beast.

 

[Sam375]

I've never seen a skin irritation that this stuff won't fix-from a hotspot on one of our farm dog's legs to a place on a Scientist friend's arm that had been treated by two different Dermatologists with no success and was over a year old.

http://www.chrissystems.com/peace.htm

Is there anything else on that website worth purchasing, or do you think just the spray?
Was looking at conditioner, waterless shampoo, and something to keep the hair down away from the eyes without trimming it so he can seeeee...

 

[HavaneseSoon]

This is my experience....

I have no idea what caused Dexter to scratch his ears, it could of been an allergy. I don't remember feeding anything different unless it was a treat that he reacted to.

Anyway....Dexter would scratch and scratch his ears...the right one mainly, I took him to the Vet to check out the ears and the Vet did not see any mites.

The inner leather part of the ear was red from scratching...I tried Cortizone.10 Cream with Aloe. I took a very small tab on my finger and rubbed it on the inside of the ear flap. It was just Dexter's ears that were red, after a few days of the cream, the ears were back to normal. I did notice at the time that Dexter was itching a lot, he was biting at his toes also.

I think if Dexter was itching all over, I would be checking for fleas for sure and then changing his diet to see if I could narrow down an allergy....that is after, I took Dexter to a Vet to see if they knew what it was or possibly take a little skin scraping for the lab.

I haven't used the cream for Dexter's ears in a good while now, but he will still tend to scratch his ears now and then and I check the ears flaps to make sure they are not red like before. I haven't seen Dexter chewing on his toes since the ear redness problems.

Anyway....my experience....when I was at the Vet, he said, "if the ears got worse, we could always try a corticosteroid (I believe that is what he said).

Dexter is still on his flea/tick medication, so I am ruling out fleas...it has got to be some mild allergy.

 

[Sam375]

My plan

So, I went to petsmart today, and between what I bought at petsmart and things online, this is my course of action.
Let me know what you guys think...
Excel diphenhydramine tablets, gave first dose this evening.

Treated his ears tonight with ear mite treatment from petsmart (even though currently no signs internally of mites)

For tomorrow he gets ANOTHER bath with...
Dawn dishwashing or vinegar mix because I was dumb with baby oil:redface:
I bought synergy labs vet formula hot spot & itch relief med conditioner..has lidocaine hydrocortisone and wheat germ oil in it.

Then I have one dose of advantix spot on left for under 10lbs weight (Harry is 16lbs) but I thought that I would use it to at least help kill any bugs which I can't seem to find, eventhough i have given him flea/tick shampoo the other day. I know the advantix is controversial, but he did ok on it over the summer and I didn't give it to him on a regular basis, he has no major open sores or anything.

I ordered Revolution spot on but that won't be here until Friday, and I am sure he will require a bath by then, which will wash off the advantix spot on.

I also ordered the recommend collidol spray.

From what I can tell thus far, is I suspect that it may have been the food, (went from fish grain free to fish with grains) and that it is just not out of his system yet, and from what I read through here it can take a few weeks for the food allergy to go out of the system.:Cry:

So, In the meantime I can help him with his skin and kill any bugs which by chance is causing the reaction, bug I have never been able to find a flea on him. It did get really cold here today and snowed, so hopefully it finally killed the bad bugs.

Man and if all of this doesn't work, then its not the food and I'll have one irritated dog for the rest of his life, poor thing.
I'll let you know how things go on Monday.

 

[ama0722]

Poor little guy and it sounds like you are trying everything to help him. I would really be careful with how much flea treatment you are putting on him. Some dogs break out badly and get horrible skin irritations from that stuff as well. And with him having skin issues, I bet that doesn't help. Maybe instead the next bath just do an apple cider vinegar rinse- like a 1/2 cup with a gallon of water and don't rinse him after pouring that on?

 

[Sam375]

I was thinking that I would give him a bath to was off the advantix next week and then apply the revolution like on sat/sun. I don't think the spot ons stay in the skin if you use certain shampoos???

 

[Sam375]

Well here is where we are at.
He does seem to be a little better, but its not so far because of anything I haved used.
His body doesn't seem to be quite as itchy but his ears still get inflamed, especially in the morning and evening, he mostly itches his ears ( one is always worse than the other), and his feet.

the pills I bought OTC didn't seem to do much.
The bath seems to help overall especially the redness in his ears even if temporary.

I bought the collidal spray and I really did not see where it made the itch go away or if it did it was for a short bit, just like hydrocortisone spray I bought.

I never did the advantix.
I gave him a med conditioner bath today, and then will put the revolution on him either this evening or tomorrow, maybe even tomorrow evening this way his is completely dry and his skin isn't irritated from the bath.

I'll post again if anyhting changes.

Since he is on a grain free fish based food, IF he is allergic to the food what the heck would possibly be in the food that he is allergic too? I can't see where it would be the food but I also can't see where it would be a bug making him itch this long especially since I can't find a bug on him at all!