I have a feeling that this may just be related to the air being so dry this winter but I just want some opinions on this situation.
To start, about a week ago before I was leaving for work, I was petting Sasha and kept finding these small black specks on her. At first I thought she had just gotten into something, but as I kept finding more I began to suspect that it was flea dirt. As soon as I thought of that, I felt what I thought was a bump on her so I moved her fur to see what it was and the "bump" moved away and I wasn't able to grab it. To me, it looked bigger than what I thought a flea should look like, but then again I've never had a flea problem so I wouldn't have known.
When I got home from work that evening, I decided to bathe her just to be on the safe side. I used Dawn dish soap and actually scrubbed her twice with it. I've heard some people mention that the Dawn dish soap will remove fleas from the dog not necessarily killing them but at least getting them off of the dog. I never saw any notice of fleas in the water at all. I dried her off and brushed her out and began searching through her fur again. I didn't see any black specks. I turned her over to check in her pits and saw the bug I saw earlier crawling down her belly. I was able to grab it this time, kill it and threw it in a bag.
The next day, I took it over the Petsmart (I used to work there) and showed a fellow associate the bug and she confirmed that it was indeed a flea. I bought some k9 Advantix and applied it to her once I got home. I vacuumed the entire house, furniture, washed all the blankets and bedding she had ever laid on and the vacuum was emptied outside. Sasha had never shown any indication that she ever had fleas. She never scratched anymore than any normal dog would.
Now, it seems like ever since I bathed her in the dish soap, she seems more itchier than usual. She rubs up against the furniture more often than she has before and just this afternoon, I noticed that she actually scratched or more or less irritated a spot on her back/side from scratching. She hasn't broken skin but I can tell that the spot does seem a little tender to the touch as her skin does flinch slightly sometimes when I search for the spot. Could I have just dried her skin out from the Dish soap? I know the air in our house has been horribly dry, I mean my mouth, throat and lips are constantly dry as well (gosh I hate winter). I check her over all the time everyday looking to see if there's more fleas or even checking for flea dirt and haven't found any. I put the Advantix on and I know it's supposed to kill everything so I really don't think it's fleas. Her fur is longer than usual as well so I'm sure that isn't helping her. She really needs to be groomed
I'm beginning to wonder if she needs to go to the vet but I don't really want to have to put her on medication for itching especially since she has never had an issue before. I do have some oatmeal shampoo but I don't know if it's too soon to bathe her again as I don't want to irritate her skin even more.
Sorry for the long post but all opinions are greatly appreciated.