Hannah won't stop scratching/biting!
 

We have a now 8 month old Yorkie. A few months ago we noticed a red blotch on her belly. It turned out she had a skin infection and we gave her a round of anti-biotics and the infection eventually went away, however from that point on she has been almost contstantly scratching at her sides or biting her paws. We took her to the vet and then to a dermatology specialist who told us they are unable to run allergy tests on her until she is a year and a half old! Apparently allergies may come and go at this point so it doesn't pay to run the tests now. We have had her on low doses of steroids three times now which seems to help but she can't stay on it forever. We were given a drug called Atopica which didn't seem to help. Yesteday we bought an Omega 3 supplement from PetSmart and gave it to her. This morning we found that she had pooped all over her crate, and she has thrown up her breakfast and lunch. We think that besides allergies she suffers from severe separation anxiety that can also cause self-mutilation in the form of biting and scratching.

We wanted to know if anybody has had a similar experience and if there is any advise on how to help her stop biting and scratching herself. It seems to be worse at night and worse still when she is sitting on our laps.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Well, I don't know anything about anxiety and self-mutilation . . unless it's something called a 'lick granuloma'. My Westie got those before just by going back to same spot and licking over and over and over . . can be from boredom or many things. The vet gave me a spray for that - he had one place on his paw. The spray tasted bad and that was the end of that!

My Westie has bad skin allergies as well; he ended up with a skin infection like your dog from scratching.

Per his vet's advice; we give Claritin or Zyrtech on days when he seems to be scratching or itching a lot. Neither make him sleepy. We also bathe him with Cortisoothe shampoo - it's not heavy duty medicated like the one for the skin infection . . . but it does help calm the skin. Rx only. We also bathe him more often when this is going on.

Lastly, we had to find the right food for him. Ringo does better with foods without a lot of grains and chicken. Right now, he's on Blue Buffalo Wilderness.

When things get really bad - usually in the fall - he gets a taper-down dose of prednisone.

His allergies seem to be pretty well under control. Good Luck!

If you use Heartworm preventative, ask your vet to try her on Revolution for one month. Dogs can pick up mites that can be hard if not impossible to see on a skin scraping, and if it is mites, it will work noticibly within 24 hours. If that gives her relief, consider using it each month.

Another thing to consider is fleas. If she has a flea bite allergy, it doesn't take but one flea to set a dog off. If she's not on a flea product, Revolution takes care of them as well.

Also, I just learned recently that dogs can be allergic to dust mites, which are found everywhere, but especially in the bedroom, and especially in humid climates. As you said her itching is worse at night, this needs to be considered.

The Omega 3 supplement will help, but try giving her 1/4 to 1/2 the recommended amount, and gradually increase the dose. It may help her to tolerate it better. Coconut oil is also great for the skin, inside and outside.

https://www.revolution4dogs.com/default.aspx

Dust mites cause common intradermal skin test reaction in dogs - DVM

My lab has a flea bite allergy. True all it takes is one flea, she goes crazy scratching and biting and loses patches of hair. Have to keep her on flea medication to prevent this.
grains also cause allergic response in some people as well as animals

Frequently with food allergies one will see itching of the face and front legs/feet, and within 40 minutes of eating.

Thanks for the info!

The first thing the dermatologist did was put her on a special diet of Royal Canin food from rabbit and potatoes, and that didn't help her allergies. We do give her heartworm medicine monthly but we also have the liquid flea medicine we drop onto her back monthly, so hopefully it isn't a flea problem.

We think she has an allergy, probably to something like dust mites like you mentioned kjc, and she makes it worse with her nervous scratching and biting. Hopefully once the weather cools down (a long way off right now unfortunately) she'll start to feel better.

Did the vet suggest an antihistamine to offer some relief or another course of treatment? If it were one of mine I would continue to look for the source of the problem. It is not comfortable to be biting and itching.

I didn't explain... if your flea spot meds don't take care of mites, you may want to try changing to Revolution, it does mites, fleas, and Heartworm. Or there is another product that takes care of mites too, but I am not familiar with it. Ask your vet if you want to try it, some you can apply sooner than one month, and I would check this out... you don't want your baby to suffer with this till Fall or Winter. You would discontinue using the products you use now, and only apply the Revolution once a month. There is a special protocol when treating for mites, so ask your vet about it.

The dermatologist did suggest either an anti-histamine or omega 3. We spoke to them again yesterday and they did say Hannah got sick because we gave her too much omega 3 (the instructions said 1/2 teaspoon for dogs less than 20 lbs, but since Hannah is only 6 lbs, even that was too much) so we're going to start that up again and only give her like 3 drops a day and hopefully it will be ok and start to help her.

She was tested for mites and the test came back negative. The dermatologist has determined that she has allergies but can't run allergy tests until she is a year and a half. We believe her anxieties might be playing a role as well but we're not ready to try anything as drastic as anti-depressants or psychology just yet.

:(:( wow

I've heard of dogs having such allergies to fleas that only ONE can wreak havoc - my advise would be to check with your vets and find out if you can give a bath in DAWN DISH SOAP - the original -

what it does is immediately kill any fleas on them (be careful around the face areas) - but it isn't going to stop a flea problem if that's what's going on - it's just a temporary fix.

The dawn soap cuts thru the waxy protective coating fleas develop that make them immune to water and shampoos so you WILL kill whateve is there in that one bath - but please check with the vet - you don't want to aggrevate her skin if it's raw or patchy.

I've done it and found ONE flea in the water last year when my girls started scratching - I used to have a yard and never needed flea control because I always treated my yard but since moving into an apartment I have to be very careful now - especially in Houston where they thrive and we have lots of stray cats in the area

GOOD LUCK !

ps - I have a friend who swears by this - she said at the first sign of scratching - it's a Dawn Soap Bath for her guys and she swears she's never had a flea problem

It will also prevent any fleas from landing on them for a bit. But as I said - it will not stop an ongoing problem and you don't want to do it too often as it will dry the skin

it's just a thought - but a proven effective method. You can see in the bath water if any dead fleas come off the pet if you watch carefully. They're hard little suckas to see when living and some can be so tiny you dont even know your pet has fleas - the key is watching when you rinse for any tiny black dots

then try to grab it to see if it's really a flea or just dirt etc

Many times mites are missed on skin scrapings...