Summertime itchies... HELP!!
 

My little buddy Nikki is 9 years old and for several years now he has had the itchies year round. Never something constant, really. He seems to have them worse after a bath and I see him almost nearly eating himself he's so miserable!! :( Sometimes he has little scabs on his back above his tail and we've tried everything. Special oatmeal shampoo for dogs, scalpacin (not ideal), anti-biotic ointment, and for the past two or three days my mom has been using hydrocortizone cream and nothing seems to help much. He's just miserable and we can't figure out why he's doing this. We're going to take him to the vet soon and try to find out what's going on. He only goes outside for a few minutes at a time to go pee every five to six hours and has had frontline plus every month for every year. Can anyone help us out on this?? Does anyone else have this problem with their baby??

You may want to put him on Revolution Heartworm Preventative for a couple of months, as it also kills mites and noseeums in general, fleas and ticks, etc.

Revolution (selamectin) stops fleas and prevents heartworms.

It may be food allergies as they can cause intense itching. What are you feeding him?

I'm glad you're heading to the vet soon - he sounds miserable. It could be an allergy - most likely it is either seasonal or environmental - or a food allergy (which is the least common). The first step though is to rule out any pests and/or skin infection/invasion or fungus.

If allergies are diagnosed, you may want to consider Atopica (if you can't prevent exposure to the allergen, that is) - my Marcel does great on it.

If your vet cannot properly diagnose the issue, I can't recommend highly enough that you see a Vet Dermatologist. I had to go that route - and while it's not cheap, it's worth every penny to solve the problem.

He is taking hill's k/d diet for kidney damage and I think on occasion, dry dog food. We thought it might be a heat rash but he's rarely out in the heat but it always seems to be worse after the bath.

:thumbup: :thumbup: This is excellent advice.

I also wanted to welcome you and Nikki to YT!! Nikki sounds like a very special little guy. We'd love to see some pictures of him! :)

Do you have him on flea & heartworm medicine? If so what kinds. He might need comfortis which is a tablet, and works much better then the topical kinds

100% agree i have an allergy dog as well and we work with dermatologist - they get down to the issue much faster - food allergy is 10% of the time so since you are using frontline and itching all over and you are not itching so probably not scabies or demodex as demodex there are spots you would see. Scabies can be ruled out by revolution but sounds like environmental as well as food -- what are you feeding? if itching like this i would switch slowly to venison and sweet potato by natural balance as even if not food allergy totally all allergy dogs need to be on a limited ingredient food. Even if on flea protection the flea can still bite the dog and cause itching up to 3 weeks - flea protection only prevents flea infestation not bites. Flea allergy affects the back half of the dog only. so the scabs on back end could be flea related unless staph infection which would be all over the back. Most allergy dogs are also allergic to oatmeal so do not use oatmeal shampoo - only use hypoallergenic shampoo and the ones i like are blue hypoallergenic sold at petco, dr bronners mild unscented baby shampoo, and earthbath as i prefer all natural to any chemicals.

it is the shampoo then if itching after bath - do not use any conditioner and use a hypoallergenic formula i recommended. Wow that is tough as has to be on special diet for kidney :(

flea bite
 

What can I do if it is flea bites? She's itching and biting a lot and was exposed to some neighborhood dogs that were likely infested.

Does his food have corn, wheat, or soy in it possibly being from hills. Chester had some of the same stuff sometimes, he has no fleas, I use his and my bedding in all free and clear and no scent in the dryer sheets. I also use grizzly salmon oil on his wet food and that has helped. I will sometimes just rinse him off in the tub, and I use fluffly puppy hypoallergenic shampoo from bio groom, and he has very sensitive skin. Is his food you have him on the only stuff you can use for him, what is the specifics why he is on it, it his itches new and how long has he been on the food. I have also used merry hempsters organic dog salve and it has helped, it looks like a big thing of chap stick, they are just sensitive little burgers arent they, but they are worth it.

Topical treatment for itching
 

Two things you can try for itching that have worked for me. One is Sulfidene. I may not have spelled that right, but it is for hot spots and can be purchased almost anywhere dog products are sold. It is yellow. The other is witch hazel. It can be purchased in a drug store and maybe in the gorcery store in the drug isle. Also, you can get anti itch pills from your vet.

I'll try and post some pics of Nikki if I can get him to sit still long enough :p As of right now, he is taking topical frontline plus and the heartworm pill I am almost certain is tablet form once a month. I noticed this morning that he always seems to bite just above his tail on his back and on his front paws. There always seem to be little scabs above his tail. I don't know that it's food allergies, we have been very careful to make sure he only has his own dog food. It's moist hill's k/d diet, at night he seems to prefer the dry dog kibble. Also when he's sleeping in bed with my dad, he will wake up in the middle of the night and scratch and bite himself moreso then than in the daytime. When my mom takes him to the vet this friday, we'll see if we can get something figured out. She already plans on asking about it. Thanks guys!

I would be worried about switching to this--I worked at a vet's office and we had dogs coming up positive on it, yes the company pays for the treatment, but the damage done is still there.

Has the vet previously reccommended any special shampoo's? Also, there are antihistamines(benedryl, chlorapheneramine) that can be used as well. If the baby has a flea allergy, one flea can make them miserable/hair fall out/get scabs--in general, just plain miserable like you are describing.

you can try benedryl and if not working temarilp

are you on k9kidney group on yahoogroups.com - can you home cook as that might be the option you want to take