My dog has been itching and scratching herself like crazy. Also biting on parts of herself and licking. I think she has allergies, this just started up when the weather changed here. Fall is approaching so I have a feeling things are bothering her now. Is it allergies?
2006-09-13 16:04:35 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Dogs
I know its not fleas, because I gave her a bath with flea shampoo and I don't see anything on her. Her skin feels dry. I'm gonna try the benadryl for a little bit and see if that helps any.
2006-09-14 02:04:14 · update #1
Yep, dogs do get allergies. My beagle is allergic to pollen and she's always scratching her face and her belly, sometimes til it bleeds. She has to get shots for her allergies.
2006-09-13 16:13:04 · answer #1 · answered by blued79 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
OMG yes, dogs can have allergies!! I had a greyhound with severe allergies and the change of seasons made it worse for him. The biggest change I saw in him was when I took him off corn in his diet. There are many foods out there without corn. This might alleviate some of her symptoms!
Allergies can be like a cascade effect. She could take one or two allergens just fine, but add in others due to the season change and this could be causing the flare up. If you can take away a major allergen, you can alleviate a lot of her symptoms.
2006-09-14 00:10:42 · answer #2 · answered by wotana02 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could be.
I have two dogs with terrible allergies, and a third with none. The vet will generally try a change of diet first, but can draw blood and perform allergy testing and get a desensitizing serum made for your dog. It's working great with one of mine (the other one has other health problems, so the vet did not want her on allergy shots).
2006-09-13 23:13:30 · answer #3 · answered by searchpup 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes dogs do get alergies, I'll warn you now if thats the case teating them can be pricy depending on what is going to work.
-The first few things you should do is get a flea comb and check for fleas.
-Look at the food you are feeding your dog
you may want to switch to a brand like "Netro heathly shin and coat"
-Vidamins with a fatty acid of fish oil helps
-Have your vet do a skin scraping, sometimes drugs are the the only way to go be warned they can get pricy I have a friend who has to keep her dog on a steriod he can't go off it or he'll start itching, but I do know people who have used a steriod and the dog was able to come off it and be healthy.
******most importantly check for mange, mange is easy to pick up*****
2006-09-13 23:44:02 · answer #4 · answered by carolinalovey 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most likely it is allergies. She could be allergic to her environment, food, pollen, dust, flees, pretty much anything a human can be allergic to. Best thing to do is to feed her high quality human grade dog food ( find a brand with very few ingredients). To keep the dust and mold down in your house. You can also give her probiotics like what is found in plain yogurt w/ live active cultures.
P.s. Stay away from steriods it only masks the problem and your dog can get alot worse.
2006-09-13 23:12:53 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, mine began having this problem when she turned 2. Got sore on her paw and it wouldn't heal til a freeze happened, as she begins obsessing over licking it, developing lick granuloma (I think it's called.). It worsened by age 5, where she got this problem in the spring and the vet kept giving her steroid shots to try to heal. Then it got even worse, sore-wise and hadn't healed 6 mos later. Vet says it started with inhalent allergy. I got so sick of this problem and it led to even ear infection. So, I took her to a holistic vet. She's now receiving acupuncture treatments, herbs and medicine to try to negate effects of steroids on her liver. She's finally nearly well and I'm continuing the treatment now to prevent her usual fall allergy from flaring up. It's great to finally be on the right path!
2006-09-13 23:16:49 · answer #6 · answered by dogfrenzied 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah dogs are a lot like people that's why they use them for experiments, they have allergies, they have lungs and organs just like us. My friend's dog is allergic to grass and when he goes outside, it will itch itself down to the skin. It could also be fleas.
2006-09-13 23:14:46 · answer #7 · answered by JerkMouth219 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Could be allergies but it could be fleas or dry skin.
I had one client come to me in tears that the dog was losing hair. She bathed it, no fleas, etc. It turned out that the woman didn't completely rinse the shampoo out and the dried shampoo flaked and caused the dog to itch.
After bathing it properly.... lo and behold.... the coat grew back!
Sometimes we over-complicate problems and ignore the obvious!
Hope I helped
2006-09-13 23:12:41 · answer #8 · answered by rolahey 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You should take her to the vet to be sure, but it definitely could be allergies. Some dogs are allergic to some pretty strange things and if you don't know exactly what she is allergic to, you won't be able to treat it right. My friend once had a dog that was allergic to grass, of all things!
2006-09-13 23:12:38 · answer #9 · answered by dcgirl 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like it could be allergies. My little guy gets seasonal allergies. I feed him a food that is totally grain free and give him Children's Benedryl if he gets really itchy.
2006-09-14 00:01:20 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋