My doberman continues to gnaw himself raw in spots. I have changed food and have spray. Any suggestions?

Question

We learned that dobermans can be sensitive to dog food with corn meal, so we have changed to lamb and rice formula. Tough this has helped tremendously, he still has areas that he will scratch and bite until they bleed. I have hot spot/tea tree oil spray to help sooth a bit. He doesn't have extremely dry skin, so he is not flakey, as a lot of this breed seems to be. Are there other tricks/remedies I could try?
Thanks!!

Answer 1

It may be a nervous habit. When does he do it more? Is it when you are gone? This could be a sign of "Seperation Anxiety" this is common in dogs when they are taken out of a normal routine or are seperated from their owners for times longer then normal. Did you switch hours at work? Went on a vacation? You may want to get him into the vet to have him checked out. If its seperation anxiety there are pills that you can give him when you are gone to help him relax.

Answer 2

You could try a food that contains no wheat or corn meal and which has an uncommon meat source. I have two dogs that have sensitive skin and one used to have to have cortisone shots and antibiotics regularly. It helped me to change her food to Nature's Recipe Venison and Rice, and to vary her diet with other of their uncommon meat source foods like Duck, Rabbit and Fish blends.
Nature's Recipe is not the only line of dog food that uses alternative sources of meat or omits wheat etc. that are common allergens to dogs. Dick Van Patten's Venison and Potato is excellent and there are other brands that are excellent as well. Lamb and rice might be better than chicken or beef formulas for your dog, but it wasn't enough for my dogs. They improved on Lamb and Rice formulas but continued to have serious problems with skin and coat.
Also, another thing that has helped them are the following supplements from my Vet who does know about animal nutrition:
NutriVed- Roast beef flavored supplements for skin and coat
and
Skin Formulation 3V Caps- these have Omega 3, Vit A, D and E in them and have hugely changed the health of my dogs.
These things may work for you.
I know I have heard that Canidae is a great food. I have never used it though. Royal Canin is great too, but I am not aware of any alternative meat sources in their formulations.
I know many people object to a raw diet, but when my dogs were all three on a raw diet they were very healthy. i could not keep up with it because of lack of freezer space and time to concoct all the recommended foods. But here is a link in case you want to consider it or consider a partial raw diet:
http://www.rawdogranch.com
You can e-mail the site owner with questions about your dog and the raw diet.

Answer 3

My lab use to have the same problem, the only food that we could give him was Nutro Lamb & Rice.

Changing the food is great, but don't forget about his treats. We made that mistake, then figured it out and starting getting the special biscuits too. Made a huge difference.

Our lab was also allergic to fleas, go figure, we kept him on flea drops all year round and that helped too. Finally, we could only use oatmeal based shampoos on him. His skin wasn't dry either, it was the residues left on him by the other shampoos that caused the itching.

When he would have bad episodes we would give him Lipiderm as a supplement. You can get it at Petsmart.

Answer 4

You may need to talk to your vet about this-if you haven't already. Food allergies are very common and your vet may want to try a fish based food or something like kangaroo (made by eukanuba) because the allergies stem from the protein source in the food. Also, once you begin the new food, make absolutely sure that your dog does not get any table food or treats because they could be causing more irritation.

Answer 5

Is there any corn at all still in the food? Also chicken can be bothersome, check for chicken fats etc.

If he is just dry, add some Omega 3 oil to his diet. Ours eat the capsules and are fine with it. Some dogs like the oil dribbled over their food. Helps alot with a dry winter drying out their skin.
What colour is he?

Answer 6

Dobermans are very prone to skin and allergy iussues.
Treat his spots as needed and try to teach him not to chew when you correct him if you can get him to stop.
Some dogs grow out of the problems as they get older. Some have issues all their lives.
Corn wheat and soy are big allergy problems for many dogs. Feeding a dog food with out thse things in it can help. Some do well with an oil suppliment on the food.
I had one who had a rash on his tummy sometimes in winter and sometimes in summer and we tried all sorts of food. Even stuff made from kangaroo meat. Nothing helped much. As he got older it was not as bad and I treated it with a medicated creme we had compounded at the pharmacy. It had some antibiotic and steroid in it to help with swelling and itch and to provent infection.
Hopefully with time your dobes skin will get better.

Answer 7

try fish oil tablets in food and on the spots you can find it vitamin aisle at any drug store female gsd did same thing plus the corn these actions have stopped since using the fish oil poke it with a pin and squeeze it on food and spots on dog

Answer 8

Consider the raw diet, you might see even more tremendous improvements. Sometimes it isn't the food causeing trouble. Dogs can have skin allergies as well as humans. Perhaps the dogs bedding or the fabric on your couch is to blame.

Answer 9

have you brought him to the vet to look for mites? Have you heard of the recall on dog foods in the U.S? go to food menu.com/recall