How to help my dog stop itching?

Question

I have a 1.5 yo Bloodhound. Two weeks ago he started to itch like crazy and lick himself everywhere. I gave him a bath with medical shampoo. I also applied advantix on him. He didnt get better, so I took him to the vet. The doctor gave him a short and also gave some fleas control pills.It did help, but in 4 days he started to itch as much as he did before.He aslo has sores everywhere on his body.I talked to the vet again,they dont really know what to do,suggested to get another short,but if it didnt help the first time I dont see the point to do it again.My dog eats Purina Food,I wouldnt think its a food allergy because he's been on this food for a year.Doctor said it might be fleas allergie, but he doesnt have any fleas. I applied Advantix again but it didnt help.I dont really know what to do...I just cannot see my dog suffers like he is.If he continues scratching himself soon he want have any hair. Can anybody help?May be someone has the same problem and know how to treat it?

Answer 1

By the sounds of it he has a skin condition.. Take into consideration his diet and also how many times you bath him. Bathing a dog too much can take out the natural oils in the hair and skin. Bath him once every 3 weeks or once a month. Also make sure he's not allergic to the shampoo you're using.
Good Luck

Answer 2

As far as flea allergies go, you not seeing fleas on him means absolutely nothing. You rarely see fleas on animals that have a true flea allergy, as it only takes a single flea bite to have them incredibly itchy. You have to allow a few weeks minimum for the flea control to take full effect, so flea allergy can't be ruled out at this stage. If you're using Advantix, you need to use it every 2 weeks at this stage (for 3 applications) to assess whether fleas are likely to be the problem.

I would agree with you that a food allergy is unlikely, unless you've added something else into his diet recently.

A contact allergy is possible- has he come into contact with any grasses, pollens, etc., recently? While we're talking allergies, another potential cause would be atopy...Atopy is caused by inhalation of allergens, but the disease manifests as itchy skin. This can be quite difficult to treat as you ideally need to identify what is causing the allergy and avoid it- usually a job for a veterinary dermatologist.

What sort of area do you live in? If it is somewhere rural, I would also want to rule out sarcoptic mange. This is caused by mites and causes the dog to be intensely itchy. The vet can do a skin scraping to look for mites, although many will just treat to rule the problem out- the most common treatment is Revolution applied every 2 weeks for 3 treatments. I'm fairly sure that Advantix has no action against mites.

Finally, it would be worth talking to the vet about doing something called a 'tape prep'. This is very straightforward- it just involved pressing a piece of sticky tape to the dog's skin, putting it on a slide and examining it under the microscope for bacteria or yeasts. If your dog has been scratching constantly for two weeks, regardless of the cause, I would suspect that he's probably got a secondary skin infection, which will only be making him more itchy. This means that he'll probably need a shot of antibiotic and antibiotic tablets. I would suspect that he also needs more anti-inflammatories as well (the shot your vet gave last time was probably cortisone, which settles inflammation in the skin pretty well).

If your current vet isn't looking any further than flea allergy, you need to get a second opinion. Good luck, and I hope your dog is feeling better soon.

Answer 3

Poor guy. He could have a pollen allergy and this is the time of year (this and Spring) where the pollen can drive dogs insane with skin problems.

I agree that a 2nd opinion is in order. The fact that your Vet didn't even mention any allergy besides a flea allergy is reason enough to look elsewhere for help.

The shot helps for a while (I'm assuming it was cortizone or some other steriod) but you should ask about maybe giving him Benedryl or some other allergy med. *Talk to the Vet about proper dosage first!!!*

And I know you said he's only been on his current food for a year, but transitioning him to a better quality food (sorry, Purina) would only benefit him. You can find wonderful foods at pet stores and online (not the grocery stores, in general) that contain human grade ingredients, no fillers, chemicals or preservatives. You can also look into a high quality supplement to give him in pill form or to shake on top of his food (much more fun for him.) I've been giving my dog Nupro Supplement for almost a year and it has done wonders for his skin and coat. You can get it directly from their (archaic) web site.

I think if you get a 2nd opinion and improve his diet he'll feel much, much better.

Best of luck to you and your beautiful buddy! (Bloodhounds are soooo gorgeous!)

Answer 4

Go to another vet, this one doesn't sound great!

The shot will be to help with the itching, not to actually kill the fleas. The tablets will either be Capstar, which kills fleas but does not prevent them, or Program which prevent fleas put dont kill them. You need a spot-on treatment from a vet i.e the Advantix - I think where you went wrong there was bathing the dog, this will probably inactivate the Advantix by washing the natural oils of the dog. You shouldn't bath 48 hours before or after applying spot-ons.

You also need to treat your house.

Chalice

Answer 5

My dog is still taking his steroid tablets called MEDRONE V.
We went to the vets 2 weeks ago for the same reason but he was also biting his feet, as he is a white westie they had gone brown from saliva staining. I had put a collar on him so that he could not do this, but found that I had to leave it on him all the time and that was not fair, so went to vets and we worked out he is allergic to Oak, especially acorns which this year in England have been especially bad, millions! He got a shot on the Friday night, and enough tablets till Monday, we went back and in this short time he had stopped scratching and licking. He has a two week supply of Medrone. Two a day first week, one a day this week. I have to then see if that was enough. The receptionist at the vets told me her dog is so bad It is on this medicine permanently.

Answer 6

I think you should take your dog to another vet. The one you've been seeing is wasting your time and money. I can think of a couple things that could be wrong with the dog and a couple of ways to relieve it, and I'm not even a vet. See someone else so your dog can get the help he needs.

Answer 7

First give him a bath in oatmeal to soothe the skin. Purchase a lamp shade collar so he cannot get to his body to scratch and bite. Put some cream on him if he has any sores. Get some stuff called HOT SPOT and put on the areas that are bugging him. Give him benadryal twice a day. He may have a reaction to something in the grass or the grass itself. One of my dogs dug like that and he had gotten one flea on him. These are the things we done for him.

Answer 8

I would seek an opinion from another vet. Another good idea would be to have your dog checked for allergies to see if he is allergic to something (food or otherwise). Good luck finding a solution!

Answer 9

purina foods are garbage. get him on a decent food with no corn, soy or wheat - a holistic food is best - human grade food & I guarantee you improvement.

google "natura" & learn about ingredients