# Itching Help



## rperry (Jan 18, 2009)

<span style='font-family: Century Gothic'>Hello,

My ten month old GSD has been very itchy lately. We switch his food a few months ago and it's been worse since then, so a few days ago we switched back to his old food. Last Saturday we gave him a medicated bath that was supposed to help with itching, and it seemed ok, but now today it's really bad. He has two patches on his back with hardly any fur, and the tips of his ears are patchy too. Any suggestions on things I can do to help relieve him? I don't really want to do another bath and dry out his skin even more.

Thank you so much!</span>


----------



## Sherush (Jan 12, 2008)

What were you feeding before and after? Just making sure that maybe there was something like one thing that was in both ingredients.


----------



## BowWowMeow (May 7, 2007)

It sounds like it could be demodectic mange. Can you post a picture? And don't panic, it's very easy to treat!


----------



## weber1b (Nov 30, 2008)

Could also be allergies to something he is eating. If you bathe with an oatmeal shampoo, shouldn't have any issues from that.


----------



## Lucy Dog (Aug 10, 2008)

sounds like mange to me. Go to the vet and have them do some scrapings. If it's demodectic mage its pretty easy to treat. Lucy had some below her mouth and the vet game some creams and antibiotics and it was cleared up in a month. Bring him to the vet before it gets worse though.


----------



## rperry (Jan 18, 2009)

<span style='font-family: Century Gothic'>Thanks for the advice everyone! Right after I posted I called the vet and they got him right in. Did skin scrappings, looked in his ears, checked him all over. Didn't find mites or anything, but just to be safe the vet gave me two months worth of revolution. He told me to give Schumi benadryl (3-6 tabs two times daily or as needed) and see how that works. Basically Schumi is allergic to something and we need to figure out what it is. If it gets better since I just changed his food, that will be good, but if it doesn't get better we are going to put him on a strict diet based on what the vet says and try to figure out what he's allergic too! 

When he was a puppy and until about 7 months we fed him Nature's Variety, the Prairie kind (mostly dry, but some canned and raw). Then in December we switched to Fromm (the gold kind and the pork and applesauce dry kind), and we noticed that his fur didn't look as shiny... etc. Then a few days ago I switched back to Nature's Variety so we'll see!</span>


----------



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I thought Coke might have an allergy or sensitivity (no dry skin, but he had some recurring poop issues) so instead of doing expensive diets from the vet, I first did a bland elimination diet for a week and then tried California Natural. So far have kept all my dogs on this b/c it seems to have cleared up all the poop issues and all three dogs like it. It's a "limited ingredient" diet. I tried the Lamb and Rice because the vet thought turkey is what bothers Coke. Now all my dogs have hard poops and are pretty shiny! (you can be the judge)


----------



## mjbgsd (Jun 29, 2004)

Cody use to chew his fur off when he was younger because we didn't know what he was allergic to. He also didn't have hair around his groin area, looked bad too. After we had him tested to everything here in WA that he could be allergic to, the list was HUGE. We found out he was allergic to fish, beef, alfalfa, kelp, corn, dairy products, many kinds of grass, trees, kapok, cotton, mouse poo, cochroaches, lol, the list goes on. After trying to elminate everything he was allergic to that we could control, he completely stopped chewing and all of his hair grew back, even the hair around his groin grew back, I don't think I've ever been happier then seeing his hair grow back down there.








Some of the things I can't stop, is things like Cotton as we wear a lot of it, and right outside our house, is a tree he's allergic to, go figure. lol. But what I can control, ie food, things in the house, I try to keep everything he's allergic to to a minimal and it has worked. The only thing he does now that shows he has allergies, is that he "nibbles" on anything that has or is cotton and kapok. It's like he's in a trance, very funny to watch.








He hasn't chewed since we took everything away he's allergic to, except he still chews a little bit around his arm and chest area cause those places touch trees and the grass but besides that, he's chew free.









*Picture of his chewing, see the missing hair near his hip area?*

















*Him today, no hair gone, going on 3+ years *

























*Him "nibbling" lol*


----------



## rperry (Jan 18, 2009)

<span style='font-family: Century Gothic'>Thanks for the pictures! So cute! I wish I knew what it was, but hopefully we'll figure it out soon. I think his itching is slightly normal with the benadryl, but his appetite is down and I don't want that. I'll probably try restricting his diet next and seeing what happens! This may be a stupid question, but how did you find out exactly what he was allergic to?</span>


----------



## Brightelf (Sep 5, 2001)

Becky, it can be pretty common for dogs to have allergies/sensitivities to the grains in their foods, more often than the meat protiens. Although, that can happen, too.

Is the food that you are feeding grain-free? That can help!


----------



## debbiebrown (Apr 13, 2002)

i think you might want to try a grain free food, and also add omega oils, or a supplement powder to the food. something like Nupro or canine complete. it could be you need to beef up his immune system. usually immune issues show up in the skin and inability to ward off allergies, so by adding one of these products or something similar and going grain free will help alot if its allergy related.

debbie


----------

