My dog is constantly itching all day and night.

[cazajacks]

Join our free community today.

Connect with other like-minded dog lovers!

Login or Register

Hi, I have a Jack Russell and he's been itching for a long time now. The whole of his underside is bright pink where he is scratching and biting.

During November I bathed him in flea shampoo but it didn't work. I then went to the pet shop who recommended a flea tablet that work in 15 minutes, ( by Johnsons) and they also sold me a longer lasting flea treatment to give him a few days after the 15 min one. I gave them both to him and he's still scratching.

I then gave him a really good bath of just plain water and ran a flea comb through all his fur, but not one flea. Ive also bought some 'stop itching' dog spray but its not worked.

I have checked him for fleas repeatedly but not seen one single flea. I treated him twice more with flea tablets but he's still scratching. Ive also wormed him as he bites a lot around his bum/tail area.

Two weeks ago I took him to the vet, he examined and said he didn't have fleas but an allergy....no idea what to but said to keep him on one food, and stop any treats etc, which I have done. He also gave him a steroid injection and 2 weeks of antibiotics, .....yes, he's still flaming scratching. It did seem to reduce a little bit for a few days, but now he's at it again day and night.

I have again just given him yet another flea treatment just in case. But does anyone have any ideas what this could be. He sleeps on my bed at night, he does not go to any woodland areas, he eats Pedigree only now, but nothing has changed and I can't stand seeing him itching all the time, he must be so uncomfortable the poor thing.

 

[lurcherman]

It could be anythink dust mites or a allergy to a food or your duvet being washed or anal glands could be full. Best of luck..

 

[murphyrules]

Stop with the flea treatments, he must have an allergy to something it could be pollen, dust mites, grass, washing powder, febreeze, chicken, cereal etc etc the list goes on and on. Buy an elimination/restricted diet like "Burns" Pork and Potato and feed that exclusively for 8 weeks (absolutely NO other food, treats, table scraps etc) if there is an improvement in his itching then it is something he is eating that he is allergic/intolerant too, if there is no improvement in his itching it is a contact allergy/intolerance he is suffering from and probably needs allergy testing at a specialist vet. I am going through this with my youngest at the moment and it has cost me £850 so far and he seems ok on Purina Hypoallergenic food that is £67 per 12kg bag. Ask your vet for more advice and guidance as steroids only solve the symptoms short term they don't solve the problem. Good Luck :luck:

 

[TTT]

Stop bombarding your dog with chemicals (flea treatments) and put it onto a raw diet.........you will most likely notice a difference. Good luck.

 

[EchoLocation]

I've got a Parson Russell who has atopic dermatitis so his pretty much allergic to a lot of things in the environment.

What you could do is ask your vet for a skin scraping to further look into the allergy.

Secondly do as suggested and put him on an exclusion diet. Personally I would start with removing grains and wheat and use a food with a single meat protein like chicken, lamb, rabbit etc. and go from there.

Do not feed junk like any of the Purina, Hills, Pedigree stuff as it's all low - medium quality. Very low percentage of real meat and contains a lot of things that I would not give to any of my dogs.

I feed raw fish, fruit and vegetables to my PRT and don't have many flare ups of hot spots. Freezer space is an issue so I'll be changing to a decent price, natural kibble soon.

Lastly Google Dermacton which is all natural and a lot of people use for allergy dogs. The soap and cream are the best and it actually works better than the steroids.

Don't buy whatever the vet tells you as most have limited nutrition knowledge, do your own research and message me is you need more information.

 

[chelynnah]

I echo (no pun intended) the advice in the above post. It's very likely a food allergy (or an allergy of some kind) and the best way to deal with this is to eliminate a lot of the junk that pet foods put in their diets, so no wheat, corn or gluten. Something like a lamb and rice, or fish a potato would be good.

And all the flea baths and flea stuff (by the way the Johnson's stuff may be part of the problem as that is NASTY and can cause severe reactions in dogs - please do not give any more of those pills), may actually have been contributing to the issue.

Try some aloe vera gel on his tummy which will help soothe the itching, and possibly put him in a lightweight doggie t-shirt to help keep him from scratching it. The problem can be made worse through the itch/scratch cycle and you need to do what you can to break that pattern.

Good luck. It's awful to see them get themselves in such a state

 

[Gail Berks]

I've been reading Oatmeal dog shampoo is really soothing for itchy dogs.

My puppy is scratching quite a lot even after a front line application... I'm going to try using the shampoo myself..it's so horrid watching them scratch

 

[MissCLTaylor.x]

He is probably allergic to the wheat, cereal and fillers in kibble, he could be allergic to any of the fillers that they do not say that are in the kibble, it is not uncommon for dogs to be allergic to these things as they are not designed to eat these things. I would highly recommend a raw diet, my two JRT & BC are on a raw diet called Natural Instinct, they do not add any fillers or cereals into there recipes, they also use all human grade food, they are so helpful, my JRT is allergic to the cereals that are in the kibbles and they reassured me! They were so helpful. What it says on the label is what you get! I can not recommend this enough! Xxx

 

[JenShea]

I might be totally off the mark here but a friend of mine had a dog with the same sort of problem all year round but more so in summer and it turned out that the long grass would aggravate him so much and it result in what your saying, I agree with what's being said above also about gentle dog food, back to basic they say with rice and chicken is good I hope you have found out what the cause of the problem is!! Jen xx