Food for itchy dog.

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fmay

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Our wimpy little border terrier bitch has always had itchy armpits and tummy! Her skin under her coat is fine and doesn't seem to itch at all.
Could anyone recommend a food that would make a difference to this. She hates oil put on her food and licks off topical creams. I've tried homeopathic sulpu and arsen. alb(?).
Thanks in anticipation
 
your problem may well be a gluten or wheat intolerance.My lurcher went through all kinds of tests and then i fed her like i feed me , as my skin problems were due to gluten and hey presto all clear!She was also terrible for stealing the cat food which really made her itch so much so that she nearly chewed her tail off! The other problem a friends terrier had was a grass alergy. this was treated with steroids.There are quite a few gluten free foods most are chicken and rice-
 
Have you taken her to vets? she may need skin scrapes and biopsies taking to rule out (or find?!) mites. If you have had this done, you can have an allergy blood test done. It involves sending bloods to the lab (Yorktest do it) and they test for food and environmental allergies. From the results you can alter environment/food accordingly. It works really well, only prob is it costs around £200 (unless your insured, that may be a problem) and the results may come back that she's allergic to house dust mites (can happen, believe me!), in which case there is nothing you can do about it. If you keep changing food, you may cause more problems than you are trying to solve. Is it seasonal or all year round that she is itchy? Do you use carpet powders (when you hoover) or do you spray air freshener? it can even be your washing powder and when you cuddle her, it affects her sensitive areas (tummy and armpits)? hope that helps, any Q's, just ask!
 
My dog also has itchy skin, and following a visit to the vet is now on medication and two baths (to her dismay) a week, she has improved, but is still itchy...I wondered if it would be a food allergy, but vet assured me it would more likely be dust, mites, etc, and a food allergy would manifest itself by the dog losing weight by constantly throwing up/diarrhoea.

I'm not saying that food allergies never cause itchy skin, but more often than not, it's not food.... Have a chat with your vet. My dog may still need the skin scrapes, but as we go to the PDSA, the tests aren't readily available.
 
Out of all the Borders we have had over the years, just one, Ben, has had this. His seems to be a hay/straw allergy and we have got around it by feeding Sulphur tablets when it is bad as they seem to cool the blood and stop the itchiness. For this reason, I clip him out in summer though he's a shaggy bear at the moment rather than hand strip him and it certainly helps. I get the tablets from the chemist (usually with the Rescue Remedy type things) and just give one a day if I see it flaring up again but don't overdo it, i don't want him to become immune to the only thing that works for him. The tablets are pence each, not pounds so well worth a try.
Feedwise, when he was a pup, Vitalin didn't suit, it made him itchy although they all love it mixed with gravy but now it doesn't seem to matter what we feed, it makes no difference.
 
If you have explored all of the options open to you, skin scrapes, blood tests etc and have found that it is definately a food allergy try Turkey and Potato. Not a complete food though, just plain old roast Turkey (Turkey legs from Asda are very reasonably priced) and boiled potato, nothing else, no treats, and you may find that you see a marked difference. Good luck, there is nothing worse than a constant itch so I hope you get it sorted out.
 
Our dog has a slight itchy problem and we think she has got slight exma and we've been putting some cream on her lately and it's got much better. Not sure if this helps though.
 
I had a Spinone, with awful itchy scabby skin, after a fortune spent at the vets, baths every other day in some super expensive shampoo. It turned out to be a Gluten allergy, as long as he had a gluten free diet his skin and coat were fine. At that time, i put him on Pero rings, don't know if they still make them, but as someone else suggested, the burns range is good.
 
Thanks for the replies - I had a good look around Petsmart today and chose James Well-Beloved Turkey and rice kibble which is wheat and gluten free. - they say it can take 3-4 weeks to show results.
 
Havent seen the post up until now... A rottweiler came to live with us about 2 years ago. She was originally my parents dog but they divorced and no one could take her when they went their seperate ways.

She'd always had problems with her skin to the extent that id seen her a few times with open sores on her head that looked quite horrific. They'd taken her to the vets numerous times and never really gotten to the bottom of the issue.

It became worse when the dog was living alone with my dad as he fed her all sorts of crap despite me saying repeatedly that I thought the issue came back to an allergy

Anyway, 2 years later and she hasnt had any itchy spots for a long time. She has bad scarring on her feet from them (she'd lick them and make them worse) which i doubt will heal but the issue itself has been resolved.

We feed her james well beloved
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PLEASE READ THIS
My JRT started getting v.itchy at 12 mths old,it got worse and worse,v.bad in summer.I have spent £1000 on everything possible! Skin scrapes,bloods,allergy testing to name a few.I have tried different food,i have tried keeping her off grass as it makes it worse but i do know thats not what make her itchy.
I have 3 vets as i found each one didn't know what it was,they all said it was the worst case they had ever seen,she was red raw.To make a very long story short i swear by the following as almost immediatley after giving these 2 simple things she began sleeping in the evenings instead of eating herself silly.She has been on this diet for a year now and her skin is perfect,i spent 3 yrs of her life finding a solution.
You need to give your dog the James Well beloved itchy skin food,i rotate between this one and the JWB skin condition.You must also introduce Aloe Vera juice,i use a liquid i get for my horses as it's very concentrated,it's also suitable for dogs-it's by Equus Health,a natural animal company-although Holland and Barrett do a bottle for £4.99 that would prob be ok too,go for one thats not flavoured.I have tried the Forever Living one but it didn't help at all and is V.Expensive.Hope some of this helps your little dog,i can sympathise with you.Good Luck
 
Fruity how much aloe do you give your dog? I adopted a (then) 10mo dog in October. He was biting at his rump/tail so had vet check for fleas/worms/mites and all negative. I put him on a home made diet but he got worse, started licking groin/nibbling thighs/scratching under arms/nibbling forearms. He had some raised reddish spots. Vet decided to treat for sarcoptic mange but after repeating treatment (oral ivermectin) twice he is still at it altho markedly reduced. Vet is hesitant to repeat treatment as normally one round (once a week for 3 weeks) does the trick and in this case he had two rounds. I feed homemade raw and no grains (rabbit/veggies/salmon oil). None of his sore places got infected as I used fresh aloe gel and goldenseal powder on them plus also swabbed him with herbal teas like Calendula etc. Today I noticed him nibble at his thighs and lick his forearm. Thanks for any advice plus amount of aloe, I have a wonderful aloe specifically for oral use in dogs and pure.
 
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