« I need this sand bottom reptile vivarium?
Is there any other types of Reptiled/amphibians that can go with my Leopard gecko?.? »

Help. My dog is scratching and licking excessively!?

Best answer:

Answer by shizzle
the dog either has fleas or a skin rash of some kind – i’m betting it’s fleas – give him a bath, then use the de-flea drops – that should take care of the flea problem until next year.

Question:
I took my Cocker Spaniel to the vet a week ago because he was excessively scratching and licking his back (both sides), his bottom, and his chest area. Even though he has been to the vets, he is still scratching and licking excessively.
What the vet did:-
The vet squeezed his anal glands (I know, its disgusting.), and filled about a glass full of pus or whatever else it was. According to the vet, its pretty common in dogs to get blocked anal glands, and my dog seems to have to have it done about 3 times a year. Secondly he gave us de-flea drops, just incase he has fleas (which I don’t think he has). And thirdly he said he had an ear infection (which we suspected because his ear was smelly) so we got ear drops.

However the problem of scratching and licking continues. Any advice?
shizzle – I’ve looked at his skin, and can’t see any visible problem. Also, he’s had 2 baths within the last month and there has been no visible sign of fleas in the water.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Related Posts

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 30th, 2011 at 9:01 am and is filed under Cocker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Related Posts

Your Ad Here

5 Responses to “Help. My dog is scratching and licking excessively!?”

  1. Maxi Says:

    All of these things are down to the kibble you feed, which has grain content…change the kibble to a grain free one or feed raw and bone and all those issues will go away.

  2. tera_the_giga_dragon_bytes Says:

    My dog sometimes goes sick licking his bum and feet. I just try and destract him by playing with a toy if I can’t see anything wrong that is!

    Eventually after playing he forgets about it and stops licking.

  3. Lelee Says:

    There are other things to make dogs itch. My child hood dog was a Cocker Spaniel and Stanley was allergic to the grass and had constant ear problems. You must get a good oatmeal Shampoo and not bathe except when he is smelly as he will get dry irritated skin. He does need to be combed and brushed regularly. You must keep water and dirt and mites out of his ears. He also chewed on weeds and got a sticker call a goat head because of the shape in his throat. Awful infection and puss and mess and surgery. My Dad paid the bill and I worked all summer at a dime store to pay him back. I loved Stanley but I spent a lot of time brushing and keeping his ears clean and healthy. Stanley’s anal gland were so narrow and difficult the Vet severed them surgically so I could just wash him. Get a good Tick and flea killer from the Vet it is expensive but worth it. You put it on the skin between his shoulder blade it lasts a whole month. Stanley was Black and all that soft curly hair would make seeing anything on him would be impossible. My Dad took him hunting once and said his only problem was his legs were so short that he could not jump over the brush He just plowed right through. He did show me how to mash the burrs to comb out of all that curly hair easier. Stanley died of old age in 1960

  4. matchstick Says:

    There are a few possibilities that I can think of…
    It can take only one flea to cause a fair amount of distress in a dog with a flea allergy. If the dog doesnt have fleas and this is because you have been treating it for fleas, it could also possibly be the flea medication itself. Certainly you dont want to bath your dog too often.

    As has already been said, dog biscuits can be a cause and it may take a fair bit of shopping around to find one your dog can eat without too much of a problem…that is if it is the food.

    Oatmeal products are good for itching, including Aveeno moisturiser (for humans) is safe for pets and a friend of mine found that the Aveeno was the only effective treatment for her dog’s quite severe itching.

    I think anxiety can also be responsible. You may find there are ‘natural’ medications you can buy to calm your dog…(my vet gave me some drops which I think contained lavender etc for my dog) – or there are probably drugs the vet can prescribe or may offer another alternative and/or complementary treatment(s).

  5. bloomorningglory Says:

    For starters I would stop the baths for now. Most shampoos strip the oil out of their fur/skin and dry them out. Then their body has to work overtime trying to replace it. The same thing happens with us. We shampoo, strip the natural oils out, and then we condition to try to replace it..lol. They do make a hydrocortisone shampoo that is different. You can use that one much more often without drying their skin out and it should help with the itching. Not sure if it’s available at the petstore. You may need prescription from the vet.

    Anyway, if he’s still itchy, you could ask your vet about mites or fungus such as ringworm. There are two types of mites, one is contagious and would most likely have come from another dog, and the other which grows naturally on every dog. This mite that’s on every dog is called demodectic mange. Very occasionally it can go wild and you see the scratching. These are easy to rule out with a skin scraping. Fungus is a little trickier. Some times show up neon green under a blacklight (like ringworm) but others need to be found with a fungal culture. That takes like a month to complete and is not so common.

    Lastly dogs can have allergies like we can except instead of runny noses, itchy eyes, etc, they just get really itchy skin and sometimes ear infections. I suspect this in your case just because of the combination itchy skin/ear infections. This is exactly how my pooch was :) It could be something in his food (about 10% of allergies in dogs) or something in his environment (about 90% of allergies in dogs). You can do allergy testing if you’re interested in pursuing allergy shots. Otherwise many vets just recommend an anti-histamine. The dermatologist we worked with recommended trying up to three different anti-histamines because some work better for a particular dog than others. In my case we found Benadryl did nothing but Claritin worked well. Also note that it can take several days to have an effect so you should give it a week or so to work before switching to the next. They can also have Zyrtec, etc. Just make sure you get the proper dose from your vet. If you want to rule out a food allergy you can try a diet trial. It would be 8 weeks of a new food, a protein/starch combination she’s never had before such as fish and potato or duck and peas. Natural Balance has a few, California Natural has one, and Taste of the Wild has one (Pacific Stream). I believe Blue Buffalo and Wellness have also recently joined in. Read the ingredients carefully and make sure there’s no corn, wheat, or chicken. If he’s currently eating lamb, make sure that’s not in there either. Rice and oatmeal are good to exclude also. Then you feed that food for 8 weeks. During those 8 weeks they can’t have any treats, rawhides, table scraps, flavored heartworm medication, etc. If after 8 weeks he’s still scratching you can be pretty sure it’s not a food allergy. Good luck!

Leave a Reply