Dog Itching, Dog Scratching, and Dog Skin Allergies - Itchy head?
Occasional dog itching and dog scratching is natural dog behavior. Problems only arise when the dog itching becomes extremely frequent.
Extreme dog itchiness is usually a sign of dog allergies, or skin parasites.
The irritation may sometimes cause dogs to rub their noses on the rug, on furniture, or even in the mud and snow. This is done to alleviate some of the unpleasant itchy dog sensation.
Depending on the source of the irritation, there could also be hair-loss.
Dog Itching, Dog Scratching - Siberian Husky Shania says - Scratch me!
Dog Itching Reason 1
Food Allergies
With food allergies, the dog itch is usually accompanied by loose or watery stool. My Shiba Inu is allergic to wheat, and he used to get really itchy from it.
To identify the source of the allergy, I started feeding my dog really plain meals (boiled chicken and rice); no treats or other types of food. I was also very careful during neighborhood walks so that he didn’t slip in a “road-side surprise” to his diet.
It may take a few days before the allergens clear out of your dog’s system, and you start to see an improvement. Some dogs may be allergic to poultry, so if the boiled chicken does not help, then switch to an alternate meat source e.g. venison or rabbit.
Only boil or microwave the meat. Do not add anything else and absolutely do not use table scraps which are usually too rich for dogs, and may contain spices or ingredients (onions) that are poisonous to dogs. Some dogs may be allergic to multiple common ingredients. My Siberian Husky is allergic to wheat, oats, and fish.
Once the extreme dog itching goes away, slowly introduce your dog’s normal food back into his diet, one by one, until you find the problem food.
Start with only 1/4 portion of the new food, and slowly increase the portion by quarters in each subsequent day. If everything is well after a week, then introduce the next food in the subsequent week.
If you are using dry food (kibble) find one that is grain free, and has good protein sources.
Some good kibble brands include Innova EVO, Orijen, Nature’s Variety Instinct, and Wellness CORE.
Dog Itching Reason 1 - Food Allergies.
Dog Itching Reason 2
Pink oleander from Amazon.com
Skin Allergies
The dog itching can also be from skin allergies caused by plants, pollen, or other chemicals. My dogs often stick their muzzle into all kinds of holes, bushes, and plants.
The best way to deal with dog skin allergies is to keep your dog away from the offending chemical(s).
Try keeping your dog inside the house-only for a few days. If the dog itching improves, then it is likely that your dog is allergic to something in the backyard or neighborhood.
If you can identify which plant is the source of the skin allergy, then remove the plant from your backyard and avoid it during dog walking.
Note that some plants can be poisonous to dogs.
Try keeping your dog inside the house-only for a few days. If the dog itching improves, then it likely that your dog is allergic to something in the backyard or neighborhood.
Dog Itching Reason 3
Dog Itching, Dog Scratching - Hair loss from demodectic mange around the right eye.
Dog Itching, Dog Scratching - Siberian Husky Shania is all recovered!
Skin Parasites
Dog itching can also be from mites, fleas, or other skin parasites.
This can be easily diagnosed by your vet with a skin scraping. Depending on the parasite and the severity of the infection, different treatments may be appropriate.
Your vet will be most equipped to advise you on the different treatment options.
Note that many parasite treatments involve the use of toxic chemicals to kill the mites or fleas.
Some dogs may have allergic reactions to these toxins. Remember to ask your vet about the possible dangers of the treatment, and get additional information from online sources before going ahead with it.
My Siberian Husky recently got demodectic mange from her puppy playmates in dog daycare. To treat the skin mites, our vet suggested the use of Goodwinol ointment. This treatment got the mites under control after about one week but it also caused some vomiting and irritation to the eye.
There have also been some horror stories on flea and tick repellent products. This article provides safety information on most of these products.
Since these products are designed to kill fleas, ticks, and other skin parasites, they are all toxic to some degree; and there is always the possibility that your dog may have an allergic reaction.
Flea and tick collars can be especially dangerous, because if they are not properly fastened, a dog may chew off pieces, or even swallow it whole.
Note however, that not using flea and tick repellents may expose your dog to skin irritation, as well as dangerous diseases such as lyme disease. Before making a decision, it may be useful to read what the FDA has to say about fighting fleas and ticks.
Dog Itching, Dog Scratching - A non-itchy dog is a happy dog!
If you do find some ticks on your dog, do not try to pull them off with your fingers. This may cause the body of the tick to break off, and leave the head still embedded in your dog’s skin. Embedded tick parts may sometimes cause a skin infection.
One of the best tools for removing ticks easily and safely is the Ticked off tick remover.
It may look just like a silly plastic spoon, but it works surprisingly well for removing ticks. Since I got it, I have been able to remove all ticks from my dogs without any problems.
These are the most common reasons for dog itching, dog scratching, and hair loss. However, there could be other causes, so it is always best to consult with your vet.
When dealing with allergy issues, find a vet who is willing to help you identify the source of the allergy, rather than just treat the symptoms with shots.
Dog Itching, Dog Scratching - Find a vet who is willing to help you identify the source of the allergy, rather than just treat the symptoms with shots.
Hi Debbie,
My Siberian is on Atarax as well. She had some bad allergic reaction this morning, and her whole face swelled up. The vet said it could be from her vaccine shots, or from an insect bite.
Hopefully it was a vaccine thing, because there are always going to be spiders and bees about.
How is the Atarax working out for Bond?
Bond just got back from Vet Visit. He is now on Atarax for the itching/licking with 30% relief. To be continued.
Sorry to hear that Debbie. What did the vet say?
One thing you could try is to just keep Bond inside the house as much as possible and only take him out to potty on wood chips. This way he stays away from most organic materials and this may help determine if it is a plant/pollen allergy thing.
Is Bond having diarrhea or any other symptoms in addition to the itching?
Sorry to report after medicated bath, 10 days of antibiotics and medication for yeast, Bond continues to lick and scratch. We will be returning to our Vet tommorow
LOL – Gotta love Shibas. Sephy is exactly the same way. Going to the vet is always a big challenge.
But we still love them anyway. Lucky for Shibas they are so good looking
Bond & I survived his medicated bath with muzzle and lots of Shiba Screams. The groomer was great. First time I met her. She told me Bond was a Drama King and any family that put up with him for 10 years, without giving him away deserves an award. She gave Bond his bath free, even after trying to bite me while muzzling him. She was great with Bond and I will return there as needed. Bond continues on his medications and I will keep you posted.
Hi Debbie,
Hope the medicated bath went well.
Actually, all this information is very helpful. Now if any of my dogs show these symptoms, I will have a better idea of what it could be, and what are some of the things that need to be done.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. Sounds like your vet has diagnosed the issue, so Bond should be back to his old self soon.
Shania sends lots of licks to everyone. Shiba Sephy is too cool to lick, but he offers his Shiba ’stare’
Vet visit, thanks for asking. I 100% trust my vet, does not go overboard, but is very pragmatic. He said Bond’s ACL Conserative Rehab has gone great. He did several skin scrapings to r/o mites, mange, etc. and they were negative, however positive for yeast and bacteria. He put him on Simplicef and Nizoral for 10 days. Wants me to call him in ten days to determine if Bond is better or worse.
I told him about the chicken and rice for the past 5 days, no relief from itching, Vet does not think it is food allergies.
He does not want to just begin allergy testing and other testing just yet. The Vet first wants to see if the itching subsides and move forward to determine cause of bacteria/yeast.
In addition Bond has a Medicated bath scheduled tommorow with a groomer my Vet recommended. I am very nervous how Bond will respond to the bath, but talked to groomer at length. She knows his whole history and is willing to give it a go.
I will keep you posted.
I feel like group therapy here, but it is really helping Bond and me get through this.
Thanks for asking
Hi Debbie,
How did the vet visit go yesterday?
Yeah finding the source of the allergy can sometimes be difficult but I totally agree with you that it is the much better way to go.
Does he only get itchy from walks? or is he still itchy from just roaming in the house?
Hugs to Bond.
Thanks for asking. I tried the chicken with rice for the past 5 days, no changes in the itching and licking. Thinking maybe airborn allergies gave him Benadryl for several days, no changes in itching and licking. Going to vet today. Mites? Yeast? Stool speciment? Bond had been on Temaril P in the past with some relief, but just do not want to keep on that ongoing. Want to try to get to source of problem. May do some limited allergy testing (blood test) to rule out source of allergy.
I am a little embarassed to mention that Bond has not had a bath in the past 3 years, as he goes wild. Over the past year he had ACL injury and we did conserative rehab versus surgery. He did well with the rehab, but cannot be crated as we now know from our rehab over the past year. He had not been crated since puppyhood. He got his teeth caught on the wires from trying to get out and lost several teeth.
So, the thought of bathing, crating, and nail cutting become a nightmare. If he were to get a bath, he could not be crated after “to dry”. I am afraid he will reinjure his ACL during the whole process.
So….we will see what the Vet says today.
I did the total bland diet for about 4-5 days – until the diarrhea totally went away. Then I slowly introduced his new kibble back into his diet 1/4 at a time.
1/4 kibble, 3/4 chicken-rice for about 3-4 days. If everything was ok, then I did 1/2 and 1/2 for another 3-4 days, and so on.
As for the amount, unfortunately I don’t remember exactly how much I used. I think I just filled a few of his toys, and fed him smaller but more frequent meals. He would always let me know when he got hungry – but I think the digestive allergies made him less hungry in general.
How are things going with Bond?
When you did boiled chicken and rice, how long did you do it for and what amount? We feed Bond 1/2 cup food twice per day now. He is ten years old and mostly on leash walks and jogs.
Hi Debbie,
Yeah that actually sounds a lot like grass allergy. I wonder if it is more common with the Shiba breed compared to other breeds.
Here are some things that may help -
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/shiba-inu-personality-good-bad-traits#comment-2436
I also visited a Shiba breeder who had a grass allergic long-haired Shiba. She kept him mostly on a concrete run, and only walked him on the concrete sidewalks around her house.
Luckily we didn’t have to. With Sephy it was a food thing so I just did the ingredient elimination thing. With Shania it was mites, which the vet was able to identify right away with a skin scraping.
Sephy is also allergic to some airborne stuff, usually during a change in seasons, when there are different pollens in the air. During such times he would sneeze a lot.
We have given him some Benadryl during these times but it usually goes away after a few days once the pollen density decreases.
Hope this helps. Please let me know what works out best.
I also forgot to mention with Bond he is continually scratching nose, and inside his mouth (gums)?
Did you ever do lab tests (blood) to determine allergies? Bond is gnawing at paws, licking, gnawing at thigh area. Our vet thinks it is airborne and not food. We had him on Temaril P I believe, which gave him relief, but not a cure. The vet also suggested Benadryl, but he just gets loopy and like deer in the headlights.
I still took my dog out, but only on-leash and did not let him explore bushes or pounce for lizards. I also looked up the list of poisonous plants so that I would recognize them during future walks.
Some dogs are allergic to grass – so if everything else is exhausted, and you want to test for grass allergy, it is possible to prepare a potty area made up of wood chips that is grass free. It is also possible to use dog shoes. Still, I don’t think this is too common.
Grass allergy usually affects the paws most causing dogs to bite on their paws. In this way it may also affect the head area.
When my Shiba had food allergy, it was itchiness on his entire body, accompanied with diarrhea.
More recently, I have just gone with a fully boiled chicken diet.
In the past, I have used regular white rice when they had digestive issues. Brown rice has more fiber so I didn’t want to introduce that into their diet during the allergy test.
In general when properly used, fiber can actually improve digestion but only when introduced gradually and with an increase of water intake. I didn’t want to introduce a new variable into their diet – so I went with plain white rice.
Don’t make the rice too sticky so that it doesn’t stick on the teeth and cause tartar.
Try keeping your dog inside the house-only for a few days. If the dog itching improves, then it is likely that your dog is allergic to something in the backyard or neighborhood.
Where does the dog go to the bathroom?
Should one use brown rice or white rice when doing chicken and rice as per your suggestion regarding allergies? Trader Joe’s make a good brown or white cooked rice as the only ingredient.
Hello Debbie,
For dog food information I like the dog food project website. Here is their article on high protein foods.
When it comes to dog food there are lots of people with many different opinions, so I would also quiz the people at your vets to get a fuller picture.
I have tried regular Orijen on both my dogs and it seemed to work fine. However, now I am using Innova EVO because I can get that locally from a pet store, whereas Orijen is not as widely available. EVO has also worked very well for my dogs – they are 2 and 3 years old.
We have a 10 year old red Shiba Inu “Bond”. He is constantly licking his anal area and feet. In addition he gnaws at his paws, hips, and elbows. We have tried many food. I just got ready to mix his new food Orijen 6 fish formula and read on a blog that protein content is too high for Shiba size dog. Low activity, 1/2 walk daily on wood chip flat strand. Slow recovery from non surgical ACL rehab.
Any comments on Orijen.
That is very good news! Glad it worked out for the best
thanks very much for the advice and having checked her food found that it contains wheat bought a better quality one without wheat and shes been fine so far touch wood will keep informed if things change
I would try keeping her in the house for a few days to see if the swelling subsides. I know my Sibe likes sticking her nose into all kinds of holes and such in my backyard, so who knows what she gets on her muzzle.
Allergies are usually difficult because you have to slowly rule out where the allergy could be coming from, based on all the places your dog goes to. To start you want to temporarily cut down the number of places she visits to a minimum, so that you can get the allergy under control. Then slowly start introducing her to new places again one by one, and always keep her under close supervision when you introduce her to a new place. In this way, you can identify which plants, etc. that she comes into contact with so that if the allergy flares up again, you will know which plant(s) caused it.
There are also many common garden plants that are poisonous to dogs.
http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/protect_your_pet_from_common_household_dangers/common_poisonous_plants.html
I would also check to make sure that she doesn’t come into contact with these plants.
my 11 month old huskies nose sides of mouth and eyes keep swelling , have taken to vet they said its an allergy and gave us piriton tablets . we keep eye on her in garden to make sure not going by anything as vet doesnt know what alergy is , but still keeps swelling up and cant keep affording vets bills just to keep being told the same any help greatly appreciated
Hello Kellie,
Hair-loss can be due to a variety of reasons.
My Siberian had hair loss around the eyes last year and it turned out to be demodectic mange. It started out around her mouth, probably from her playing with other puppies in daycare. This led to scratching around the mouth, which got the mange onto her paw, and that got onto her eye area when she scratched her face.
The best thing to do is to take your dog to the vet. They can take skin scrapings and tell you for sure what is the cause of the hair loss.
Let us know how it goes.
my dog has hair lost around his eyes ,any infomatiom to please proble?
Thanks for dropping by Bonnie. Yeah, it took me a while to identify that the source of my Shiba’s itching was wheat. My Siberian has an even more sensitive stomach
I use Innova EVO kibble with the both of them and it has worked out very well for us.
Let me know if I can help you with anything.
Thank you for your Dog Itching, Scratching, Allergy article. My Shiba is constantly itching. I found out his food was not as advertised and am trying a new one. He continues to itch. Your articles give me some structure to follow to determine “what” is causing this problem for him. Thank you
It really kills me that so many of the mass-marketed kibbles that trumpet their “healthy diet” are LOADED with wheat and/or corn (prime example: Beneful), which are not easily digestible by dogs, and to which many, many dogs (including both of mine) are allergic.
Nice selection of healthy kibbles in your adds ^^ We tried many grain-free brands, and settled on Innova.
–spiff
Hi June,
Thanks for the great additions. That is really interesting about the water. I didn’t know about that. I will definitely have to add your environmental factors to the article. Thanks!
Btw. love that profile pic! and welcome to HubPages
Hi Shebashake, Another great article and isn’t it interesting that animals suffer the same health issues as humans…
Nice article.
Just to add on – other reasons which are contributing factors are
environmental (atopy) and annual vaccination leading to vaccinosis.
Environmental includes the type of water drank by the dog, the level of humidity and dust mites etc.
Thanks for dropping by Nancy. What is say is very true. Animals are a lot more tolerant and brave about it than humans though
I’m absolutely terrible when I get sick!