something to note ... just becuase a dog food says lamb and rice doesn't mean that it doesn't have corn or wheat in it. be sure to read the lable. if you have access to a Costco -- they have a WONDERFUL Kirkland brand dog food Lamb and Rice. It is acutally the Diamond dog food Lamb and Rice relabeled for Costco. All natural ..

My lab had terrible skin allergies due to enivironmental and food products. This food helped SO much. It saved her from itching all the time. I also started to add flax seed and fish oil to her meals. What a difference that made. My dog literally feels like a Gund stuff animal her coat is SO shiney and soft. The best thing to cuddle with =)

Most people don't realize that commerical dog foods are just CRAP! They cause many issues in dogs that don't surface for years.

I also add garlic and rosemary to my pups food to help with the immune system. She also gets a tablespoon of pumpkin once a day for the fiber .. plus it makes yard clean up easier since the oils can encourage runny poos ...

I want to say that discovering a diet that cured most all her issues took years. But life is much better now ...

No more antihistamines in the summer months to prevent her from getting a staph infection from scratching .. no more ear infections and most of all ... she barely ever scrathes anymore!

best of luck!

kirkland brand dog food, lamb and rice, from costco. that's what he was on before i changed to raw foods. i'm glad it worked in your case, but i guess it's just not for everyone. thanks

I am glad the BARF diet is working for you ... it is something I considered .... I had a hard time making the transition.

How excately did you make it ? You started to add the raw to your dogs dry food ? Adding more and more each day?

After Bathing with a good moisturising shampoo brush using a brush with nodes on the end to stimulate blood flow to the skin. It could also be MANIC itch which some animals get if they are bored. Lab's are inteligent dogs and need to be keep active as they are prone to being lazy and putting on the pounds(Kilo's).
bon chance
Richard

Glad to see that food allergies are being so well addressed with these posts. Do some online searches and learn about how to select a GOOD dog food, and learn to read those labels! Premium foods are the way to go, too. I'm currently feeding "Chicken Soup For the Dog Lover's Soul", which is on the "Top Foods" list of The Whole Dog Journal. Read those labels!!! BTW, the vet I used to work for always recommended putting a little bacon grease in the food to help dry skin. Much less expensive than Linatone, and the dogs just love it.
Grass allergies are VERY common, too. If your vet can't help you, for Heaven's sake try another vet. There are good vets and bad vets, just like every profession. Good luck!!!

I would find myself a new vet. Many vets nowadays use natural remedies for pets. Ask around.

The above-mentioned treatments have worked very well for Molly, our older Lab, who gets very dry skin every summer from sneaking into the swimming pool all the time. (No, she's never unsupervised. She'll be out in the yard with one or more of us gardening, and then she'll wander off and a few seconds later you hear the splashing. Her favorite trick is to swim out to the foam floating lounger and climb up on it to sunbathe...!) We add a few tablespoons of olive oil to her food, put Vitamin E on any hot spots she gets, and put oatmeal conditioner on after she goes in the pool, and she does just fine.

Barbapapa - I'd be interested in reading that food list. Mo and Finn (my dogs) do very well on Nutro Ultra with a generous supplement of fruits and veggies, but I'd love to find out how an all-human-food diet stacks up. I'm also interested for a friend's dog (see below).

Occasionally, though, you get a dog who has honest-to-God allergies and the only option is medication. A friend of mine has a Lab/springer mix who's had allergies just about every day of her life. (I dog-sit for her regularly - we joke that it's because between my parents and I, we're the next best thing to an ICU.)

At last count, Zoe is allergic to dust, pet dander, pollen, grass, mold and insect stings, doesn't do well with vaccinations, and has bad reactions to any and all household cleaners. In the diet department, she's allergic to wheat products, corn products, most fruits and vegetables, chicken, beef, lamb, fish, venison, rice, barley, etc. Raw or cooked doesn't matter. (I gave her a piece of twelve-grain bread one time and she went into anaphylaxis. Thank God for Epi-Pens. Another time she developed a hot spot the size of my hand, which grew MRSA.) She starts a new diet and appears to be doing fine, and then a few months later it's giving her skin problems, respiratory problems and diarrhea. Right now she's on duck and potato, has been for about five months, and it's just now starting again. The vet finally got her semi-stabilized on prednisone and Atarax, but that comes with its own set of problems, and it also pretty much precludes BARF because the steroids suppress her immune function - she catches every bug in the book as it is, and nobody wants to see her get salmonella or E. coli from raw meat.

If there's another diet or therapy she can try, I'd love to hear about it.

oh, poor Zoe!

I'm glad you bumped this thread up to the top, cuz our dog has terrible itching right now and the vets (plural) we've seen have given very little advice. They just give him a shot of prednisone every couple of months (which means we can't give the poor dude aspirin for his hip dysplasia), sell us a medicated shampoo and that's it. Pitiful.

Poor guy. Prednisone is heavy duty stuff; although it does work wonders in relieving allergic and inflammatory conditions, its side-effect profile is not good (kidney problems and changes in liver and pancreas function are just the start) and it can be difficult to dose properly. (Our former vet tried putting Mo on oral prednisone for her swimming pool itchies. A month later, after she started peeing every three minutes and losing her fur, we dumped both the pills and the vet.) If it were my dog, I'd have a long talk with the vet about other options before using it again.

Another option you might try for your guy's itching is diphenhydramine (Benadryl), 12.5 mg per 30 lb of body weight, once daily. It's also safe to use with aspirin. As for the hip issues, most vets now recommend a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement on top of aspirin or a prescription NSAID. Cosequin is one of the more popular vet formulations, but we get the once-daily human tablets from Trader Joe's and they work just as well - more so if you have a large dog, because you're not trying to feed half a dozen pills a day. (Cosequin DS, the version they usually recommend for big dogs, is 500 mg per tablet, and the dosage is 500 mg per 25 lbs of body weight. The TJ's supplement, on the other hand, is 1500 mg per tablet, so unless your dog is over 100 lbs, you're covered.)

Hope this helps!

The benadryl doesn't seem to help much. And his store-bought food is supposed to have glucosamine/chondroitin in it, but I can't tell how many mg he's getting based on the labelling. We try to give him aspirin frequently (enteric-coated so that it dissolves in his intestines instead of stomach).

I think we're going to have to try putting him on a BARF diet. Bruno would purely adore a BARF diet.

Convincing my DH is the hard part. ALTHOUGH. We've been battling a severe flea infestation (3 cats, as well). This is probably half of Bruno's itching problems, but he had itching before the flea problem. This just aggravated it beyond endurance.

As much as we've spent on chemicals, sprays, foggers, Advantage, Frontline & drugs for poor Bruno's allergic dermatitis this past couple of months, it might be easier to convince DH that a BARF diet for all the animals might be considerably cheaper in the long run....

At the VERY least, we'll be getting him some flax seed oil, fish oil, and brewer's yeast. I need flax seed oil and fish oil for myself anyway! I don't know if it's possible to overdose him on glucosamine/chondroitin (and what do you know, I need it too).... so I may wait on that until we switch him off this food (Kirkland's lamb and rice with glucosamine/chondroitin).

The poor guy is so miserable.

If you decide to feed any home-cooked diet you must be sure that it is a balanced diet which meets all of the nutritional requirements for your dog. If it is not then you quite possibly may be creating different problems. Please make sure you thoroughly research all aspects of this course of action or anything you do.

I prefer to give the same supplements for glucosamine/chrondrotin that I take rather than in a food so that I know both the quality and how much they are getting. You probably will have to experiment to find the right product - Glycoflex used to work for two of the dogs but not my agility girl. I also give them 500mg of vitamin C in with their morning and evening meals. When I cut it back to 1 tab a day they started showing limping from the djd in the shoulder. Kate is 11 and still competing successfully jumping 20".

Here is a recipe to supplement a commercial diet if you would like to try it.

4 oz tofu
2 whole carrots
1 cup spinach (cooked)
4 Tbs green pepper
4 broccoli spears (1/2 cup)

The tofu can be fried in olive oil (I don't - I add olive oil to the mixture)and the other vegetables (certainly the carrots) can be lightly cooked if you desire to help in their digestability. Use this to make up 1/3 of the total diet (reducing the commercial food by 1/3). When I make this I process it thoroughly in the food processor and it freezes very well. This is from Professor Clemmons an integrated vet medicine vet at the Univ. of Florida from a seminar in 2000. There is also a recipe for the whole diet rather than a supplement but it's a little long unless any one is definately interested.

The dosage of vitamin C he recommended to start with is around 25 mg/kg twice a day. Watch for diarrhea as that is a sign that you need to cut back the dosage. He also recommeneded Vit E which of course is an antioxidant and also is supposed to "potentiate" the effect of the Vit. C. I give our 49# dog 400 mg a day and the 32# one 200. Preventative levels would be around 10-20 IU/kg. according to the notes I have. For fish oil he says to try 10-15 mg/kg, or 1 T of ground flax seed, or 2 sardines every day. He likes the ground flax or sardines because they may be fresher than the capsules. Kate likes the fish oil capsules I take and chews them right up - completely grossing me out every time.

Good luck with finding the solution that works for you. I know it can be a long frustrating effort. TJ itches if a flea walks down the other side of the road and his hobby is making hot spots. For those, by the way, a damp tea bag used as a compress is good as the tannic acid will dry it. Domeboro solution from the drug store is also very good as a wet compress. When I used either one I would make him lie there for 10 - 15 minutes while I applied it. You may be able to find a vet who practices integrative medicine - if so that can work wonders and if you're lucky (as we were) it may be a lot cheaper.

yum that recipe sounds good! :-)

Yeah, I like the idea of the sardines better too. It's impossible (well for me, anyway) to tell if fish oil capsules are still good...

Sounds like dog nutrition is very similar to human!

I'm trying to do the homework but there's so much data to sift through! ugh.

DO NOT give your dogs steroids!!! Go to a homeopathic vet and get them OFF drugs and onto a natural healing lifestyle. DO NOT feed them commercial dog food (kibble) it will kill them. Feed them raw food, grains, fruits and veggies. Do buy Dr. Pitcarin's natural pet health book. RAW food not commercial garbage is the key! once they are acclimated to it the other problems will resolve themselves. If they have arthritis chondrotine and glousime supplements are great. But the bottom line is the food. NOT drugs like steroids. Go to Shirley's wellness cafe. com and READ!!!!!!

I hear ya. We've started to gradually move him towards a better diet. He's nowhere near the detox phase yet. We have to go slowly though cuz he also has a very touchy digestive system and it doesn't take much to give him diarrhea. Poor guy.

of course you have to wean him slowly and introduce the new food slowly. Try giving him acidopholous for the diarrhea. Get some capsules and give him two or three or four and the diarrhea should stop. it works for me and my pets. Then get him to a homeopath

ahhh acidophilus! isn't that for yeast infections, usually? How you find a homeopathic vet?

acidopholous has many applications, dfiareah is one of them. try looking at www.alternativesforanimals.com for a holisitic vet in your area.

I have a dog that does this with his eyes, I feed him dog vitamins making sure he gets the ones with vitamin D & E in it. Also I try my best to get dog food that has the least amount of corn products possible on the list.

thank you thank you!

homeopathy is a miracle! go there!

Hi, I'm new here, but have been reading this thread since my Shi Tzu has been going through a tough time w/scratching. I've done just about everything, foods, oils, shots, Benedryl, etc. I asked my vet about the raw diet and started all three dogs on it this past Saturday. My vet said to just go right into it, unfortunately, after the third day, two dogs have a LOT of diarherra, and the third's not even interested in eating (it's been two days). Any ideas, cause I'm ready to go back to Science Diet since they're not too keen on the raw foods. I REALLY appreciate any help. Thanks.

When I did some reading up on it on the web, I recall a suggestion about easing them into it--to avoid the full-on detox mode, with all it's diarrhea.

Our Bruno has such a touchy bowel, that I don't dare change him over too fast. So he's still on olive oil, bits of fruits when we're eating them and we just added a chicken wing a day. He thinks he's in heaven. And the cats are jealous (I'm not ready to switch them yet). I have to protect him from them. It'll be even worse when we start adding some fish every day!

you are exactly right thorsippi you can't just turn them right over has to be done gradually. awww poor cats. give them some real food.

:-)

They all come up on my lap to sniff whatever I'm eating just in case they want some... *sigh* and they usually get some.

But pretty Little Boy is extremely fussy. He almost never wants to eat it. Just sniff it. And yet, he's the one I caught eating the Easter Lily (first and only one ever to enter my house), who then spent 2 nights in the hospital at $400....

The shaved spot on his leg hasn't even grown back yet.

Now that I think about it, he's going to be the one to be most difficult to switch to a natural diet. The other two fat little piggies will have no such troubles.

Hi all, well, I tried it for seven days. Right now my already skinny Yorkie won't eat anything, she won't even touch peanut butter (I use it for giving meds). So between diarrhea and the dogs not wanting to eat, even their Science Diet, rice and yogurt, I'm going back to the vet and back on Science Diet. I should've just stuck with the commercial food, shots and did like before, it half-way worked. I'm glad the raw diet works for you all, but this isn't worth my dogs' health or their happiness. Thank you for you time and input.

Well you can always try again later, if you choose to, but next time PLEASE EASE them into it very SLOWLY!

Incidentally, that's what you're supposed to do even if you're simply changing brands. Which is why I question a vet's motive if he didn't advise going slowly.

One last question though. If the 'good/expensive' dog foods are so bad for the dogs, why would it matter if the chicken and meats are raw, cooked meats would still be a better alternative than the commercial stuff and I think it would be better tasting to them too, not to mention the germs and parasites being killed off in the process of cooking. Reason why I ask is that almost all the dog books I've read state to never ever give raw meat let alone raw chicken bones to any dog.
Just came back from the vet, $150 lighter (X-rays, meds, office visit) due to my Yorkie bleeding from straining to go to the bathroom all day and night, not eating and just lethargic. I think I'm going to get them back on their usual food, get them normalized, then GRADUALLY put them on the raw diet. I did notice, maybe coincidence, that my Shi Tzu's skin 'seemed' a little less dry in the few days they were on it. Thanks for all the input.

well, then again, we battle over what's the best human diet too. Low carb, vegetarian, low fat, macrobiotic, paleolithic, organically-grown, genetically-modified-produce, etc etc... I don't think we'll have a definitive answer in my lifetime! :-)

In the end, we each have to make our own decisions and try to move cautiously.

So I don't know for a fact that a raw food diet will help my dog or not. It might take up to a year to see any real changes. And each year, he gets older. So....?

So all I "know," really, is what I've learned from studying paleolithic diets. And since we've domesticated dogs for thousands of years, they're probably selected for a diet similar to our ideal diet, but more meat and bones and no grains at all.

One other note: I've read that *cooked* chicken bones splinter, but raw ones don't. Makes sense to me. Many predators eat birds and don't die from it.

I understand that the cooked bones do splinter, but if I were to give them just cooked meats and supplemented w/ calcium since they're not getting the bones. My big fear earlier this week was that a bone had gotten lodged in or torn the intestinal tract, causing the bleeding and straining. It wasn't a good time for either of us.
I haven't given up completely yet, 'Kfgesq' has been EXTREMELY helpful through this whole ordeal. We're going to get these dogs healthy, somehow.

Put as simply as possible his itchiness may be food allergies first put him on lamb and rice formula or formula for allergenic "itchy" dogs.....
next look around at the chemicals in your house.... do you use alot of things like carpet cleaner that he sleeps on? If so switch to natural cleansers....
next look at the time of year pollen etc. can also bother a dogs sinuses and skin like a human but skin sometimes even more because it lays under his coat..... give him frequent bathes in GENTLE oatmeal, aloe and or tar shampoo.... you can also put him in an oatmeal bath if you can get him to sit there.... tea trea shampoo may also help in the way of infections and an apple cier (weak gentle) rinse can also help....
he may have a "yeast" infection in his skin especially if he has a dense or long coat.... in this case wash with tea tree oil and apple cider vinegar and take to the vet because he may need medication....
and as mentioned it could also be lack of omega fatty acids get a dog food claiming to contain it or the liquid you pour over his food or capsules.... (i.e. containing things like evening primrose, flax, borage etc.) :)

Catcanski:

We're going to get these dogs healthy, somehow.

I sure do hope so. My poor Bruno just seems so miserable.

flowersandthings:

Bruno's been on Kirkland Lamb and Rice with Glucosamine/Chondroitin for at least 3 years now, and .... poor guy. Itch itch itch.

My husband runs a janitorial service, so we do have lots of icky chemicals around, but we only scrub our tile floor about twice a year. with a "neutral" cleaner. And we only clean our carpet about twice a year, too.

He usually has a very dense long coat, but we had him shaved not too long ago, so his hair is only about 1" long right now. We hoped it would make it easier for his skin to heal, but he's scratching almost as much as before. We've started him on the road towards a raw food diet (oil on his food and a chicken wing daily), but we have to go slow for him.

We've tried the oatmeal shampoo. I usually despise the scent of tea tree oil, but if it would make him more comfortable, then I'll cope with it.

Flax seed oil is on my grocery list (for myself too), but we haven't actually made it Trader Joes in awhile.

I've wondered several times if he has a yeast infection (I have some personal experience with that), but wasn't sure exactly how to treat it when it's on his *skin*.

The vets we've seen all recommend prednisone shots. grrr. Haven't seen the homeopathic vet yet. Gathering a budget for that.

Thorspippi remember the info about chemical home cleaning solutions.... that could be bothering him and also try the apple cider (apple cider vinegar and water) with a few drops of tea tree oil..... wash him with anti itch shampoo then rinse with this..... let really soak in then rinse out.... this normalizes ph and can also help with "yeast" infections....

Yeah, I wish DH would ditch the chemicals in favor of Greener Cleaners, but customers still demand the noxious ones. They don't think it's clean unless it stinks. *shrug*. We both sneeze and cough and hack, too. Can't tell what the cause is cuz there's SO MANY possiblities.

That vinegar/tea tree oil thing sounds good to me. I've wondered if there was a yeast thing involved here. I've had some personal experience with that and know exactly how miserable that can be. If it *is* a yeast thing... and until we get him switched completely over to a BARF diet (low on carbs), is there anything else I can do for him, systemically? Yogurt, maybe? Does yogurt cause diarrhea like milk might? Him and his touchy bowel, ya know. I don't know if a dog's internal fauna is the same as ours.

Hi all, I've tried the tea tree oil on our Shi Tzu's hot spots and for some reason he gets 'whoozy' and acts kinda 'off' for a while after applying it. Yogurt is great for the dogs and our love it, especially the blueberry.
Right now they're diarheaa free and I've been hand feeding them veggies, some raw meat (very little at this time), cooked chicken livers (they hated them raw) and some of their regular food. So far so good. I'm hoping that within a few weeks of this I can get them completely switched over.
One last question though, the fleas here are getting crazy, does anybody know what's the best way, or form, of getting garlic and brewer's yeast into the pooches to help ward off the little critters? Once again, thanks.

You can sprinkle the brewers yeast on their food and the garlic too if they will eat it. there are also some pills that contain garlic and brewers yeast out htere. my dogs love them they think they are cookies. Thorsippi and flowersand things hot spots can be cured very rapidly with collodial silver. I am sure the reason your dogs are itching is the food. raw diet raw diet. Cooked diets are nice for people but dogs have a different nutritional requirement. DO NOT feed cooked bones. Please try the collodial silver on the hot spots. Yogurt is great for dogs, does not give them diareah as a matter of fact the opposite. Neither does milk by the way read Dr. Pitcairn's book as soon as you can.

Yeah! We've switched over. No more commercial food, AND no more diarhea. Just for the heck of it I left some Science Diet in their dish, it's been in there for five days, and hardly touched. I found that our finicky eaters prefer burger mixed w/ sausage and cut up chicken along with diced/pureed vegetables made up into little 'meatballs'. And they absolutely love raw beef rib bones.
I'll admit it that it IS more work, I'm either prepairing food for us or the dogs whenever I'm in the kitchen. But if it's better for them, so why not, they're part of the family, right?
I do appreciate all the help and input from everyone here, it was a little nerve-racking at first, but we've done it. Now, how about a little help with the winning Lotto numbers? Only kidding, once again thanks all, especially Kathy (kfgesq).

Oh I'm so glad it's working out!

I see Bruno's condition improving steadily even though he's not completely switched. He's not itching nearly as much (that vinegar bath packs a great wallop) and his coat is getting shiny again. Our only problem is keeping the ButtheadCat away while he's eating (Bruno's Omega--Butthead can take food right out of Bruno's mouth). :-) We've been working on switching the cats, too. But only Butthead is willing.

Bruno and the Butthead:
{{gwi:62856}}

THEY'RE SOOO CUTE! CATS ARE STOBORN BUT THEY WILL GET WITH THE PROGRAM.

I have found a great website i'd like to share. www.goodpet.com check it out

I don;t think raw food diets HAVE to be used....I think that some good attention to picking the right food for them and then to supplments - like yogurt to promote good flora in the intenstines - is very do-able - at least I find that with our lab. I do change his food about 3 times per year, always high quality food (never have used Science diet, mostly Nutros and Eukanuba) - and I also feed him Fish oil capsules and such at times ...he's doing great. I find that his body chemistry seems to change with the season so I reassess what I give him as the main source of food each season....
my husband was aboslutely, positively against raw food diets ...and I am fine this that since our dog is good as we do it now :)

The itchy problems did not happen nearly as much years ago.
The things they put into dog food is very unhealthy pesticides and hormones not to mention the water they drink. Floride is in a lot of the drinking water now days along with chemicals used to make it drinkable.?
Try bottled water for a few weeks see if that helps. If you like I can send the facts on floride not good for man or beast.

My dog has a yeast infection. It's easy to tell with her cause she smells awful! It started with an ear infection and she was chewing at her feet all the time. The ear infection looked like ear mites, but that wasn't it. We took her to the vet several times and she got better for a moment but then went right back to where she was. I finally came across a site about yeast infections in dogs and it was very informative! They also talk about commercial dog foods and what's in them. They offer all natural products to help out with the itching, immune system and good bacteria. They also have a ton of success stories and pictures! I have started my dog on the yeast kit, but it's too soon to see results. We have our fingers crossed!

Here is a link that might be useful: NZMES

Hi, I am new to this particular forum but not to Gardenweb. One thing I noticed was that a lot of you talked about your dogs having hot spots - I wanted to make sure to suggest comfrey salve to you to heal those VERY quickly. I grow my own comfrey and make my own salve in quantity for my use and my 6 dogs, but you can also find it in your local natural foods store more than likely. Make sure if you put it on them you cover it so the dog can't lick it as comfrey can cause liver damage when taken internally. But the stuff is amazing.

On the topic of feeding home-cooked, I have had great luck with the following when I have had a furkid with pancreatitis, or a puppy sick from tummy surgery, etc.

In a large bowl I mix:
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 large jar baby food in a vegetable/meat combination
any leftover plain cooked meat I have, chopped small (or baby food meat sticks if I don't have leftovers)
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
1 banana, mashed into mixture
Mix and serve!

This topic has been popular! I have a border collie mix, which I adopted as an adult from a shelter. She slowly developed itchy paws and it kept getting worse. The vet prescribed a medicated powder, which worked well. Meanwhile someone had mentioned food allergies, particularly wheat. So, I stopped feeding her wheat/bread goodies (she loves pizza dough) and she stopped itching! If she eats bread or a similar product she immediately starts itching, so it's very obvious. Be sure to feed your dog only good dog food and cut out those human-food goodies.

My dog has chronic generalized demodosis. It's an inherited auto-immune issue for which there is no cure. The best I can do is help ease her symptoms.

She's been through the dips, the baths, the creams, the oral and injected Ivermectin. I chose not to do the really heavy-duty 6 shots every 2 weeks, as that generally leads to liver issues later in life.

Recently I've been introduced to a botanical extract which may help her. She seems to like getting her piece of cheese every 8 hours. This stuff is supposed to help her own body release it's adult stem cells. Hopefully those will then work to strengthen her immune system.

Only time will tell.

I've started a blog where you can follow along as she and I work to help her get better. You'll find it in my optional link area.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ask-Us, where you'll find my sweet Sarah's story.

Please stop sending me private emails in relation to this subject. I don't have any answers and I don't need any more suggestions. My poor Zack died a year ago at the age of thirteen, from spinal cancer. It was horrible. If anyone is able to make some use from this thread then I'm glad, but please stop emailing me personally.

For those who find this thread Homeopathy is a miracle, if the vet can literally walk on water and heal the blind then trust them to fix your dog, if not then see a real vet.

Sorry brendon, i know you want people to think you walk on water. But your ignorance does'nt help you much. I'll take homeopathy over a highschool kid any day of the week.

Congratulations on not reading what I said, then making a comparison between homeopathy and someone you apparently just made up.

I never said I could walk on water, or that I could treat an itchy dog, and I have no idea who the highschooler you are talking about is, or where you even got that, unless you went back in to my posts from many years ago (I've been on gardenweb since the late 90's).

I rub olive oil into my dogs skin. She stops itching instantly, and finds herself delicious. You can also make up a scrub for bath time. Olive oil , or some other kind of oil, and sugar. Rub it in and rinse. Works great for people too.