She may have a contact problem, do you clean your carpets regularly, and/or her bed linens , does she lay in grass that has been treated with any herbicides, insecticides or pesticides??

Mazer,
That is a good question. Just wonder why the vet didn't ask.
I do vac. twice a week. Use hypo allergenic carpet shampoo every month, (I have white carpet). Marley's dog bed covers are washed once a week with tide liquid. I did use Demacus Earth food grade last summer (house, garage, porch and deck). I read about it on this forum. My yard (2 acres) does not get any chemical treatments. I live in a country type area. Have lots of Deer, rabbits, cyotes, skunks you name it it's here. This area was a farm at one time.

This itching only occurs in the summer. No problem at all in the winter.

I am holding my breath this Pro Pet Itch relief continues to work. It is printed on the bottle may eliminate the need for oral steroids. Steroids is the only thing that helped Marley last summer. I don't want to use steroids again because of all the issues, side effects.

Itchy DOG Friendly Reminders:

> Allergy is not a Static Disease. Rather, it is a Progressive, Cumulative, Chronic Inflammatory Disease that can only be neutralized via ImmunoTherapy SHOTs or Sublingual.

> While MED's may offer Temporary Itch Relief by Masking Symptoms, they are not without their Side Effects BUT can be used while ImmunoTherapy begins until they take hold.

> 85% of Itchy DOGs = Allergy to Pollens, Mites & Molds.

> Newly published Studies show Sublingual ImmunoTherapy EQUAL to Allergy SHOTs in neutralization of Enviro Allergies.

> Canine Allergy SHOTs Do work, but Pet Owner administered SHOTs often are discontinued

Last dog, red Dobie, had itching problems from early age. At about 4 months old, vet determined she had Demodex mange... a hereditary thing and pretty OT for this post.

After getting over that, she started getting itchy every spring. No fleas, not return of demodex. I mentioned that she would start getting itchy/scratchy as soon as weather got nice. Once things warmed up, she LOVED to just lay iin the grass and roll around. The itching went away when weather started getting colder and she was only outside to do what she hadda do. Vet did some basic skin scrapings and didn't find anything really unusual... she was allergic to grass! Rather than starting out with steroids, vet said try giving her Benadryl, dosage for adult since she was about 90 lbs. It wasn't something miraculous, but it definitely helped with her itching and din't have the potential problems that long term steroid use could cause.

You may want to look into supplement oils for your dog such as olive oil, fish oil, coconut, flaxseed, salmon oils etc...While not a cure all they have been found to be very helpful in situations like yours. An authoritative site with Vet references are a good place to start.

Here is a link that might be useful: olive oil for dogs

not sure what happened here but I'll try again. I'm putting my dog on benedryl for allergies. what I don't know is how to convert mg. and ml. Vet said to give her 1 mg. per every pound of weight. but my dropper uses ml., not mg. and I don't know how to figure it. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks.

maybe I should say she weighs 13 pounds in case I need someone to figure it out down to the last drop. LOL

I'm sorry I can't help with the conversion but I was wondering if your dog is an indoor dog. If so, do you run your A/C a lot?

The reason I ask is that we have a large German Shepherd and two cats and what Dan suggested above works for us. We moved from a hot climate (CA) to an even hotter, drier climate (AZ) last November. Years ago we noticed that our dog started itching horribly after we started running the A/C constantly. Prior to that we thought that it was because she was shedding (boy does she ever) or that she had some type of allergy. Our vet in CA suggested giving her two Benedryl, once with her breakfast and the other with her dinner, for 3-4 days. In the meantime he said to also start her on fish oil capsules at the same time, twice a day. And if we fry bacon or use canned tuna packed in oil, to give that to her in her food as well. We then only gave her one Benedryl a day for two days and stopped altogether, but continued with the oil. Worked like a charm and we have done that every year since.

Evidently the dry air, especially once the A/C is running all the time, dries out her skin and the fish oil helps her skin as well as her coat. Here in Arizona we had to start that earlier because the air is so dry where we live. Truthfully, we actually haven't given her any Benedryl for a couple years now but started her out really early on the fish oil capsules here (our first Spring and Summer in AZ). Our cats also get one capsule a day.

We stick a pin in the capsule and squirt and mix it into their food. Since we're almost out of the capsules I'm looking for someplace that has liquid fish oil and also sells eye droppers.

Hope this helps.

Jenna

Thanks to all that helped me out. Jenna I went to Walmart one day for something that required a dropper and they just gave me one from behind the counter. I am trying olive oil because it was the only oil I had in the house, but then I read that dogs could NOT have olives. Any comments on that? I would get other oils but I live 20 miles from closest store that would have fish oil. But will pick some up next trip.

Brownthumbia, honestly I haven't given any of our dogs olive oil but when I read your post above I wondered about it myself. Go back to Dan's post above and re-read the link he provided. I just did and there's information about olive oil for dogs. It may be that a whole olive isn't good for pets, maybe due to the pits, but I don't know for sure, but apparently olive oil is. Because of the size of your dog, I would go with less is best.

I'm not a vet nor have any type of medical training so I do have to say that you should be careful when starting your furry kiddo on anything. They often have allergic reactions to different things just like we do. And other times whatever it is just doesn't agree with their tummies.

We've been very lucky in the vets that we've had over the years. We did have one vet we didn't like (we went to him because our other vet had retired), which actually led us to the vet that suggested the fish oil. The other vet had one of our dogs so medicated that she could barely walk, much less get outside to go to the bathroom. All this for dry skin. He had never tested her for anything, just prescribed heavy duty drugs (which weren't cheap). I should have had a clue when he came into the room and told me to lift her up onto the tall metal table. Let's see...she was about 125-130 lbs., and I was all of about 98 lbs. (then...not so skinny now).

Altho she hadn't been on the meds more than a couple days, we eased her off and took her to the new vet. Who, BTW, immediately got down on the floor to our dog's level. He was our vet for almost 20 years and the most wonderful, loving man with animals we've ever met.

I guess the point that I'm trying to make is find a good vet who is more concerned about the health and well being of your furry kids then he is about the final billing total at the counter when you're getting ready to leave.

Thank you for the tip about the eye droppers. My husband actually found some at the grocery store a couple days ago when he was looking for something else. Now if we can only remember where we saw the liquid fish oil.

Jenna

I use the fish oil on my Maggie also but why do you puncture the capsule when you can just put the whole capsule in the food? Maggie is 60 lbs and I give her 1000 mg of omega 3
softgels once a day. If your dog is smaller buy less mgs. Her coat is beautiful and the stools are too.

Michael, I can't speak for anyone else's dogs but I've yet to have one of mine ever eat one of those capsules...ever. It's usually the only thing left in the bowl. Have even tried wrapping them in bologne, steak, and liverwurst and it's always a no-go.

The capsule will be licked over, under and around but it will still be the only thing left in the bowl after they're done. And I swear that our dog now even rolls her eyes and gives us the "you think you're going to fool me?" look. :)

Jenna

Michael, I can't speak for anyone else's dogs but I've yet to have one of mine ever eat one of those capsules...ever. It's usually the only thing left in the bowl. Have even tried wrapping them in bologne, steak, and liverwurst and it's always a no-go.

The capsule will be licked over, under and around but it will still be the only thing left in the bowl after they're done. And I swear that our dog now even rolls her eyes and gives us the "you think you're going to fool me?" look. :)

Jenna

jenna, you made me laugh. Maggie eats her dinner so quickly I don't think she would know what was hidden in the bowl. I guess you'll have to be one that punctures the capsule. Even the Heartworm I break in half, smear some peanut butter on it and she thinks its a treat. She even looks for the second half. Same with comfortis. I'm going with trifexis and see if we can get this down to one drug per month.

Get some of these.
I swear by them.
My dog swallows it almost whole.
The only way I can get the meds. in.
He would take the cheese wrapped pill move it around in his mouth and spit out the pill..