Jake's back seems to itch

mmcginty

mmcginty

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He's got no bumps or rashes or scales or even redness, he's been on either Advantage or Revolution since he was 10 weeks old (I've never seen a single flea on him) and I rake his undercoat very regularly. In other words, I see absolutely no physical reason or evidence of any condition associated with itchiness...

But even so, it seems to me that his back itches pretty bad, on an ongoing basis. When I scratch his back in certain spots (that are different from day to day) his skin scrunches up, and he kicks a hind leg involutarily. Plus he closes his eyes half way and stretches out -- the look of relief on his face is unmistakable.

When I find a spot he reacts to/wants me to scratch, I part his fur to take a look, but all I find is nice clean pale sheltie skin. (I can't count the number of times we've repeated this drill.)

He's got an anual checkup coming up in a few weeks, I'm going to ask my vet about it then... Just wondering if anyone else has ever seen asymptomatic itching like this?


TIA,
Mark

btw, I know this probably sounds trivial compared to most of the health problems in this section -- my heart goes out to everyone caring for sick doggies... But I can't stand the idea that my bestest little friend is persistantly uncomfortable, and I'd appreciate any experience anyone may have to share.
 
when was the last time he had a bath?

A few weeks ago, I noticed Bailey was scratching a lot. She didn't have fleas, is on k9 advantix and her skin looked healthy.

The last time she had a bath was May, so I decided she was due for one. After the bath, she stopped scratching and didn't seem as itchy anymore.
 
Itching

My tri Harper Lee has done her fair share of scratching as well. When we first got her she was an abandoned mess and all that goes with that scenario.

She scratches seasonally, and we have taken care of her with periodic hydrocortosine cream. She has had yeast infections as well and I am beginning to see a corelation between feeding her occasional fish dinners to her scratching. She doesn't eat it much but I feel like a fool that I didn't notice earlier in the year.

I hope this helps. Does your pup have a yeasty smell?


Best,
Kate
 
take4roll10 said:
when was the last time he had a bath?

A few weeks ago, I noticed Bailey was scratching a lot. She didn't have fleas, is on k9 advantix and her skin looked healthy.

The last time she had a bath was May, so I decided she was due for one. After the bath, she stopped scratching and didn't seem as itchy anymore.
Click to expand...

His last bath was maybe 2 months ago at most. I was thinking I should bathe him again just to see if that helped any, and also to maybe get a little better look at his skin... I've been waiting for a nice warm day. :yes:


-Mark
 
famous seamus said:
My tri Harper Lee has done her fair share of scratching as well. When we first got her she was an abandoned mess and all that goes with that scenario.

She scratches seasonally, and we have taken care of her with periodic hydrocortosine cream. She has had yeast infections as well and I am beginning to see a corelation between feeding her occasional fish dinners to her scratching. She doesn't eat it much but I feel like a fool that I didn't notice earlier in the year.

I hope this helps. Does your pup have a yeasty smell?


Best,
Kate
Click to expand...

No, not at all, but that makes me wonder... He's still eating puppy food (Royal Canin) because Brandy is only 8 months old, but I ordered a bag of adult food last week because I don't want him to gain any more weight. (He weighs 32 lbs but he's 21.5" at the withers; he's not fat at all, but I want to keep it that way.)

Anyways, I wonder if the puppy diet might be a contributing factor?


-Mark
 
Diet

Could be the diet Mark, check the ingredients and if it contains any grain products, lose the food. Everyone in this forum will tell you that grains of any kind are bad news for our shelties.

Emmasmom, what is Summit?

Good luck,
Best,
Kate
 
Summit is a food made by Petcurean, makers of Go and Now. What I like about it is the fact that other than the Australian lamb, all products are local in the two flavours of Canadian Chicken and Australian Lamb. I couldn't believe the difference in a few weeks with Liam - no more scratched. They both however love to have their backs scratched.
 
Maybe its the shampoo you're using? If he seems really itchy you might want to switch to an oatmeal based shampoo as suggested. Or maybe he wasn't rinsed well enough?

When we got our rescue Toby he'd been bathed by his foster Mom. She'd used an all natural shampoo but I thought he seemed to be scratching a lot even though he didn't have fleas and his skin looked fine. I bathed him with Mane and Tail and his scratching stopped. I figure either the shampoo that his foster mom used didn't agree with him or he hadn't been rinsed well enough.

If he's still itchy after another bath I'd try switching him to a low allergen or grainless food.
 
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