Hey alls,

I have four dogs. I posted before about how they were all itchy. Well now my poor female is concerning me. She is scratching almost all the time, all night and day. and I found some red spots on her withers. The look like either insect bites or welts/hives. (I guess they possibly could even have been scratch marks from her claws). She seems to only be able to go 5-10 minutes without scratching, max.

She hates Benadryl but I gave her a little last night, didn't seem to help much, if at all.

I can't find any evidence of fleas, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. I brushed one of the dogs on a white paper, and got the paper wet, but none of the black dots turned red (indicating flea dirt). I've combed the longer haired dogs with a flea comb and tried flea shampoo a couple months ago but didn't see any dead fleas in my tub (with four large dogs, you'd think I'd find at least one dead flea). Also, the dogs are concentrating their scratching on their shoulders, necks, and armpits, and only rarely their butts/tails.

My poor poor girl. What else can I look for to see if it is fleas? Anything I can do to help her (and my other dogs) feel more comfortable? Is it vet time???

Have you considered sarcoptic mange? If it's not fleas, that's what comes to mind for me.

 Quote: tracy r touzjian

Have you considered sarcoptic mange? If it's not fleas, that's what comes to mind for me.

With all the dogs being itchy, mange springs to my mind too, after fleas.

Is there any odor? Is there any face-itching (dog rubs face on carpet or furniture or with paw).

Can you link us to your previous post? ("I posted before about how they were all itchy.")

Also, have you trialed other antihistamines? Benadryl doesn't have the track record of hrdroxyzine and chlorpheniramine.

I'd get a vet to do a scraping (skin-cell "lift") and look at it under the 'scope.

http://www.flourishingfairies.co.za/Parasites.htm

Thanks for the replies.

Here is my previous thread: http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=10&Number=208030&Searchpage=1&Main=20558&Words=itchy+Angela+Burrell&topic=0&Search=true#Post208030

I'll answer your questions as best I can.

No fur loss that i can tell, no odour, one of my dogs yes, rubs his face on me or his bed (but not all the time, seems to be when he is more active, I thought he was being goofy). My female likes to roll on the ground and she has been doing it more often lately, very often. Only when she is outside.

I have not tried any other antihistamines, other than Benadryl last night. Do you know of any brand names of hrdroxyzine or chlorpheniramine? Can I buy them at a drug store?

Rubbing the face and body on you and the ground would prompt me to get a skin scraping.

http://www.medicinenet.com/hydroxyzine/article.htm

Oh, so it seems that hydroxyzine is a prescription med. Meaning I have to get it from the vet... anything besides Benadryl I can give her till then?

Hi Angela,

Here is a recipe for a homeopathic bath that we tried when Truman had sarcoptic mange. We ended up getting Ivomectin injections, and that finally cured the problem. BTW, We were never able to get the mites to show up on a skin scraping. It's difficult to get a positive scrape of scabies.

http://www.earthclinic.com/Pets/dog_mange_cure.html

Did truman have any symptoms other than itching?

I use Chlortrimeton for my dogs allergies. Benedryl didnt seem to do a thing for him-my dog is around 100 lbs so I could give him 4 pills 3x a day when he was really bad, now I have him down to just giving him 2 in the morning and that is helping. I was buying them at the store but at that dose it was costing some money, so my vet gave me a whole bottle full for a fraction of the cost.

It just started as itching for the first month or so. Fairly mild at first, mostly he scratched his armpits and belly area. Then the other dog started itching. By this time, he was waking us up nights and was losing weight, hair, and had developed awful scratches and small red bumps.

We visited the vet many times during this, and he had been mis-diagonosed with allergies. He had been on weeks of prednisone, benydryl and antibiotics. Finally my husband and I were waking up in the morning with a couple of itchy bumps. I had to talk the vet into trying the Ivomec shots. Both dogs were treated with 2 shots a peice, and all the their bedding was washed on the sanitary cycle of my washing machine every couple of days. We have not had a problem since. Here is a link to what his skin looked like at the end, right before he was treated.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l162/imcalvinsmom/TSCABIES.jpg

PS His belly is shaved in that picture because a few weeks before the pic was taken, he developed testicular torsion and needed emergency surgery. So some of that hair loss is from the surgery.

Edited by Tracy R Touzjian (10/29/2008 09:21 AM)
Edit reason: more info