Why this is not one step:

Fleas have four life stages .... egg, larva, pupa, and flea. The flea lives on the dog. But the eggs fall off and hatch in the carpet, etc. When they hatch, the larvae eat the flea excrement ... so the dog bed and the carpet or rug near it are their favorite places. They also live under couch and chair cushions. After they eat for some days, they spin a cocoon. Cocoons are protective against insecticides. Cocoons hatch when a dog (or cat, etc.) is available.

I use an unscented hypoallergenic dog shampoo when the dog is getting frequent baths, and I rinse very very well. I also make sure that not a day of fish oil (and the vitamin E that you give along with any oil supplement) is missed. I want the skin to have all its barrier capabilities.

A flea comb when you're doing battle (every day) is good.... it not only removes fleas and larvae, but it shows you how you're doing.

 Quote: Jessica Walsh

Fenris' itchfest

Hoping this will work. the link has the authkey in it that I think it needs. If it fails, totally delete this.

It worked. Yeah, that's pretty bad.

However, am I seeing raggedy ear-edges? The dog with the raggedy ear-flap (pinna) edges is the dog the vet saw?



ETA
You have two dogs, right? Both have had the topical now?

Yes, the raggedy ears is the dog the vet saw. The ears and side weren't as bad when she saw him about 3-4 weeks ago.

The raggedy ears I believe (I thought) are (mostly) due to a bad reaction to Parastar that started last October/Nov. It made him puke sort of slightly foamy green biley nothing stuff every time I gave it to him, but it took me forever to connect the two because he would do it 1-3 days after the dosing. I always had an excuse like "oh he ate grass" or something. I would give Parastar and his itching would INCREASE horribly for 10-14 days, then taper off, then I'd dose him again. He also had more overall hair loss then and very focused scratching at his ears. A lot less biting. Could have been he had fleas then too. So then I figured it out and skipped a month and switched to K9 Advantix. And now I have flea hell. :-) The month of April--his last month on Parastar and his second month on raw--his coat actually started to grow back thick and beautiful. I didn't give Advantix til May 20 which gave him a full month with no anti-flea.

I'm also realizing that his weird rubbing-face along the carpet behavior like he has somethign on it is probably also fleas.

I actually called the vet back to ask about giving Trifexis early (I'm all for keeping chemicals to a min but I really feel like he needs to switch back to it rather than Heartgard and he has taken it before) and the front desk was all insistant on me looking for evidence of fleas and said not to give it early and I'm like, um, even the vet said just one can make him bonkers. So I was like whatever. I might call back monday and just insist on talking to the vet. But then, their track record kind of sucks bigtime. They have fixed ZERO issues with my dog.But they support raw feeding. Sigh.

But still, no vet has suggested fleas during ANY of his visits since i've been taking him for fur loss since late Dec. Maybe I have to fire them all...

So, my dog's itching has been about an 8-9 month saga now.

If you have other input on the ears, I'm all ears. Oh god, a pun!

And yes, I have two dog. Raggedy ear got Advantix May 20. My mix, whose skin and coat are glorious, but whom I have also noticed a very minimal amount of itching in, got Advantix May 3. Both are on Heartgard and I am probably going to switch them both back to Trifexis next dose.

I'm also considering taking him to a pet deramtologist, but given the total failure with the vets, thought I'd try on my own first. their website says to STOP omega oils at least 2 weeks before coming in and I'm not dying to do that.

"his weird rubbing-face along the carpet behavior like he has somethign on it "



I don't think you had mentioned rubbing his face on the carpet (or the ragged ear flaps).


Remind us of this dog's age.


"Ears look pretty clean. The skin looks good. Sometimes it looks irritated but I think that's just from playing and getting excited; it usually goes away."

Is there no debris that looks a little like coffee grounds? No red bumps inside?


I'm thinking about mites.

I started thinking about scabies mites when I saw those earflaps in the pictures.

But the vet would have thought the same thing, so I'm wondering if she looked at the ear margins and saw something else ... ? Maybe folliculitis?

And the other dog has none of this?

 Quote: Jessica Walsh

I'm also considering taking him to a pet deramtologist, but given the total failure with the vets, thought I'd try on my own first ....

Yes, I'm with you on a derm vet.

Raggedy pinna, face-rubbing .... those patches in the pictures ....

Mites .... sarcoptic mites .... I've read many times how hard they are to find and how many times they are misdiagnosed as pruritis (from environmental allergies). They can look just the same! But those ragged pinna in the pictures .... Did the vet do the Pedal-Pinna Reflex Test?

And the base-of-tail behavior is still classic flea behavior.

If I were you, I'd be making a derm vet appointment. I'm afraid of the GP vet starting to think steroids (like Pred) to relieve the dog's itching, and sarcoptic mites LOVE prednisone; it enhances their repro abilities, in fact.

Scrapings often do not find sarcoptic mites. They are hard to diagnose. That's why I'm urging you toward the derm vet (and also because you're now describing more than fleas, IMO).

I hope Dr. Betty sees this and comments. All I'm going by is reading and pictures. I have seen ear mites, but not sarcoptic mites.





" ... even the vet said just one {flea} can make him bonkers ..."

Right, but now with the raggedy ear leather and face-rubbing ..... you may have two things going on.

No I hadn't mentioned the ears before. The practice I go to is a multi-vet practice and there are 3 vets there I will see. In late Dec/early Jan when I first took him, he did have the ears and only a small patch on his hind legs. The vet (different one that 3 weeks ago) DID recommend Revolution as a rule out measure and we did 3 doses in January-Feb, but it didn't help one whit. That vet recommended a derm dr since he said he had no idea what it was if it wasn't mites. I decided to try the food route since I was afraid they'd attack that first and so switched to Orijen, then raw. Plus the derm vet is far away, so I was like you know, cover my bases before I get in a vet/financial saga (hindsight: bad plan). I saw improvement on Orijen, then a little backtrack, then huge improvement on raw. During raw I had the lightbulb of: every time I give my dog Parastar, he pukes 1-3 days later and his scratching gets horrendous for 14 days then tapers down a little. So I switched to Advantix just last dose. This scratching feel differnet to me than the bad flea meds, but it could be he had both issues: fleas and bad reaction to flea meds.

Dog is about 18 months.

Other dog has PERFECT skin and fur and feels like cashmere. She has done a little biting and itching I have noticed but it is not even remotely comparable to my GSD.

No I don't remember seeing bumps or coffee ground stuff in the ear, but I'll check again.

I think when I took him in Jan the vet did the reflex test. Can't remember if last vet checked ears. There was a lot less biting in the former part of the year. It was more scratching. I know that may sound weird. Now there is much more biting.

Although, just because he didn't have sarcoptic in Jan I suppose doesn't mean he couldn't have it now. Vet in Jan didn't bother to scrape for mites because he said he wouldn't find them if they were there. So we treated with Revolution just in case. He said if it wasn't that it was probably food. So I went the food route on my own. I really dont' think it's food.

Another piece I left out: A couple of days after I picked him up from week in kennel (May 3 ish) I felt like he had more biting and licking. A LOT of licking on a specific paw. I thought this was weird but let it go. Licking continued and then one day I saw a little blood. Looking closer, I saw a very swollen nail bed. Looked at other foot, nail bed much smaller, I concluded: extremely swollen, probably not good, possibly infected: vet trip. Went to vet like May 9 or 10 probably, she said nail bed infection, antibiotics, predisone for 10 days or cone of shame for 2 weeks. I was like ok prednisone. No itching badness during predisone. After prednisone though, oh boy, that patch on his side is probably liek 75% in the last 2.5-4 weeks. Took back to same vet. She said, oh it's seasonal allergies. Brought up fleas which she didnt' seem to think it was and said "well we have checked every time and haven't found any" but then said "but just one could drive him crazy if he had allergy" which completely made her prior statement irrelevant so I was like, uuh ok? I was pessimistic about allergies but ok whatever. Now I'm like it's not frigging seasonal allergies. It just can't be.

So I'm gonna call pet derm Monday and see what universe I have to rearrange to get an appt and then regular vet. I might have to see regular vet one more time to get into derm. Not sure.

It's time for a diagnosis on this dog before you spend an absolute fortune guessing. I would recommend that you see a derm vet sooner rather than later. A skin scraping would be good, even if nothing is seen, perhaps even a skin biopsy. Baseline bloodwork.

Do you have gnats, small biting flies that bother your dogs ears? Obviously this is not the problem in the winter but in spring/summer/fall, especially with a ton of rain, this can be a real issue, bites there can have almost the same reaction as fleas.

The appearance of the dog is classic flea allergy dermatitis but the alopecia of the flank is not classic.