Very Itchy staffy

Hi guys,

Tinsel is almost a year old now and for past few months, (seems to have been since she had her first season) she has been really itchy, we try to get her to stop itching too much as she was drawing blood, now she just rubs herself over carpets,setees, legs etc, too help scratch. It seems to mainly be around her eyes and she has literally rubbed them raw around the sides, I feel soo sorry for her

We have been to the vets and they have done scrapes etc, and come up with nothing, she has had normal flea treatments etc, and shampoo from the vet which does work but only just for a few hrs after being washed. Also tried Piriton but that doesn't work either. We have cut out any treats just in case, and have put her on a hypoallergenic high quality food and nothing has worked.

Has any one else had a problem like this, or any other tips that we could try?....getting desperate now.

I was going to try to put up a pic of the problem but can't see how, or if it's possible.

You'll need to host the pic elsewhere - eg Photobucket.

Then click the seventh icon in from the left (in the "Quick Reply" box below this text... B..I..U............)
If you hover your cursor over it, it will say "Image".

Then cut and paste the web address of where you've hosted the pic into the box which opens, then click ok.

This will help with pics

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t12018-how-to-post-a-photos-onto-the-forum

As to the skin, when I first got my scrumps she went through similar, she had a number of scrapes done over months and nothing came back as a result.

We treated her with advocate (I think) but it still went on.

Finally after numerous scrapes, traces of mites where found. TBH by this point I was so annoyed by being offered this/that, and it had dragged on so long, that gradually her skin improved, I laid off treatment and she appeared to just grow out of it. It was a long time ago though and this was a pup.

I really hope you find out whats up Xx

Maybe she is doing the scratching out of habit, try, if you can , to distract her with a toy or a game then have a play and see if it continues.

thanks for that guys, I won't use photobucket though, as my partner and other family members got a nasty virus on their computers from that site.

Glad (but also not glad if you get what I mean lol) to hear that someone else has gone through this too, I hope she will grow out of it and soon! I have heard that brindle's in particular get skin problems.
She is being speyed on Tue so will have the collar on for few days after that, hopefully will give her eyes a chance to heal.
That did cross my mind Kathy, so hopefully with the collar blocking her scratching, if that is the case it will help with that.

Try Imageshack - no need to join.

My girl went thru similar. Skin scrapes clear, bloods clear.

We had her on advocate monthly. Wainwrights hypoallergenic food and Etiderm shampoo which is awesome stuff. My girl is fine now, took a few months to settle down, but was more a case of controlling symptoms until her immune system got strong enough.

Thats good to know Jackie, fingers crossed then that she will get back to normal.
She's got such a pretty face, ppl always stopping us in street to say how pretty she is, such a shame to see her like this. She's such a soppy madam too, hate to see her so frustrated when she's rolling round trying not to scratch with her claws

Scrumpy was just patchy, brows, nose. We never did get to the reason, she grew out of it

aww lovely pic, very similar colouring to Tinsel.
She has cuts on her brows,on top of her head and on her nose where she's caught it with her dew claw, and keeps managing to take head off every time she itches it, and her eye particually tonight is so swollen and red, looks really sore, I have tried bathing it with a cold flannel, and basically making her stay in room with me so I can try to stop her itching it.
Feel helpless

It could be an allergy. Have you swithed laundry detergents or taken her for a walk in a new area?

Its a tough one, and all I can say is you will find a means to the end, Xx

I did switch to a cheaper washing powder earlier this year but she was itching before that, even so I have switched back just in case it's making it worse, trying everything I can think of

You could try wiping her down with a cool rag after walks in case she is picking something up outside.

Will definatley try that, although I do wipe her down when she's itching, I will do it every time she's been out just to see, although as soon as she gets up in the morning she's at it with the itching, so not sure if that would be the problem.
Have even bought an air purifier, steamed the carpets stopped using air freshners or deodorant sprays in rooms shes goes in, just to see if it was some sort of allergen in the air, no difference made

Allergies are always hard to figure out and deal with. Sounds like you are trying everything though.

As well as the hypoallergenic food, give salmon oil daily too, this helps irritated dry skin and is fab for gaining a shiny coat.

What about a different vet for a second opinion ??

Yes I am going to ask a different vet this week actually, see what they think.
Where do I get salmon oil from Jackie? I have heard about giving them supplements before but I'm not too sure on what and how much to give, so if you have any tips on what you give yours and they are doing ok on it, will certainly give it a go

I hope you can get to the bottom of it, please let us know how it goes with the different vet.

How long did you do the hypoallergenic diet? And how strict were you?

Poor girl, my boy was about a year old when he started getting skin problems. I had him allergy tested in the end and discovered he was allergic to house dust mites! He was put on capsules that cost £120 a month (thank god for pet insurance!) and obviously I had to be extra vigilant with my house cleaning! Thankfully he is off the capsules now, just managed daily with piriton & when he has the occasional flare up, a short course of steroids sorts him out.

We were pretty strict I'd say, only gave her the hypoallergenic food and nothing else, no treats not even any bones, it's really hard as you can imagine lol, still sticking to it now, it's been about 8 weeks and no difference seen yet.

Really hope it's not dust mites, I would have thought though that steaming the carpets and having the air purifier on full blast, would have made a difference if it was that.

What are the protein and carbohydrate source in the food? Trust me I know, my pup is on a novel protein diet - no treats, no rawhides, nothing and it is tough. Thankfully it seems he has started to respond.

er not sure to be honest, my partner deals with that side, he did lots of research on it, I'll ask him later.
What is a novel protein diet? I have heard it mentioned before but I'm not sure what it is.
What was wrong with hiccup then, similar problems?

What type of hypoallergenic food is she on ?? I ask as some are better than others.

She's on one called Berrimans puppy

http://www.berrimans.net/puppy.html

thats got the breakdown of what's in it actually, just found it lol

Cant say i've heard of this food, but it looks ok.
You say all this itching started after her 1st season, so its suggesting this itching due to maybe a hormone imbalance more than a food intolerance.
I would be inclined to start giving her evening primrose which will help.
Is her skin dry/dandruff/flaky skin? because if it is this would cause her to itch alot too.

It's made locally to us so I don't think its widely known.

Yes definatley has been bad since her first season, she was a little bit itchy before that but nothing out of ordinary. No her skin looks fine though she does have lots of little black 'freckles' on her skin but vet just said that's all they are. Other than that not dandruffy at all.
She is being speyed tomorrow so will be interesting to see if theres any difference after that.

Do I just give her the evening primrose capsules, maybe break it up and mix in her food?

The evening primrose capsule can be given whole, my lot think their sweeties

If this itching is hormone related her itching wont disappear over night after the op, it may take a couple of weeks or months, but you should start to see improvement with every passing day.
In the mean time give her piriton morning and night, your vet will tell you the correct dosage to give

I have piriton for her now, but they don't really make a difference, although saying that, night before last she was really bad, her eyes were swollen and bleeding and I couldn't get her to stop scratching her face on settee, so I gave her one and it did seem to lessen after that, so maybe they are helping a bit.

Basically, there are two broad categories of food used to treat food allergies:
1. A novel protein and carbohydrate diet - meaning it consists of just one source of protein (e.g. fish/duck/venison etc.) and one carbohydrate source (e.g. rice/potatoe) that the dog hasn't been exposed to before as then they are less likely to be allergic to it. Can be either home cooked or commercial. Usually the number of 'additional' ingredients such as flavourants, fats, oils etc. is also limited.

2. A hydrolyzed protein diet where the protein is broken down into bits too small to elicit an allergic reaction.

Hiccup had a very itchy 'rash' in his armpits and groin that spread to his ears and his chest. He also opened up wounds in his skin because he was scratching so much. We put him on a 28 day course of strong antibiotics, an antibacterial, antifungal and soothing shampoo (washed once a week), a short dose of prednisolone (3 days) and a topical cortisone cream and started him on a diet trial. This was after all his skin scrapes, hair plucks, sellotape tests etc. came back negative.

He's currently on the Eukanuba Dermatosis diet which is fish and potatoe (couldn't do venison as he has been exposed to it before) and in week 3 of the 12 week trial. It seems to have improved a bit but still not 100% there.

What exactly did your vet do? You mentioned scrapes - did he do a deep and a superficial scrape? What flea treatment are you using and how often? What hypoallergenic diet is she on? What other meds other than piriton have you tried?

Depending the answers, you might be down to doing allergen testing to see if you can determine what she might be allergic too (such as dust mites) etc.

Just saw your post with the food ingredients. Its not the best food allergy diet I'm afraid, it has a lot of ingredients and a very common protein source e.g. chicken. I'm not sure what's available where you are but something like fish4dogs would be a better alternative.

Generally the novel proteins are duck, fish, venison, egg and lamb - with a debate on the last two as to how 'novel' they are now. So something like fish4dogs which also does not have any artificial flavourants and preservatives.

It might be related to the hormones though I'm not all that familiar with hormone related skin conditions being itchy - they normally just involve hairloss.

Personally, and of course, you don't need to listen to me at all, but I would try changing the food to a proper novel protein source first.

We haven't gone too deeply into it yet, basically they put something on the parts she had been scratching (not sure what it was, liquid of some sort) then scraped with a scalpal looking thing and popped onto a slide to look under the microscope. Did that on two different visits, found no trace of mites etc. Gave us shampoo and piriton to see how she does. Have to go back to that vet in few weeks, I think basically they wanted to see if it was seasonal, ie hayfever type reaction.

I put the site for the food she's on earlier, which has the breakdowns on, like I say other than that food she's not having anything else. It wasn't the vets idea to do that, we just decided to do it. I did notice how much other sruff was in it, but it was better than what she was on before so figured couldn't hurt (except my pocket lol) but will certainly have a look into the novel protein diet, sounds like something that I could cook up for her at home with our food. Fish would probably work best as I know she hasn't had that before.

Flea treatment is Drontol monthly

I really appreciate the advice so thankyou very much and I will keep informed on here if theres any changes

Kk, yep, sounds like a standard skin scrape though I'm surprised they didn't do more to check for secondary bacterial or yeast infections. Did they check on her ears too? Are her ears fine or does she scratch at them too?

There are a variety of home made diet recipes on the internet - take a look at them and see. They are quite simply to make just ensure that you limit it to one protein source and one carbohydrate source for the initial 8 weeks.

Um, as far as I am aware (unless the Drontal you have in the UK is different from the one we have over here), Drontol is a dewormer and not a flea treatment?

lol your right thats the second time today I have called it that, said same thing to vet nurse earlier, no wonder she sounded confused, I meant to say Advocate sry

Yes they checked her ears as well forgot about that, she hasn't had a problem with them at all though

Haha, now that makes sense. Yep, Advocate will do nicely.

Glad to know they checked her ears - they can be a source of the problem and sometimes people overlook them.

Denise wrote:The evening primrose capsule can be given whole, my lot think their sweeties

Just looked in my cupboard and I have evening primrose but I have 1000mg and 1300mg are these too high?

Right she's in having her op right now, they are going to do another skin scrape around her eyes while shes under.( and still for more than a second lol)
Will come back on later to update if they came up with any answers

Aw, I bet you're worried sick!

Yeah, trying not to think about it too much, just sitting on phone waiting for them to ring to say she's out of op lol
Daughters at school, had to promise I'd text her as soon as I hear anything, we're all as bad as each other.
Darn pets why do they have to get into our hearts so much

I know - they weedle their way in within seconds of first seeing them!

P.S. She'll be fine, try not to worry too much!

I know, been through it before with my previous dog and my cats but you forget don't you how hard it is, especially when they aren't under your feet Certainly feel it when they aren't in the house.
Can't wait to pick her up and pamper her, really hoping they find out what's wrong with her skin too and it's easily fixed, will be such a relief.

Well one pup home safe and sound, looking very sorry for herself poor thing.
Vet did lots of skin scrapes while she was under and although nothing came up on the slides again, he's convinced it's fox mange. So she's going to have a course of antibiotics and advocate more often which should hopefully clear it up so fingers crossed.

Can I just add this ... sounds a bit lame I know, but we have just started to have the heating on in the whole house for any real time this last week or two, which Max absolutly loves , spending most of the day and night as close to a radiator as poss !! ... however, he has started scratching a lot more than usual, and his skin looks fine apart from where he has scratched at it and made it all red

This sort of dry heat can make them awfully itchy ya know ... just something to bare in mind

Thanks Andy, that wouldn't be the problem here as we haven't had the heating on at all yet , but worth bearing in mind for later
She's on antibiotics now and has another advocate treatment tmrw.
She hasn't been scratching herself too much since she had her op, although shes not really moving about too much anyway so will have to see if this works or not.