Bane scratching *update* No mites...Allergy testing/food trials?

So Bane has been quite itchy lately. It all started when he got a little cut in his arm pit from his harness. We stopped using the harness and walked him with his collar instead. He then got a rash on his neck.

We managed to stop him from scratching his armpit by keeping his hoody on and it slowly healed. But since then he's been itching a lot more. He has little bumps on the inside of his elbows where he licks and nibbles loads, he's totally cut up his neck from scratching at the rash and during the night times managed to scratch his armpit badly again. He's also been scratching his head and shoulders quite violently which I'm scared will start to bleed like his neck.

I took him to the vet this afternoon, explained everything and I was told he had a slight skin infection and sent away with some Malaseb shampoo, some piriton and some steroid spray for his neck and armpit...and £80 poorer.

I have bathed him this evening and applied the steroid spray as instructed but straight away he was scratching his face and after sitting in his bed after dinner for 5 minutes alone, hes scratched all of the scabs off his neck and caused it to bleed quite badly.

The vet said "put some socks on him" to stop him hurting himself while scratching. Seriously? He almost bit his legs off when I tried to cover his back feet. I am so annoyed right now it seems like such a waste of money and time even going and he's just a whole load worse.

Does anyone have any advice? Is there anything else I could use to stop him itching so badly or to protect his neck for long enough so that it will heal? I just don't know what else to do with him poor guy...

Coconut oil is good for soothing the skin   

Aww no poor bane my girl Darcy suffers with allergies mainly itchy paws and we've tried piriton and malaseb, but they've not worked, I find anthisan antihistamine cream quite good and dermal ton cream too.. As for something to stop him hurting himself how about a jumper so he can't get scratch.

Thanks, is coconut oil something that I could rub into him all over, without having to worry about him licking it off? And is it ok for open wounds?

Hayley: Aw no, my parents staff is white and he has terrible paws too! I think they give him hayfever tablets and they seem to stop him chewing them off. As above, are those creams ok for areas that he can lick do you know? And we've got him a hoody that he wears but it doesn't reach high enough for his neck...maybe I will have to find some fabric to make him a little snood or something snug that will cover his neck.

Thanks again guys.

Yes you can add it to their food so its OK if he licks some off x

Aww poor Bane, my Vin had this too but the shampoo helped with some oil that I put on his food, I did change his diet which I believe helped also   

What does Bane have to eat?

He's on Hills Science Plan Vet Essentials. He's been on it since a few days after we got him and he hasn't had any problems up until now...Can they develop allergies to food that they were previously fine with?

We were thinking of changing him over to Raw once we've found out more about it though.

And something seems to have worked for most of the day as he hasn't scratched until about an hour ago...

Just as an update: He seems to be healing!

Although he doesn't like the baths they make his coat really soft!


This was his neck after I took him to the vets and he scratched it raw:


Starting to heal and scab:


This was him last night. It's still a little pink but all the scabs have fallen off and he has a nice soft neck again :


The only thing that's still bothering me is the little bumps in his elbows and back leg crease that he nibbles at. He also seems to have a few on the backs of his ears and shoulder...I guess it means another trip to the vet.

Thanks for your advice on the coconut oil and things! I think I will look into getting some in case he gets itchy again in the future!

Aww thanks for the update, looks as though its healing nicely, I hope he continues to improve   

Aww it looks like it's nearly gone, that's great thanks for updating us

That looks lots better, nice to see he's healing up x

Poor Bane, it was sore wasn't it. So glad to hear that he recovering nicely.

Sorry to bring this back from the dead, but Bane's skin has gotten bad again. He is forever scratching at his ears, face and shoulders and nibbling his at his groin until its red raw. He also gets little heat spots on his tummy when he's sleeping and looks to have a couple of little bumps on his neck and inner elbows.

I'm thinking allergies. I was just wondering if it is likely that he could develop an allergy to his existing food that he was absolutely fine on before? Or whether it's more likely to be some of the new treats he's been having?

All he does is itch and it's putting him off training and playing

Ah sorry to hear this. In answer to your question I believe they can develop allergies to current food, what new treats has he been having? A lot of treats if not natural are full of additives!

I wonder if its worth another vet trip? Did they do a skin scrape for mites?

To be fair once he got to be about 12 weeks we started getting what looked good. All of the smaller stuff good for training seemed to have similar amounts of added extras, so we just tried to go for the better sounding ones/ones he was used to from a puppy.

When little he was on Pedigree Cheesy bites, Bakers Mini bones and Pets at Home Chicken and Rice mini hearts with no problems. Since then he has had other mini bone treats from Pets at Home, some Fish4Dogs kibble as treats, gravy bones, marrow bones...quite a few different things, but nothing that has been consistent from when he started scratching.

The last Vet trip she just said it was a skin infection from all his scratching and some shampoo, steroid spray and piriton would clear it up. I even pointed out and said that I was most concerned about the little bumps/spots on his inner elbows and should he have some scrapes and she said no he doesn't look to have mites or flees so no need.

We were going to remove all treats and just treat him with his dinner kibble or boiled bits of chicken to see if it helped, but if he has become allergic to his food then we won't see any improvement...

Hmmmm you cant see mites to the eye, personally with any skin complaints I would want it ruled out at least, maybe go back and insist? Some vets are funny about doing scrapes, but it really is just that they scrape a tiny bit of skin and have a look under the microscope! Daisy had terrible demodex which got worse because of a mis diagnosis at first. By the time she got the right treatment they were all over her and she lost most of her fur  

With the treats, I would stop anything bakers/pedegree as they are full of additives! Try and go for natural treats   

You said you were considering raw feeding? That may help if it is something in the food. Or change to something grain free and hypo allergenic   

Darcy itches terrible and it's an allergy to something, in the early days we stopped everything and changed to a fish based grain free kibble, had 2 skin scrapes which is always my priority but have came back negative, she's now on a raw diet and it seems to have eased somewhat. I'd get a second opinion re the skin scrape then go from there for you and bane.

He doesn't seem to be losing hair anywhere either. His ears are very thin but not patchy, I'm guessing why the Vet said he doesn't need the scrapes. We are on a puppy plan thing where we get free nurse checks so I will book him in for one to see if the nurse can do them...if not then try and get an appointment with a different Vet at the practice, both me and my OH didn't like her when we first met her  

And poor Daisy! I saw a pup with severe demodex and the little thing didn't even look like a puppy

We are just finishing reading up on the RAW diet, will collect all of our info and make a thread of our questions then I think it will be change over and don't look back! I am getting really excited   And thanks guys I hate to see him itching and squeaking cos it hurts!

I'm vegetarian and I even get excited about raw food!   We'll help you out as much as we can x We need to get Bane into good health   

Would allergies to his food effect his poos? Or appetite at all?

And thanks this forum has helped so much so far! No one else we know feeds RAW and I don't think the vet will be of any help after her reaction last time we visited and I enquired.

To be honest I don;t know about allergies as its not something I've dealt with.

Vets generally don't know much about nutrition and advise based on what they sell in the surgery and get paid for!   

My almost 2 yr old coco is currently under medication for mites. She clearly has an allergy to what I think is grass as everytime she goes and sits outside in the grass she comes in with a very pink spotty tummy. We were frequenting the vet regularly for skin and ear infections when about 3 weeks ago the vet did a skin scrape and diagnosed mites. As I said, she's under medication for that and on Hills ZD diet for 6-8 weeks to rule out food allergy. I have bought coconut oil for Coco and have applied it this week but to be honest I haven't seen any improvement. Coco has always had a light coat of hair so I never suspected anything like mites. Since her diagnosis I have notice a significant amount of hair loss and will be taking her back to the vets next week to check her progress. It's a very long expensive road I'm gathering that I'm about to head down, but I feel so sorry for her when you see her all red and sore. Hope you get on top of your skin allergies???

Once you start treatment for mites the hairl oss does get worse because any hair with a mite in the folicle will fall out x

Thanks for that Sazzle... I was starting to wonder if this was the case!!

Aw no poor Coco! I hope she gets sorted! Did you notice that she had any hairloss before she started treatment for mites?
if not then I guess thats the next route for Bane. He only seems bothered by his armpits, back groin, ears and neck: all places with little or no hair. Theres nothing that only touches him in those areas so I wouldnt think it would be washing powder, grass etc.

And I know from when our nurse first suggested going for scrapes she said if they find some then it takes quite a few weeks of bathing and medication which would mean us having to use insurance so i guess it adds up quickly! Then allergy testing after that I hope it goes well! Keep us updated x

Coco has always been on the lighter side of hair amount, although when I took her to vets last time (when she had scraping and diagnosed with mites) she did have a small patch of hair loss on her cheek. This however was a scratch that she had done but I noted to the vet that the hair was taking a long time to grow back. She is still very much suffering from what ever allergy she has (as I said I think it's grass) as her belly is always pink and hot. The vet seems to agree that she does have an allergy which is why she has become susceptible to the mites, her body is too busy trying to fight off the allergy that the mites got to take over The treatment for mites is oral medication which I put on her food, I haven't been given any washes, was advised just to wash her once a week with a mild/gentle shampoo (I use one with coconut oil). The vet said most dogs don't like the oral meds...not Coco.. she eats anything!!! Keep us posted how you get on with Bane, hope you get it sorted x

The oral medication ivermectin is very good and a lot less hassle than the dips, they made Daisy very poorly

Aw I hope Coco recovers quickly! Its good that she is wolfing down the medicine And I will keep that in mind Sazzle when we go to the vets on Monday, if it comes up that he has mites I will request the oral medication instead of the baths!

Let us know how you get on x

We're just back from the vets!
He had 5 skin scrapes, man does he look sore! No mites from what he could see but he's given us some advocate spot on stuff just in case there were any that got missed. He is also on Cephacare twice a day for 2 weeks because he has a bit of a skin infection again from all the nibbling. And also some Hibitane concentrate to wash his scratches with.
The next step will be to see if all of his skin heals up...if it goes away over the next couple of weeks then he's ok, if not it will be moving on to food trials and allergy testing etc.

Has anyone had any experience with food trials? We want to switch him to Raw anyway, would it be better to try this first? Or go through the food trials and allergy testing first?

I haven't no but when when starting a raw diet you introduce one meat at a time so you can rule out any allergies/intolerences. Obviously there could still be grass/dust etc allergoes so you may need testing for that if the raw diet doen't clear things up.

Glad to hear there are no mites x

Thanks Sazzle! We are desperate to get him onto Raw, but the vets said not to because if his skin clears up, they won't know if it was the antibiotics etc...or whether it was the food.
Wondering whether to wait 2-3 weeks for his treatment to finish, and then put him to Raw instead of the Hydro...something or other special food diet, or whether its worth putting him through all the testing to find out what it is?

And also how long would it take for the Advocate to work? If the vet found 0 mites from 5 scrapes is it possible he could still have them? I have noticed a small baldy patch on his ear...

Aww poor babe he's really going through it isn't he as are you because you have to watch him suffer! Have you tried appl cider vinegar in his water in case it's yeast causing the itch? We put it in Darcy's water. I trialed a non grain food for 6 weeks no treats and there was no change before switching to raw and now she's 80% better still itches a little but know where near as much xx

5 scrapes is pretty thorough, he could still have some but I think its unlikely. He probably just scratched the fur off.

If i could update you on Coco since going onto RAW on Monday.... Not sure if it's at all possible but her skin already looks sooooo much better, no more red on her belly and she's not scratching really at all. She is still on meds for the mites and I just mentioned to my hubby wether we should take her off that aswell. As I said not sure if it's the diet, it could be a complete coincidence, but I'm hooked on the RAW. So far she's only had chicken, will be introducing her to pig next week (already stocked in the frige!). I haven't done the apple cider vinegar (only because I haven't had time to get to the shops to get it!). Good luck with Bane, hope it gets sorted quickly x

Hayley: The Apple Cider Vinegar sounds like a good try! The vet mentioned something about a possible yeast infection/allergy to yeast. I will have to get some! It won't put him off the water will it? And just a few drops or more?

Sazzle: We bought him the cone of shame so he hasn't had a chance to scratch there for the last couple of days...unless he's been a ninja...did catch him some how licking his groin in his cone though weird contortionist puppy!

Thanks Pud! I'm glad to hear that Darcy and Coco are doing well on the Raw We were planning on starting Bane once this bag of food was done...probably a week but now the vet has thrown all these possible tests at us we don't know whether it would be good to do in case it's not a food allergy (don't know what else it would be because of the places he scratches) but don't want to do a food test for 6-10 weeks...it's just gonna be expensive food that could show up nothing.

i put about 5ml in a full bowl of water, we also use filtered water for her, tap water impurities have been known to cause allergies too, make sure its organic ACV

I don't add AVC to water but I put it in her food instead  

Thanks! Next time I pop to the shops will get a bottle and try it

He seems to have stopped itching for the most part...dunno if he's just given up though cos of his cone!? And his ears and groin are looking so much better! Got some nasty scars on the backs of his ears though by the looks of it :/

I buy it off ebay   A lot of people buy the bragg one, mines not that but can't remember what make it is. Just make sure it is contains the mother.