Ah spring. I go through this every year with Moose (my German shepherd mix) and Lally (my boxer/shar-pei mix).
Moose starts to gnaw on his forearms. He ends up chewing calluses and bald spots into his legs if I don’t catch it quickly enough. Lally just itches all over. She crams her feet into her mouth to chew. She scratches her stomach until it’s red and irritated.
And with the extremely mild weather we’ve been having in the Portland, Oregon area lately — we’ve been in the fifties all week — it seems that the itchies are arriving earlier than usual.
My first line of defense is home treatment.
- I keep them on Frontline (flea and tick preventative) and Heartguard (heartworm preventative) all year round.
- When the itchies begin, I add Benadryl to their food to help deal with the allergy-inducing histamines. Right now, I’m giving each dog a half tablet in the morning and a half tablet at night, crushed into their food. You can actually give a dog one milligram of Benadryl for every pound of weight — but I don’t want to overload them. I’d like to give the minimum dose that will be helpful.
- I’m also going to add some kind of oil to their food. Fatty acids can help soothe dry skin and improve coat conditions. Dry skin sure doesn’t help when you’re itchy — it can only make things even itchier!
- I’ve got skin soothing oatmeal shampoo and a leave-in conditioner on hand, too. A bath can help wash away skin irritants.
Because we go through this every year (spring and fall, usually), I’m reasonably sure that the current itchiness is just the usual stuff. However, if my usual treatments don’t help the pups feel better, we’ll be off to the vet to get checked.