From denmark, my dog scratchesss and itches till blood?

Hi

My parents have a Danish-swedish farmdog (Danish-Swedish Farmdogs USA)

It is 5 years old and it has been "sick" for almost all 5 years. The first 3/4 year of its life it did not have the itching and scratching. That came when it was 3/4 year old.

I'll try to describe the problem as good as I can. When it was about 1 year old my parents noticed it was extremely sensitive, it would haul and barf if someone touched it and if you pat it, it would turn its head and like snap at you and it still does this today. When it was about 1 year old my parents noticed I scratched and itched itself way more than what is normal for a dog. It looked like it was fleas or some kind of thing in its fur. Then they took it to the animal doctor, then it got treatment for everything, worms, furtreatment, penicillin, you name it, it got it. The times it has been given penicillin, the days after it was given the penicillin it would not scratch and itch itself, but after about the 10 days the penicillin is in its system the dog, its named Koko, just starts scratching and itching itself again and get a lot of wounds and sometimes scratches itself till it bleeds.

To sum up things my parents have then in the following 4 years been to 5 animaldoctors and tried EVERYTHING they could offer and tried more than 10 different dog foods, including biological, hyperantiallergic and BARF (where it only eat raw meat and veggies). But none of all of this has helped it. It still bites and scratches itself, it is completely red all over its legs and thighs, very little fur on its thighs due to all the scratching and itching.

When it was about 3 years old it began to develop these dry crusts in its forehead, the doctor just said we should peel it off with something, just dry skin, but it has been getting a lot more of these dry crusts around its head. It also has wounds on its tail and as I have said bites herself to blood sometimes. Very hard to keep looking at, since it does it ALL THE TIME. There must really be something the matter with it. It has tried a diet with something allergenic without anything that could provoke an allergenic reaction, but the conclusion was clear, it still scratched itself during this treatment.

One animal doctor has suggested to get it sterilized, but I don’t know if this would help with the issue at hand?

The latest thing my parents are trying is the BARF food, which is raw meat and vegetables, but this was very wrong and to much protein according to the animal doctor, but the BARF people have said it is only healthy and back-2-nature animal food, they have been using this BARF food for the last 3 month, but without any positive progress. They think it drinks to little water, although it has its waterbowl outside and inside.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before and could point us in a direction for something we could try out as a last resort?

Koko is a very happy and über active dog, maybe a little to skinny and has never been adding weight, but it weights about 10,5 kgs which the animal doctor says is normal.

Please do ask all the questions you need, this is a last thing we want to try, in hope of someone whom may have experienced the same thing and found out what it was?

Poor dog. This must be difficult. I have 4 dogs on a raw diet (including one who is very old)and they are very healthy. However, it sounds like your dog is allergic to more than just food.
Could you ask your vet to test for allergies? There`s some information about the test on this american site. I`m sure they have similar labs in Denmark.
http://www.animal-allergy.com/

Has the dog been checked for Mange? Chewing Lice? Is he on anything for the allergies? Steroids? Antihistamines? If its an allergic response, pennicillin isn't going to cure it.
Is the dog male or female. If its a male dog, castration probably won't help. If she is female, however, it MIGHT if the allergic response is triggered by her heat cycles. Do you have any veterinary dermatologists in your area, or a veterinary teaching hospital. Clearly, whatever is going on with your dog is beyond the scope of what your local vets can handle. I hope you can find some answers for Koko.

Hi,

just a quick extra question to add to the above... do your parents have cats, or are there any cats in the area?

oh, and one other question... you say your parents are now feeding BARF... what exactly (chicken, beef, lamb, fish?) are they feeding? And are they adding any grains (rice, wheat etc?)

First of all, thank you so much for taking your time to help and answer on my post!

ClaireandDaisy
my parents have never had an allergy test taken for Koko, they have heard from someone that it is very expensive, thats why? Does any of you know if this is true?

muttzrule
She hasn't actually been tested positive for allergy, since she has never had taken a test before.

It has been treated twice for mange, but never tested, the vet just gave it something twice for mange... But I don't know if a vet can test positive for mange and then treat it?

It has never been checked for chewing lice, but again the vet has treated it for a lot of different things, so I'm sure it has been treated for chewing lice, but never tested positive. Again I don't know if they test for this, or what the procedure is?

No, he is not on anything for allergy since he has not been tested for allergy, but it is obviously that he has some kind of allergy, we just don't know what and my parents have reached a point where they have used so much money on all the treatment that they kind of given up... hopeless... So thats why I suggested to make this post on a big forum to seek out your knowledge...

It is a female dog, but it bites, scratches and itches every day all the time, so I don't think it is her heat cycles?

My parents live in a small town, so we only have normal vets, no special vets like you mention and the normal vet said the last time my parents took it there, that they should consider stopping and giving up, because they came to often, what a stupid vet, why didn't he/she recommend them to a specialist, I hate it when people give up!!!

cintvelt
No cats, only if there are any wild ones in the neighborhood visiting, but my parents live on an old farm, so not many houses nearby...

The BARF are all kind of fish and meat, deer and so on, I can have them make a list of exactly what meat is in the BARF program, but no grain, rice whatsoever, the whole reason why they are doing this BARF program for 6 month is to see if it will help, then they can come to the conclusion that it is not grain allergy, but it has been 3 month on this BARF program with different raw meat and only vegetables and no significant improvement, still the same red hairless thighs and crusts on its head and greasy and smelly fur, so sad for it, maybe it is in great pain without the ability to tell us? But it is a happy and very outgoing dog, so it is not depressed or anything, but just tremendously plagued by this whole issue..

So please do give me all the advise you can? What should we do?

Hi,

My previous dog, Oscar, had what is called "atopic dermatitis". Basically, it's a genetic predisposition to allergies. He started very young, around 3 months old, but it is more normally seen in dogs of 18 months - 3 years old and onwards.

Oscar would scratch, bite and chew himself til he bled continuously and we tried hypoallergenic diets, exclusion diets and all sorts.

In the end he had a blood test for allergies (this cost around £100) which was inconclusive but suggested allergies to house dust mites among other things. He was referred to a veterinary dermatologist and had skin allergy tests (these cost around £800-£1000) and he proved to be allergic to house dust mites, storage & forage mites and horse skin.

I don't know if you have pet insurance in Denmark or if your parents have their dog insured. This helped a lot with the cost of testing Oscar. In the end the only treatment that helped him was either steroids (such as prednisolone) or a drug called "Atopica" in the UK.

Have your parents had any skin scrapes done? This is where the vet will take a small scraping of skin cells with a special tool or even sticky tape and then look at them under a microscope. This can tell them if there are any mites or mange there, or if any are suspected. If not I would start with that as i is not expensive.

Also, it may be worth getting a check for yeast overgrowths (done in the same way, usually at the same time) as if it is that then Koko could be treated with a drug to control yeasts and that may help her.

I hope your parents manage to find a solution to Koko's itchiness. I know how frustrating it is to have a dog that is constantly scratching and chewing itself. There are solutions out there, it just takes some time to try and eliminate things and find the cause.

Do keep us informed of how things are.

Ali xx

Really, your parents are going to have to look at this as an investment, the amount they are more than likely spending at the vets without allergy testing is adding up to a lot, so why not allergy test?
Before that though, I would get the vet to check for lice/mites/ringworm, then blood tests for things such as cushings, hypothyroidism, among other things as some diseases can cause itchiness in dogs (a lot of hormonal imbalances).
If it has gone on for so long, there is more than likely a lot of secondary issues that come up, such as yeast and bacterial infections and vets may not look passed that.
Then allergy testing would be a good way to go, if all things are negative as this is obviously not a simple problem.
I hope your parents think it is worth the investment, to get to the bottom of the dogs problems as the dog would be beside itself as well, I know it can be incredibly frustrating but stick with it and arm yourself with ideas of what it could be so the vets don't give up.
Good luck I hope this problem can be resolved

Once again thank you for your kind answers and time!

It has never been tested for allergy, no blood test and no scrape test, so this is clearly something I need to convince them to use the money on!

But I has been treated for all kind of mites, ringworms, mange twice and so on, the doctor never bothered testing for those things, he just gave it the treatment for those things and said, thats it, now everything will die if it has anything, stupid vet if you ask me!

My parents don't have any insurance on Koko, so I don't think they will ever use 800-1000 £ on a skin test, but I think they can be convinced to use 100 £ on a allergy test...!!! Or else I'll earn the money myself!

I will call my parents later today and tell them all your good advice and then convince them of taking the allergytest!

I will post more when I have talked to them...

Hi again,

The reason I asked about cats is that is possible that he's allergic to cat fleas... or fleas in general.... this doesn't mean he actually needs to have fleas himself... just the exposure to one or two could set him off every time... and if there are wild cats around.... this is a possibility... and you can deal with it simply by regularly using flea treatment.....

My question about what Barf you're feeding him, was because quite a number of dogs are actually allergic to the proteins in both cow- and chicken products.... you could advise your parents to stop using both of these to see if there is any improvement....

good luck with the poor boy... and good luck in convincing your parents not to give up!!!!