I know you're doing the best possible for your poor itchy dog, but please don't think that you're going to get an overnight reaction with the scratching purely by changing the food. Whatever your plans are you need to change to a Hypoallergenic food and sooner rather than later. Apparently, unlike with horses, you don't need to slowly introduce new foods to a dog's diet, you can just change it straight away, so why wait in all honestly??

Thank you Helena. I know, I don't expect an immediate change but just worry it's taking so long and got worse, but I can understand what the lady in the pet shop said. The reason I haven't just changed straight away is I've always been advised to do this slowly with a dog with a delicate digestion, have I been wrongly advised?

I have a severely itchy dog, he was born with it, he's now rising 9, he's lived a life on steroid injections or pills, sometimes he's worse than others, sometimes his ears flare up with infections, sometimes he eats a whole leg raw in half an hour, a total nightmare! He's had all the allergy tests known to man in his past life and it turns out he's allergic to just about everything on the planet, so I don't want you to raise any false hopes that a change in diet is going to miraculously cure him. I hope it does, but don't pin all your hopes on it!

If you can do it, I would suggest an initial bath in pure Hibiscrub which is cheap (Boots the chemist sell it from their pharmacy dept) and it will kill just about anything on his skin. Keep him regularly (once a month) de-flead with a good treatment that kills mites also. Groom every single day, and use a combe to finish. Don't use anything on his skin apart from special skin treatment shampoos, but I usually stick to the Hibiscrub coz it works for my dog.

Thank you, I will get some Hibiscrub, never thought of that.

Good luck, you just have to try everything and food is as good a place as any to start, but remember, it's got to be a hypoallergenic. One thing I will add, the vet who had treated my dog for the first 7 years told me I was NEVER to change him from the Wafcol Salmon and Potato food because salmon has something very special in it which calms down the skin, apart from the essential oils of course. I don't know whether you've tried that? I took my dog off that because of his awful loose poo's, and I've now found something else. Horses for courses, and good luck!