Sometimes our dog scratches so intensely!!

Sorry this is so long! Covering a lot of ground to be as thorough as I can.

January 4, 2016, we adopted Haley, who was described by the shelter as a “Shepherd/Terrier” mix. I don’t know about Terrier because I’m not overly familiar with that specific breed, but I really doubt the Shepherd part. I’m hardly an expert but, somehow, she doesn’t make me think of even “RC,” the smallish, similarly marked Shepherd my former boss owned. She’s relatively small, weighing in at about 37 lbs; to me, her markings make me think of Rottweiler or more likely Doberman, given her size; with I think maybe a pinch of Bulldog tossed in because she’s bowlegged in the front and has an under-bite that's sometimes hilarious.


Those of you with a more experienced eye might be able to shed light on the different breed possibilities by looking at the pics, but unless one of them has something to do with this issue, we don’t really care what conglomeration of breeds resulted in such a sweet little girl!

EDIT: No idea why the top pic is sideways. I've tried and tried but have had no luck in changing the rotation of this image. Sorry!!

After we brought Haley home, she was fine for a few days. Before the first week was out, though, we began to notice her scratching. We took her to the vet for her adoption visit. He found evidence of fleas and an irritation inside her right ear, both of which we treated. The scratching got worse, so we started looking around online for solutions.

Haley’s definitely an outside kind of girl. But while she’s outside we have never seen her obsessively scratching even one time. The view from my desk looks out into our back yard so I can see her virtually anywhere she goes. I’ve seen her briefly scratch a couple of times, almost as if scratching merely in passing. Nothing like what we observe when Haley’s inside.

My wife also noted that Haley’s episodes, from the very beginning, were particularly severe overnight, usually starting around 2:30 am. Ultimately, after Haley went outside she would be OK for the remainder of the night. These observations really make me wonder whether this is somehow psychosomatic. Almost an OCD-like behavior.

We’ve wondered, too, whether Haley has an allergy to something in the house - even the very air inside the house. Or is something else entirely the trigger? We all feel so badly for her.

She’ll be fine for a while. Case in point, today: She slept on the couch for 2.5 hours without once waking up to scratch. 30 minutes after she woke up, though, she was whining and scratching like crazy. Testing yet another theory, I opened the back door to let her out. She went outside like a shot. I watched through the window and, after sniffing around for a few seconds, she stopped to pee. Immediately afterwards, she came back to the door and barked to come back in. Could the scratching be secondary to the need to go out?

Still, shortly after the beginning of March, we noticed a few bare places just above the base of her tail and one place on her tail. It’s obvious she chewed off her fur. However, the exposed skin has not ever appeared inflamed, bumpy, or in any way irritated. On top of that, we haven’t seen any flakes either. I need to point out, too, that our other dog, Molly, and our cat, Stormy, have not presented any similar symptoms at all.

Nothing has helped so far, obviously, but we have found a couple of things that seem to provide at least some relief, albeit very short-lived. A list follows with the things we have tried and the results we observed:

• Different brands of topical flea treatments
  • No noticeable improvement
• A 1:4 ratio of organic apple cider vinegar and distilled water, applied topically
  • Has consistently provided relief but only for up to one hour
• An oatmeal bath every 2-3 days
  • Seems to reduce the severity of the scratching for about 24-36 hours. Even after careful inspection while the water drains and of the empty tub, we have found no evidence of fleas. None.
• 1-2 tsp. of Dinovite liquid mixed in ¼ cup lowfat Greek vanilla yogurt, twice a day
  • We started the Dinovite just a day or two after the first oatmeal bath. Don’t know if this is working in tandem with the oatmeal or if the minimal results we’re seeing are due to one or the other.

We have noticed over the last few days that the missing fur appears to be growing back even though the scratching has not stopped. My wife has verified that Haley’s middle-of-the-night-scratch-fests have not slowed down even one little bit. I’m frustrated with grasping at straws and getting no real results of any kind. The vet hasn’t helped. So far, nothing has.

We feel so badly for our little dog! I’ve even thought about things I have experienced 40+ years of dealing with Type 1 Diabetes. I’ve always been “brittle,” no matter what I do. Still, my blood sugar can be perfectly normal one minute, outrageously high the next, then dangerously low a couple of hours later. I remember times when the skin on my hands felt so painfully dry that just running them under cold water for a few seconds brought about blessed relief for a little while. I don’t think Haley’s diabetic but I do think about how pitiful she is while trying to contend with this issue. Watching her is eerily reminiscent of some of the episodes of skin-related discomfort over the years.

I apologize again for the extra long post. Thanks for sticking through till the end! Like I said, I tried to cover all the bases of what we've observed and what we have already tried in an attempt to avoid redundancy. If you can suggest anything we could try, we would deeply appreciate it!

What are you feeding her?

Try keeping an observation diary for a week noting the times of the scratching, times of feeding, whether or not she is in or out - it may provide more clues to the trigger.

Was your other dog and the cat treated for fleas at the same time as Haley? Some animals are more sensitive to flea bites than other so while the others may not be scratching, they could be re-infesting after treatment.

How warm is your house? Could she be over-heating?

Thanks for responding.

Diet has been our latest focus. At the shelter, she was getting only dry food. Our other dog, Molly, literally will not eat dry more than occasionally. She came from the same shelter. We adopted her in 2006. She's extremely hard-headed about it, preferring not to eat anything until we give her canned food. It's nearly impossible to give one dry and the other wet.

We've been feeding them both Nature's Recipe ground chicken, lamb and rice mixed with NR grain-free dry. We had tried PetSmart's Authority canned food but wondered if that might be contributing to Haley's itching. We just removed that from the menu as of yesterday. The only junk food they get is one can each of Mighty Dog for breakfast.

Haley will also eat apples and, less often, carrots. They get a few table scraps every so often. Unlike Molly, Haley will eat almost anything. We have to be careful because, also unlike Molly, Haley is a garbage picker. If the can has a lid, she leaves it alone but any other trash can is fair game.

I smoke cigars (but only outside) so I know for a fact that the humidity is very low in the house. It wreaks havoc with my humidors and my sinuses. I've wondered about that, too. But the temperature stays a pretty constant 70° so I don't think that is a factor.

We treat all the animals at the same time each month and wash their bedding regularly, yet another possibility. My mother in law has sensitive skin so we use Arm & Hammer laundry detergent and "free" dryer sheets. We examine their bedding thoroughly before each washing and haven't seen any live or dead fleas.

The vinegar solution is a natural flea treatment. Since Haley's not fond of the spray bottle, we apply it with our hands. That gives us an up close look at her skin. In the time we've been using this I've seen only one flea.

I also forgot to mention that another avenue we've explored is Benadryl. That also had no obvious effects. We did only gave her one 25 mg tablet each time and two doses per day, max. Technically, she should get 1.5 tablets for her weight at the recommended dose of 1 mg/pound but we wanted to avoid drugging her to sleep. But that could explain the drug's ineffective results.

That's all that comes immediately to mind. We probably won't be able to judge the diet change for a day or two. But it's strange to me that she can sleep for a couple of hours without waking up to scratch. That leads me to think that the problem is psychological rather than physical. But I will keep a diary to see if that yields a pattern. That's a great idea! Thanks!

Another possibility is anal glands (just by the fact that the hair loss was at around the tail area.

My girl had a similar problem when she was a pup. It turned out to be an allergy to chicken. We found it by switching her onto a salmon and potato food to eliminate all the foods previously given then added one novel food a month. When we got to chicken, all the symptoms were back

Welcome to Dogsey and thanks for the lovely photo's. I think she does look terrier shaped, but as you say Doberman or Rottie coloured. My mostly white Parsons Terrier has a terrible itchy problem and this year we are being extra careful with regard to pollen as everything else has been discounted.

I don't know you or your home, but could there be dust mites indoors? I knew a GSD that could not live indoors at one home and settled well at another that did not have carpets. The old home did not look dirty or anything, but the general consensus was that it must have been dust mites in the carpets.

Also, if she is used to being outdoors, aircon and the 70 degrees temperature may be too hot for her?

Good luck, she looks lovely

Thanks! It's been a couple of days since we changed Haley's food. She seems to be doing better. She's still scratching but far less intensely and nowhere near as often. In fact, I haven't used the vinegar solution in two days. I have noticed from my diary that when she needs to go out and we don't recognize it, she starts scratching and whining. Don't know yet if that's a learned "trick" because she knows we will respond to that behavior or if it's something symptomatic.

Hopefully we're on the right track with her diet and we're still using the Dinovite because we're not 100% certain it isn't part of the improvement, too.

I'll update this thread as time goes on and I see how she does. Thanks so much to you both for your responses and for your help! I'm so happy I joined Dogsey and documented Haley's problem. I hope others with similar issues can use this information to their pets' benefit.

My dog had a blood test done to find out what was causing her to itch...I am lucky that one of the partners at our vet is a Dr in dermatology, my girl has issues with several types of pollen and house dust mites too. We are going down the immunotherapy route with her but whilst that takes effect she is also on apoquel ...I can,t tell you the last time I saw her scratch like mad

I'm sooo happy to hear your girl is doing well! Watching them suffer is so heart-rending! Thanks for sharing your success!

There are solutions, it is just finding what works for your dog and managing the symptoms in the meantie...i must admit though, apoquel is pretty damn fab! she is due her next jab on thursday and she has just begun licking at her leg so things must be getting a bit itchy for her