Scratching for no apparent reason...?

This one's about my mum's westie and her leisurely scratching. My mum has 50 years experience with the breed, and has picked her current two from lines carefully bred to minimise the incidence of allergies and dodgy skin. As soon as Ellie started scratching, she was whisked in to see the vet, who couldn't find anything wrong at all.

Mum is still pretty paranoid about it, understandable as she has been planning to breed from Ellie, but I can't help thinking that this is more behavioural than medical. Does anybody know whether some dogs scratch recreationally? And would anybody agree that the dog may be scratching because it is the most reliable way to get my mum out of her seat and flapping all round the place?

Well my dog scratched for 18 months before we found out he had sarcoptes which was diagnosed through a blood test at the vets. It might be food allergy if she has changed the food recently or has she had her anal glands checked cos this can make them itchy.

I used to think my dog was scratching out of habit too because we couldnt find out why until I found out the steroids he was having was making his problem even worse.

Hi Duboing It sounds as if your Mum is well aware of the skin problems Westies have , with your Mums experience and the vet check I guess we can rule out and pests/infection/bacteria, I doubt very much it is recreational so that leaves Atopic Dermatitis/alergy of some kind to a substance or food.

There is lots of information on Atopic conditions on the net....here is one piece, has the vet done alergy tests ?

http://www.priory.com/vet/vetatop1.htm