Itchy and allergic dog - Symptoms, causes and help

Have you noticed your dog always scratching itself? The occasional scratching is okay, but what does excessive scratching signify? The areas where the dog is scratching itself can tell you about what the problem might be.

1. Scratching at eyes, licking paws and yeasty, itchy ears - Food or environmental allergy, allergy to grains and/or starch

2. Scratching throughout the body - Fleas or ticks

3. Scratching back of ears or inside ears - Ear infection

4. "Corn chips" smell on paws and skin, scaly and smelly ears - Yeast infection

Today we will be looking at itchy dogs with allergies.

When your dog is scratching at his eyes, licking his paws raw and his ears appear scaly and smell inside, these signify an allergy. Particularly an allergy to pollen/dust (environmental) or grains/starch (food). Immediately eliminate the allergen from the environment or the food.

Many dogs are allergic to something and the mentioned allergens are very common. Switch to a grain-free diet or a raw diet. Check labels on your purchased dog food for any grain/starch ingredient such as potato, flour or rice. If you make food for your dog, feed with natural/organic ingredients. Keep your dog on a good diet of mixed hypoallergenic meat (such as kangaroo or rabbit) and dog-safe vegetables, and invest in vitamin supplements to ensure nutritional balance. It might take some trial and error to find the right balance of ingredients that your dog can happily consume without any issues. (Stay tuned for recipes on homemade dog food and more in other posts)

Seasonal and environmental allergies are hard to avoid, so try to keep your home free of these at least. If you and your dog are more outdoorsy, you can get allergy shots for your dog at your vet. Your vet can also tell you exactly what your dog is allergic to, and that is highly recommended. But it is also possible to find out yourself via trial and error. You can also invest and train your dog to wear shoes. When the paws don't come into contact with grass (where a lot of allergens can be found), it will drastically lower the risk of allergy.

See you in the next post!