German Shepard w/ itchy skin, what to do?

Hey everybody....i gotta question about our German Shepard. About 3 weeks ago, we ran out of his normal food which is the Life's Abundance. We had a bag of Purina Dog Chow in the house that my husband had got awhile back as back up food for cases just like this. Anyway, he ate the Dog Chow for 3 nights in a row and ever since then he has been itching like CRAZY. I mean just chewing on his back to the point of making scabs. I tried putting bitter spray on him, but it hasn't helped. He has such a beautiful long coat and he is chewing it all up! The last couple weeks I've been adding oil to his dinner at night and giving him Brewer's Yeast everyday. I know he has a tendency towards dry skin cuz he gets way too many baths(can't be helped cuz of his work), but he never has been this itchy before! I also had my husband use conditioner on him for his last bath, not sure if that helped or not. I thoroughly checked him over for signs of fleas and found nothing, plus he gets Frontline every month. The only thing we can think of is that all the corn in the Dog Chow irritated him, but that was weeks ago! Hopefully he will be getting to the Vet in the next couple days, but i just wanted to know of there's anything else i can try doing for him to make him more comfortable and less itchy?!?? Anyone else had similar experience with shepards? Any ideas on what might be causing this?

 

get him off that food now, and put him on what you had him on before. there is something in it he is reacting to when they start a reaction like that to food it may take weeks for him to get back to normal. I would also try allergy food like duck and potato. and if the vet puts him on somehting liek preniszone, its not good for dogs at all and their immune system, it only masks the problem.

Please read the food for thought thread at the top, there are lots of good feeding info there

good luck

honeybear

 

He is back on his regular food now. He only ate the Dog Chow for 3 days, but that was a few weeks ago. We suspect the food since all the itching started right after he ate it, but i didn't think it would take him so long to get over it. Is it possible that he has developed a new allergy to his current food all of the sudden?? The only thing he ever eats besides the Life's Abundance dog food is 2 or 3 small Lite Garlic Bark Bars as treats after he comes back from his walks and the occassional Greenie. Thats it. Anything else I can do for him?

 

i looked up lifes abudance and it does look like an excellant food. I would give it a few more weeks to see if it calms down, and then try something like natures recipe duck and potato, its good for an elimnation diet. I suspect the purina triggered an underlying allergy. did you feed purina chicken??

And did you just start the brewers yeast? I would look at giving him a probiotic supplement and vitamin C which both help boost the immune system, you can find these online and in the pet stores

you say he gets lots of baths, you should be using a something like an oatmeal or avado based soap thats very mild

you might try somehting llike this
http://www.dinovite.com/about/html/itch2.html

and check out the site nzymes.com.


honeybear

 

Thanks for the link. Yes, i just started the Brewer's Yeast about 2 weeks ago and have been giving it to him everyday. Each tablet is sposed to be for 10lbs, so i give him 9 tablets per day in addition to the olive oil in his food. His last bath was 2 days ago with Mane N Tail horse shampoo cuz the only dog shampoo we had was some stinky flea shampoo that my hubby doesn't like the smell of and we thought that might irritate him more. We also used the Mane N Tail Conditioner and left it on him a few minutes before rinsing. I'll go looking for some better Doggie Shampoo and Conditioner next time I'm at the pet store. Hopefully he won't need another bath for awhile. I didn't like him eating the Dog Chow in the first place and I put a bunch of Benebac in it too. It wasn't Purina chicken?? Just plain old Purina Dog Chow. Also I know the Life's Abundance is a good food and my husband gets it free from work cuz he is technically not our dog, he belongs to the county. Thats why he eats it, plus my husband is really reluctant to change his diet when he gets a good food for free. How long should the brewer's yeast take before it starts to help? Is that a good thing to give him for itchy skin? I will look into getting him some Ester C powder to put into his food as well. Thanks for the quick replies

 

my Shepherd has thyroid disease and now and then she'll get dry and itchy. Her vet has me give her a bath using Selson Blue shampoo and it's helped her itchiness a lot - just don't use on their head

 

This is just a thought, but do you happen to know if your dog is allergic to brewers yeast? It's listed among the ingredients of Life's Abundance, but maybe the amount in the food was small enough that it didn't cause a reaction...?

I've heard that Solid Gold's SeaMeal no longer contains brewers yeast because of concerns that it was causing allergic reactions in some dogs. It might be worth a shot to take him off of the yeast supplement for while to see if the itching decreases.

 

Hi this is just an idea as it worked on one of my shepherds when his skin was itchy the vet told me to give him a bath using Aloe Vera this helps soothe the skin and calms the itch down.

Also giving dogs too many baths can make there skin dry and itchy rubbing him down with a damp cloth or mild baby wet wipes is better then giving him a bath all the time.

It can take anywhere from 2weeks to a few months for a dogs body to go back to normal if they have an allergic reaction to something in there diet.

Hope he gets better soon as i know its awful for us humans when we have an itch it must be terrible for pets...

Mike

 

I would just stop doing all the extra stuff you are now doing with him, put him back on life abundance and just leave him alone for awhile without introducing anything else that is new. It may take him awhile to get everything out of his system. If it is really bad now I don't think it would hurt to put him on some steroid meds until he gets back to normal.