Itchy armpits?

 Jessie scratches her armpits sometimes too. With her, it's caused by seasonal allergies. I give her a bath with a colloidal oatmeal shampoo and use a conditioner made by Virbac called Resi-Cort.

Giving a Benedryl "occasionally" is a complete waste -- seriously.  It needs to be in the body day after day not only to deal with the histamines that have gone IN the body, but also help the body deal with them as they are encountered.

1-2 mg/lb (the 1 mg is definitely what you want to start with -- you only use the 2 mg for an emergency like a bee/wasp sting) but given 2-3 times a day.  So that means a 50 pound dog needs TWO of the 25 mg Benedryl caplets at least twice a day -- that is a bare minimal dose.

And honestly you need to do that for the entire ***season***.

Ok -- that said d... the "pits" tend to be warm and moist -- it's  prime target for yeasty skin infections and warm/;moist places are prime spots for "hot spots" to attack (allergies again).

1.  Try bathing with Selsun blue (red cap -- the medicated one) -- warm water, LOTS of spray -- wet the dog down and lather up (I always dilute it a bit).  Don't leave it on a long time -- it will make the skin tingle too much.  LONG LONG LONG rinse.

Then I like to apply a few drops of tea tree oil to my hands and then massage that deep into the coat (and a few extra drops anywhere it's sore).  Then a light rinse again.

The tea tree will not only kill yeast but it also is darned good at killing staph skin infection -- see once the skin is "open" then it's a big target for staph.  Not good.  Infection spreads.

2.  The vet will have something similar to Malaseb (it's got chemicals both for yeast and staph skin infection).  But it has to stay ON the dog for 20 minutes -- which is just hard to do.  I usually have better luck with Selsun Blue

3.  Plain old aloe (the goo harvested from aloe plant leaves) can also be good at reducing that sort of inflammation.

Usually if it's "dry" it will be flakey -- but any disturbed skin then is a target for other stuff like staph infection.    Infected skin won't heal -- so if it's actually infected you'll need to get antibiotics.

I'm parinoid about giving a lot of medication. Bailey is 70lbs, so that would be aprox 3 benadryl... twice a day. So, 6 a day. That seems like a LOT.

Its starting to look more and more like that rash he had before ( remember, that really red nasty rash he had between his back legs?)

I gave him a bath with the Selsun Blue(medicated) and it DID seem to help. For the rest of the day he didnt itch them AT ALL.

Next day... he started itching again.

Should I wash his armpits with that every day? multiple times a day?

I dont have any plain aloe. I meant to get an aloe plant... but never got around to it. I DO have some of that "aloe gel" stuff (you know, the stuff sold at the pharmacy for burns?) I didnt put any on him, I didnt know if that would be benifical or make it worse.

Its not DRY at all. Not flakey either. It doesnt even really LOOK that bad, it only gets a little red and irritated when he has been scratching at it.

I dremel his nails twice a week, so they are NEVER sharp, which helps a lot to keep him from making his armpit bleed. But his nails still scratch it, despite being dremeled often. I COULD go find those boots I used before (when he had that weird growth on his foot) and put those on his back feet, to keep him from scratching his armpits. 

Spazzy

I'm parinoid about giving a lot of medication. Bailey is 70lbs, so that would be aprox 3 benadryl... twice a day. So, 6 a day. That seems like a LOT.

It would be for a human (altho within prescribed levels actually) -- but not for a dog.  Dog's metabolisms are far far higher than ours are .. and Benedryl (diphenhydramine) is one of the antihistamines that has to be dosed that way.  In fact, if you cruise thru the Pill Book Guide -- ALL the antihistamines have weird doses -- some more, some less -- but all antihistamine doses for dogs are different than for humans.

Long, long term Benedryl can be a bit hard on the kidneys -- and by "long, long term" I mean years and years and years.  (like 10 - 15 or more) and even then it's usually not a huge problem unless another problem adds to it (like a med that causes renal failure).

Don't I remember you have a "Pill Book Guide to Medication for Your Dog and Cat" or am I remembering wrong.  Look it up -- it's an excellent bunch of information on it.

Dogs can take an amazing array of antihistamines and honestly, try them all because occasionally one will work better than another for particular dogs.  Some folks swear by Tavist for dogs -- and man, I tried it on Muffin and he had NOT great time with him (that was hard on HIS kidneys).  Just don't use one with enteric coating (some of Chlor-Trimeton's - if you can find it -- are time-release and that won'd dissolve in a dog's gut/small intestine).

Try the aloe topically tho -- that will dry the area and reduce the inflammation -- it does help.

Spazzy

I gave him a bath with the Selsun Blue(medicated) and it DID seem to help. For the rest of the day he didnt itch them AT ALL.

Next day... he started itching again.

Should I wash his armpits with that every day? multiple times a day?

You can't get it rinsed to just spot clean with that -- you could bathe every other day with it -- just use some tea tree oil in the rinse to keep the coat from drying out.  (which will also help with the yeast).  But don't spot wash -- you'd have to bathe him -- the added benefit of that is to help keep the alelrgens OFF his coat.

Try black tea -- just brew plain old regular black tea and let it steep a long time.  Then every time he comes in from outside take a wash cloth (and old one) and wring it out with the tea and wipe him off with it.  Actually soak his feet in a small dish of tea and blot dry with a terry towel (not paper -- you really don't want to add paper dust to this).  The tannic acid in the tea helps neutralize the allergens.

You can also pat tea on the armpits.

Spazzy

I dont have any plain aloe. I meant to get an aloe plant... but never got around to it. I DO have some of that "aloe gel" stuff (you know, the stuff sold at the pharmacy for burns?) I didnt put any on him, I didnt know if that would be benifical or make it worse.

If it is PURE 100% aloe gel that's fine -- but that's hard to find.  You don't want to use anything that is a lotion or cream that has ANY other ingredients in it.

You could get liquid aloe -- altho you gotta keep it refrigerated and pat that on his underarms -- but an aloe plant is awesome if you can find someone to give you one or buy one.

calliecritturs

You could get liquid aloe -- altho you gotta keep it refrigerated and pat that on his underarms -- but an aloe plant is awesome if you can find someone to give you one or buy one.

I have seen aloe leaves in the produce section of Walmart.

Those WOULD work