JackieG
Chelsea, you can scrape the gooey portion of the aloe leaves with a dull knife. The "skin" of the leaf is very soft and easily scrapes away. I've never had any luck with aloe helping itching but it does soothe irritated skin.
Aloe will simply *soothe* and help heal the skin -- it's not going to stop the itching.
An aloe 'leaf' is fat -- on the two edges there are little tiny spines. Take a paring knife and **carefully** trim away the edge of each side deep enough to remove the spines. (CAreful -- this stuff is SOOOOO slippery and gooey)
Then slide your knife from bottom to top so you have two "halves" (top and bottom) and put them skin side down on the Saran. Just take a spoon -- the inside of it is a gelatenous GOO -- as you apply a little pressure the whole inside of that leaf will turn to goo liquid - it's not hard, just messy. Throw away that outer green skin and then just pick up the Saran and squeeze it into a little container.
Aloe leaves come big and small - you can sometimes buy them at a produce stand or grocery store produce area (honkin great big leaf/fronds those are) -- or if someone has a plant generally it's on their windowsill for burns. Essentially here, he has licked his skin so much it's like a massive brush burn!! That's why the aloe soothes.
You can do the tea, the aloe the baths. They're all benign and soothing -- do tea one night and aloe the next -- whatever works.
Get some tea tree oil -- you can even get that at Wal-Mart ($5 for a 2 oz bottle usually) -- herb section on the bottom shelf near the vitamins.
You can put 20 drops in the FINAL gallon of water you rinse him in -- in other words give him a bath FIRST. Dilute the shampoo (it's SO thick it's ahrd to washt hem otherwise) but don't let him chill (his skin is open and sore -- he will feel cold). Just make sure you RINSE RINSE RINSE -- don't just try to rinse him by dumping water over him -- you won't get it off him well enough. Do you have a handheld shower?? Or do you have set tubs downstairs with running water with WARM water???
Getting him rinsed is critical or the skin will get MORE sore.
Then at the VERY *end* take that last gallon of water (like in a water jug) and add maybe 20 - 25 drops of tea tree oil to that. Shake it HARD and pour over him -- you can put a little tea tree on your hand and massage it into his paws - it will help fight infection.
THEN RINSE AGAIN -- Not a ton but just enough to knock off any extra tea tree oil (it will make him sick to his stomach if he licks a lot of that). But it will help.
If you do the tea tree rinse you can bathe him a couple of times a week. You can wipe him off DAILY and that will help. That's part of what the tea does. But just running a wet washcloth over him (rinsing it out several times) will help get the pollen and allergens off him.
I would put socks on him. He's not gonna love you for it but it WILL help.
This sounds crazy but it WILL keep him from licking.
Find a t-shirt - usually a youth boy size -- probably a medium for him. White is best.
Take two pairs of white sport socks.
Two pairs of LONG shoe-laces.
Poke a shoe lace thru the top of a sock on the side (at the very top) and TIE it so the lace won't pull out. Do that to all 4 socks with all 4 laces.
Put a sock on each foot -- the lace on the "outside". Take all 4 laces and tie them in ONE bow at the top of the middle of his back.
Put the t-shirt on (tag under his chin -- but cut the tag off).
Take a rubber band and bundle up the excess at the side (so it's tight around his belly not obstructing his willie so he can potty). Tuck that under.
Now you feel foolish and the dog is looking at you like you must be kidding.
BUT -- he may not "like" it but he'll stop the infernal biting.
JUST A T-SHIRT HELPS -- It will actually stop some of the itching. Some of the itch is nervous itch -- the more they lick the more they NEED to lick. This helps break the cycle.
Put the aloe on (thick) before you put the socks on.
Now -- you can use baby socks if you can train him to leave them on. You can pick up some rubber cement at most any place that sells glue, tape or office supplies -- and paint rubber cement on the toes of the socks -- that will give him some traction so he won't slip on wood floors.
It's amazing -- if I take Billy's shirt off he's a scratching mess in seconds. Put a shirt on him -- he calms down. He's 30 pounds and I use a Youth Small (or an x-tra small depending on the brand).
If you have a Goodwill near you often you can buy kid's t-shirts for $.25 (a quarter).
Now-- once you see if this helps THEN you can get fun with the t-shirts (particularly if you watch Goodwill and those places) -- you can find shirts with your favorite sports team on them if you like (and sometimes socks too)
There is something about covering an itchy dog that REALLY helps.
Wal-Mart's generic Benedryl is fine -- K-Mart's generic SUCKS. Not all generics are good.