Dog Community

Why is my puppy itching so bad?

Posted : 4/28/2006 6:37:55 AM

On Monday we brought Cedar home who is at that time was a 7 week old golden. He showed no signs of itching other than him not liking his collar.

Yesterday he started to scratch and bite all over his skin. Not just a little but a lot. I gave him a bath and that seemed to help a little. Last night and this morning is the same thing. So what caused the itching. Here is what has changed. (other than a new house environment!)

1) New collar
2) New cage with plastic pan
3) He ate sunflower and other birdseed that the birds dropped
4) He loves eating grass and dandelions
5) He is on Nutro dog food and I started on Wednesday to switch over to Innova.

The vet thinks it is too soon for allergies. When he was at the vet on Monday he didn't get any shots. He did get mircochipped. The vet wondered if I saw little droppings on him. I think he was hinting at fleas and I haven't. This morning I put Frontline on him.

We never did wash the pan from his cage so I will do that. I will do the same with his collar. I will be moving the bird feeder this weekend away from the house.

I guess I'm just worried since my last golden had major allergies and I was hoping this one would be better. The breeder states she hasn't had any problems. I do have a call into her for suggestions.

Any Ideas?

forpaws

Posted : 4/28/2006 6:58:45 AM

Cedar,
Usually a pet develops food allergies if they have been on a particular food for a long period of time. So I would not think it is the food.

He may be allergic to plastic's. Some dogs are sensitive to plastic and develop itchies or some cases, pimple like bumps on their lips. You might try to put a blanket or some sort of padding inside his crate.

He is too young to develop allergies and I agree with the vet on this.

Flea's would make the little one miserable with itching and it only takes a bite of one flea to drive them insane with itching. They are actually allergic to the saliva of the flea itself and not the flea.
Keep an eye on him and things should get better.

dyan

Posted : 4/28/2006 7:02:08 AM

Good luck with asking the breeder. The two that I consulted about things always just said "no problem when he was here and I haven't heard any problems with the other pups!"

You know,,,,its hard since there are so many new things,,,including a brand new life. Everything is new,,,he is probably a little stressed not being where he was used to being... But all these things are necessary. I might not have changed his food quite so fast,,, that would be one elimination. Glad he didn't get any shots or medication. I would probably call the vet and ask him why he brought up "droppings" since he did. Maybe he saw something that you didn't!

calliecritturs

Posted : 4/28/2006 7:37:17 AM

7 weeks old is WAY too young -- that tells me the breeder likely isn't stellar and my first thot would be sarcoptic mange -- that likely he had been given a dip before you got him and some of the sarcops that had already laid eggs in his skin have hatched!

Milbemycin (Interceptor) is ok on small puppies -- and so is Lyme dip. NOT paramite dip. Ask the vet.

Brian Miller

Posted : 4/28/2006 9:42:49 AM

Thanks for the feedback. Since the itching started I stopped the switching of the food. He was at the vet on Monday and everything was fine. The breeder is also a vet and knows my vet so I would hope that it's something simple. I have a call into my vet now to see if they want to see him.

sooner

Posted : 4/28/2006 9:58:31 AM

On another dog forum I'm on a lot of people talk about allergies and reactions to sunflower oil. How much seed did Cedar eat?

Brian Miller

Posted : 4/28/2006 10:04:12 AM

I don't believe he ate a ton of it. He is learning the yard and kept running to that one spot. I thought it was since it was by two walls and that he found it to be a safety zone. I looked though and sure enough he was eating the fallen seed. To guess I would say probably under 15 seeds. That is just a guess.

sarah crompton

Posted : 4/28/2006 10:19:13 AM

This was my 1st post on i-dog i had the same problem with Simba, get down into his fur and check his skin out, sounds like mites to me.

Pretty common in young pups so I was told by my vet it took about 4 or 5 treatments of frontline and antibiotics to get rid of them from Simba.

Just watch out for him chewing and causing hot spots on his body, also the mite spread to me and gave me scabies which then turned into folleculitus (nightmare)

GOOD LUCK!!!

glenmar

Posted : 4/28/2006 10:20:25 AM

I've not dealt with mites, but I don't *think* that frontline will take care of them.

sooner

Posted : 4/28/2006 10:34:50 AM

I know I saw a post the other day (I think from Callie) that Interceptor will kill ear mites. Don't know about skin mites though.

Still thinking about the sunflower oil since it is an ingredient in Innova, is it in the Nutro formula you're feeding?

Brian Miller

Posted : 4/28/2006 3:36:01 PM

We are back from the vet and his skin does show that something is causing it to itch. They did a skin test and while it came back negative for mites the Dr is treating it as mites/mange since he stated that's what it looked like. He was given a product called Revolution which should kill what ever it is and then some pills to help the skin so it doesn't itch. Fingers crossed we should see things improve.

Brian Miller

Posted : 4/28/2006 3:38:08 PM

Also forgot to mention that he is on Interceptor for his heartworm pill. So I think we have every angle covered.

glenmar

Posted : 4/28/2006 3:43:13 PM

Does the vet KNOW he's also on interceptor?? Revolution, among other things kills hw larva and I'm VERY concerned about this load of chemicals.

Brian Miller

Posted : 4/28/2006 3:51:24 PM

Yes the vet put him on the Interceptor. He made some calls and said that their wouldn't be any problems having him on both of these at the same time.

glenmar

Posted : 4/28/2006 3:55:34 PM

I just forwarded this to Callie. Honestly, that's one heck of a chemical load for such a young pup. Callie will know if it's ok.