Why does my dog scratch?

Scratching is a very common symptom in dogs
and as owners we should aim to nip it in the bud early before self trauma causes secondary injuries and infections to our dog. Its wise to rule out common causes like fleas and mites, that can lead to bacterial (hot spots) and fungal (ringworm and yeast) infections, before thinking your dog could have an allergy to something its coming into contact with, or eating in its diet.
The thing is, the two are connected. If the dogs immune system is weakened because it is already having to work overtime because of other causes, then a simple flea bite can set off a reaction within the body, from a simple angry spot, to an all over body rash, or full blown alopecia where all the dogs hair falls out, and thus could take months to years to clear.

As we are all aware these days, allergies have become more common in both children and adults compared to several generations ago. Vets too, see a higher percentage of allergies in pets. It’s difficult to explain this phenomenon, theories range from alterations in the content of pet foods to the use of modern day household cleaning products or simply genetic evolution. One thing is certain, whatever the cause, allergic dogs benefit hugely from avoiding the offending allergen or, if that is impossible, appropriate treatment to minimize the itchiness.
Lets start with the presenting signs of an allergy in dogs. Itchiness can manifest itself not only as obvious scratching at the neck and flanks, but also as face rubbing, foot licking or chewing and a dog over grooming itself. Foot licking, for example, is often perceived by owners as normal, when in fact the dog is responding to itchy feet in the only way it can, by licking them. The skin between the toes may turn red and sore due to the compulsive licking, and in white dogs such as West Highland White Terriers and Bichon Frises, the fur is stained brown by saliva.

Ear infections are another common sign of an underlying allergy. Though general waxiness, hair in the ear canals, lack of ventilation, bacteria and yeast may trigger the infection, an underlying allergy is often the root cause of the itchiness. If your dog gets recurrent ear infections, by eliminating an underlying allergy you may prevent your dog from going over the ‘itchiness threshold’ and developing full blown ear infections.

So, what are the common allergies in dogs? For convenience they are best separated into 5 categories, with the highest at no.1

1) Adverse food reaction caused by insufficient diet
2.) Flea bite hypersensitivity
3) Ear infections caused by mites or yeast infection
4) Atopic dermatitis
5) Contact dermatitis

Adverse food reactions are more difficult to treat as it’s difficult to isolate the precise ingredient responsible for causing itchiness in your dog. Also, treating adverse food reactions requires owners to be exceptionally disciplined and motivated in preventing their pet having even a single treat unless the exact ingredients are known to be safe. The best way to start is putting your pet on a diet that your pet was designed to eat, eg Meat. In the long run it’s cheaper to feed, because your pet will be healthier, so the health care costs will ease. Remember with ANY food change or exclusion the food must be excluded for at least 6 weeks and when trying a new food, tried for at least 3 months, as your pets body will begin to flush out toxins that have built up, so again, your pet will appear worse when in fact they are getting better, so don’t give up!

There are two ways of diagnosing an adverse food reaction (also known as a food allergy). For those readers for whom cost is not an issue, a blood test can be done to measure for ingredient specific antibodies in the bloodstream. The blood test is quite costly, and if combined with a blood test for environmental allergens is usually very expensive (>£200). The company performing the blood test then provides a list of ingredients (chicken, beef, pork, rice, wheat etc) and a score next to them, suggesting which ingredients are best avoided. The owner then picks a commercial diet which does not include any of these ingredients, or indeed a special home cooked diet. The second way to diagnose an adverse food reaction is to conduct a dietary trial. This involves picking a very bland hypoallergenic diet and feeding your dog exclusively that for at least a month, preferably 6 weeks. I have used with success a simple diet of turkey and vegetables, as less dogs are allergic to turkey than chicken. Of course if your dog happened to be allergic to turkey, which is rare but nevertheless possible, you would be none the wiser as the itchiness would continue and you would assume you had ruled out a food allergy having done the turkey dietary trial. Remember if you are doing one of these trials, then your dog must not be given any treats, especially not pig’s ears, chews, biscuits, dental sticks or any rawhide products. Literally nothing must be swallowed other than turkey (and water!) for the entire trial period.

Flea bite hypersensitivity is really straight forward to cure. It is a simple case of stopping the dog from being attractive to fleas, eliminating them crucially, in the pet’s environment. The itchiness is caused by an allergic reaction to the flea saliva, so even a solitary flea can trigger a scratching frenzy. To rule out flea bite hypersensitivity, rather than a treatment that requires your pet to get fleas on their skin or get bitten, Use a repellent to stop the fleas ever wanting to get on your pet in the 1st place. Your house too, should be thoroughly protected by the use of Repellents, chemical use can add to your pet’s condition, by over working its immune system. There are natural killers such as Diatomacious earth that is harmless to animals but kills ticks mites and fleas.

Ear infections are hard to cure, again prevention and repelling is the best “tool” to help your Pet as the cause can be very difficult to detect without months or years of constant daily care. A simple regime of daily cleaning out the ears and using a good ear cleaner should address the problem. And don’t think its not working when your pet suddenly has yucky gunk coming out of its ears! That is a good sign that the body is finally fighting back and clearing all the infection out. But if you miss a day the mites and yeasts will soon multiply again. So make ear cleaning and hair removal your daily or weekly bonding time with your pet and keep them happy and healthy!


If you have ruled out flea bite hypersensitivity, adverse food reaction, and ear infections, the next step is to consider an environmental allergy, also known as atopic dermatitis. Symptoms of atopic dermatitis can begin between 1 and 3 years of age, though any age is possible. The itchiness is often seasonal, which is consistent with a pollen allergy, though some dogs are itchy all year round. There are certain breeds which are predisposed to this condition: Boxers, Bull Terriers, Dalmations, English Bulldogs, German Shepherd Dogs, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, Shar Peis, Shih Tzus and West Highland White Terriers being the most commonly affected. Diagnosis is usually made based on the history and ruling out all the other causes of itchiness, many vets will treat the condition on these presumptions. However, definitive diagnosis can be achieved via a panel of injections into a patch of skin, or blood tests. Neither of these are particularly effective and generally not performed unless the owner is prepared to attempt a desensitization programme. This involves a long term course of injections given by your vet on, say, a monthly basis to desensitize your dog to the offending allergen, and so make the allergic reaction much smaller when he/she does come into contact with it. A the simple addition of locally produce honey once a day will desensitize a dog to the pollens naturally, and taste far better!

Contact dermatitis is a skin reaction caused by your dog coming into contact with a chemical that is an irritant. It therefore only tends to affect the stomach, groin and feet of the dog, and is characterized by reddening and drying and flaking of the skin in these areas. It can also be seen when owners shampoo their dogs with a product that is not intended for use in dogs. Contact dermatitis is rare, but easily ruled out by careful use of cleaning products around the household. Just think, did the itchiness coincide with the introduction of a newly laid carpet or laminate floor, or new carpet cleaner, washing powder or fabric softener? Do you use plug in air fresheners, or toilets fresheners? These are well known triggers. So again, go around your home and remove anything that could be causing the problem. It’s a case of trial and error. I’d also like to mention here, that when a dog is bathed in ANY shampoo, the natural reaction is for the pores to open, with the water, and flush out all the dirt or bacteria. This like with us when we first get out the bath or shower, will make the skin red, from the blood vessels close to the skin. If good natural shampoos are used that don’t contain harsh soap bases, the chances of the dog over reacting are minimal. Always check your groomer is using natural shampoos, of can use a Vet prescribed shampoo that list the ingredients, rather than cheap commercial shampoos that don’t.

Steroids are very effective at stopping itchiness caused by allergies, but they only suppress the immune system so the likely hood is that once out of the dogs system, the dog’s symptoms will re appear. Also long term use can lead to undesirable side effects, such as adrenal gland disease. Long term steroid use should only be used as a last resort, when everything else has been tried and there is no other re dress, it’s not something I would use personally because of the long term health implications, but if it relieves the poor animal, anything might by worth while trying in the short term.
By far the best treatment for any allergy is avoidance of the cause, one of the main being an insufficient diet which doesn’t fully support your dog without the use of supplements like vitamins, etc. Where as, a breed specific diet, which promotes and supports the immune system will avoid it becoming too weak to fight off the above health problems. You wouldn’t expect a car to go very far on a mix of water and petrol? The same goes for your dog. If you’re not feeding it a proper diet. of raw meat, vegetables, fish and bones, then It won’t have the right fuel to keep its immune system happy and healthy. There are alternatives to steroids to relieve itching.. These other medications include antihistamines, essential fatty acids, (oily fish) apple cider vinegar, to change the PH of your pets skin to allow the growth of good bacteria and prevent the growth of the bad bacteria and thus prevent skin infections.

In all of the above you can see, prevention is better than having to put your pet through the cure. A good diet in the first place should be your 1st option. Then your pet’s immune system will be self supporting on its road back to good health, without the need of more chemicals and drugs that may add to its immune system weakness and cause yet more symptoms to appear, to alert you to its weakened condition.


If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me via email.