How To Treat Your Dog For Skin Irritations
Copyright © 2008 JK MacDonald

From my point of view as a long time pet dog owner. I have a lot of research time and suggestions to help other dog owners learn to treat a dog for skin disorders. In my experience the most commonly found problem is itching, and usually starts in one general area on the dog. If your dog has an allergic reaction to something, it will cause a skin infection or irritate the skin. If open wounds or scabbing appears on the skin this is a perfect place for bacterial infection to manifest. Read more »

One of the differences since I started walking a bit less is that I don’t use up as much energy of course. Mum has noticed that we used to spend about an hour and a half walking every day, and now it is more like twenty minutes. She is worried that she will get fat by taking less exercise, but she also started looking at my weight - cheek! I still love my food, especially when the humans have some tasty leftovers. But I will need to cut my portions down a little if I am to avoid getting fat. That would only make my arthritis even worse, and I certainly do not want to get so big that I need diet pills. Ho, hum…

What You Should Know About Dog Allergies

Like people, dogs are not exempt from allergies. Your cuddly and furry friend will seem to be irritated at almost anything when these allergies attack. Just as with humans, these allergies are very uncomfortable and will need an immediate remedy to have things under control. There are five most common types of allergy that your dog can have namely food, flea, bacteria, contact and inhalant allergy. Each type of allergy has a particular characteristic which your dog can exhibit as a result of the condition.

Food allergy happens when your dog becomes sensitive to a particular food. Depending on your dog, food like beef, chicken, fish, eggs, or grains can trigger an allergy attack. You can tell that your dog is suffering from food allergy when you see him scratching or licking a certain part of his body. Other symptoms can also include coughing, sneezing, vomiting, diarrhea and loss of appetite. Because of the complexity involve in identifying the ingredient that triggered the allergy attack, it would be best if you cook special meals for your furry friend. Read more »

I have one positive thing to report abut my health lately, as I have not had any of that awful itching that i usually get in the summer. We are not sure why this has happened, it could be because I have been drininking that special Willow Water, or maybe cos I have beef jerky for my treats. Who knows? My coat is thick and shiny with none of those bald patches that a dog gets when he scratches a lot. And the bis bonus - I do not have to wear tee shirts or body stockings to protect my skin this year.

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My skin allergy has been a continuous problem for me almost as long as I have lived with Mum and Dad. From the first Summer that I was here I started to scratch and itch, and it was very annoying for me and everybody else. Mum would put a tee shirt on me when I was in the house to protect my fur: not very cool, but it helped. I did not have fleas, and Mum keeps my protection up by giving me Frontline Plus every month. I used to feel an uncontrollable urge to lick the itchy patches, and I lost a lot of fur on the patches I licked. That loss of fur led to infection and then you have a vicious circle of allergy and infection. I have visited four different vets over that time and non of them had made any difference to my condition. They gave it lots of names - skin atopy, severe dog eczema, pruritis - and charged plenty of money but they did not cure it. We have met plenty of other dogs and their families with the same problem, especially Collies like me. Non of them had found a cure either.

You notice I am speaking in the past tense? Clever dog!! But that is because there seems to be a cure and it came from the lovely new vet who treated me after my ear was ripped in the pitbull attack. The vet noticed the bare patches on my legs and she prescribed an anti-histamine tablet called Periactin. I have been taking 4mg of this twice a day for a week, and yesterday Mum and Dad noticed that I had not been scratching!! I have not needed to wear a tee shirt, they have not had to stop me from itching and I can get on with the business of being a dog.

If your dog is having problems with itching, ask your vet to prescribe Periactin for him and see if it works for you.