Continuous itching can be a problem when you have terrible allergies. And dogs don’t care if their scratching annoys you. If they have an itch, they must scratch it. So the continuous itching needs to alert you to the cause. For the moment, put the treatment on hold. Just look for the cause.
Once you know the cause, then you can remedy that. End of continuous itching.
There are a few possible causes, but by far the most common is the diet you feed your dog.
Commercial dog food comes in alluring packets. Millions is spent on advertising the major brands. But little is spent on the inside of the packet, the contents. In fact, the cheaper the cost, the more the profit for the manufacturer.
Lets look at some of the ingredients of a typical commercial dog food. Much of the ingredients won’t be listed, but there are ways of finding out what they are.
Meat by-products are the end product of a rendering plant. A rendering plant is where all dead animals or their unwanted parts, are processed. Euthanised pets and zoo animals, road kill, dead farm animals from cancers etc, rejects from slaughter houses.
This ‘meat’ is then bulked out with a cheap filler. Many cheap fillers consist of anything that has been over-produced, such as sugar. Other fillers can consist of rejects for human consumption, such as mouldy grain. Melamine from China, that is responsible for killing many pets, is still being used.
To ensure a long shelf life for this product, toxic preservatives are added at some stage of the production. Examples include ethoxyquin (made for the rubber industry and causes agent orange like symptoms) and formalin (excellent for preserving dead bodies).
Do you consider any of these ingredients either healthy for your dog, or might perhaps contribute to his allergies? How would you fare on such a diet? Would you be healthy and allergy free?
If your dog has a continuous itch or has terrible allergies, start his treatment with a change of diet, preferably to a home made quality raw diet. After the initial de-tox period, his health is likely to return to that he enjoyed as a puppy.
We switched our dog to raw lamb at least a year ago. His frequent vomiting stopped but his allergic itching is worse than ever, stopping only when he's given antibiotics and steroids, returning once the medication is finished. I don't know what to do any more and I feel so sorry for him.
ReplyDeleteIt's good news about the vomiting. Sometimes, allergies can get worse before they get better. In this case your dog would benefit from good homeopathic care. Vaccines could also be at the core of this. Antibiotics and steroids suppress his immune system and only mask the effects as you can see.
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