Comments: 0Posted on… (date unknown)
Supporting SnippetFact.com, community driven facts about everything.
Dog Health
DBT highly recommends the The Ultimate Guide to Dog Health! ebook when learning to look after your dog or pet.
What Causes Dog Itching and Scratching? This condition can be brought on by many things as there are so many possibilities and causes. The most common causes however are allergies, skin parasites, and endocrine, but this relies a lot on the breed of the dog in question and the activities or jobs they have during a normal day, many breeds of dog and dogs that enjoy different activities like working outdoors amongst wildlife are a lot more prone to some skin and pest problems than others. Although this does make it slightly easier for the vet to determine which condition is more probable there are still too many causes to make a solid diagnosis, and curing the symptoms alone is usually not worth wile if the dog is still going to continue to be associated with the activities, allergies, and other causes.
What Your Vet May Say or Do
The vet after seeing the itching and agitated dog will usually ask a few questions to help them further narrow down what might be causing the itching, the following questions are a sample of what might be asked and the reasons why they are asked: . Age of the dog (asked because young dogs or puppies are partial to skin mites) . How long has the dog been itching and agitated? . Is the dog itching constantly or only now and again? (some cases of itching are not consistent and this can be determined here) . Do some of the parts of the dog seem to be itchier than others? (allergies affect feet, ears, bottom and lower back more than others) . Are other pets or people in your home feeling itchy too? (if yes the nit is probably pests that are the cause) . Has the dog had these symptoms before? (possibly because of allergies related to different seasons) . Has anyone in the house or the dog been bitten recently? (condition could be due to fleas in the house) . Has anything major been changed in your home recently like carpets, rugs, redecorating? (could be causing allergic reaction) Once the above questions and possibly more have been asked then the vet should have narrowed the possibilities down but may well take some other tests to confirm the correct diagnosis. These tests may include examining hair samples, skin scrapings, skin biopsies and possible blood tests. When the final condition has been made the appropriate course of action will be given as stated below in the list of conditions.
Other Possible Conditions
Dog Bacterial Skin Infections
Dog Allergies – Itchy Ears
Dog Allergies – Itchy Feet and Itchy Bottom
Dog Flea Allergy
Dog Fleas Information
Dog Food Allergies – Skin Allergies
Dog Hot Spots
Dog Hypothyroidism (under active thyroid glands)
Dog Skin Mites
Dog Fungal Skin Infections
Dog Yeast Infection 
