Ask your vet to run a thyroid test on your dog. One of my 7 Bulls was doing the same thing, and when the Vet checked his thyroid, it was low. He is on medication for this now, and is perfectly fine. He also has food allergies, and is on Science Diet Z/D formula. Hope this helps!

Champsky will be 2 on August 16th. She has only been with us a couple of months though

Like Brenda, I too feed mine food with fish. It seems to have made some difference. I use Flint River Ranch's "Fish and Chips", it is made with trout and sweet potatoes. What I like for my baby, is that the first ingredient is Trout (although it does contain potato, but then again Science Diet's first ingredient is Starch (and does not say specifically what type of starch). It also contains many antioxidants so you really don't have to add supplements (containing the zinc, E, A, D), as well as ground oats, grapeseed and flax oil (great for skin). You will also notice you will use 20-25% less to feed, and LESS shedding. Good luck!!!

Below are the ingredients:

(You may ask your vet, and if they are familiar with holistic medicine they will love this)

INGREDIENTS: Trout, Potato, Course Ground Millet, Herring Meal, Oatmeal, Sweet Potatoes, Canola Oil, (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Flax Seed, Oat Bran, Natural Flavors, Blueberries, Cranberries, Rosemary, Grape Seed Oil, Menhaden Fish Meal, Granola, Ground Oats, Alfalfa Meal, Brewer's Dried Yeast, Dried Eggs, Lecithin, Yucca Schidigem Extract, Choline Chloride, Zinc Sulphate, dl-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate, Zinc Amino Acid Complex, Selenium Supplement, Mixed Natural Tocopherol (Antioxidant), Niacin, Iron, Amino Acid complex, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Acetate, Ascorbic Acid, Iron Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganese Amino Acid Complex, Thiamine Mononitrate, Manganous Oxide, Copper Amino Acid Complex, Copper Sulfate, Riboflavin, Vitamin D-3, Dried Bacillus Subtillus Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus Oryzae Fermentation Product.

I thought Champsky was just a pup?

We are using Wellness whitefish and sweet potato food Biotin supplement and pet tabs as well as a tar based shampoo from our vet and a conditioner for allergies. We also use Benadryl and have also had to resort to cortizone for Champsky

The antigen injections for what the dog is allergic to WILL help, but you have tyo stick with it. You have to run the course of the injections for the body to be able to build up the resistence to the things it is allergic to. During this time you should bathe weekly with Malaseb or Ketochlor leaving the shampoo on for 15 minutes before rinsing...it will get better but it will take time. Ask your vet about Atopica as well, as it has shown very promising results with allergic dogs as well as the Alopecia it was designed for. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for the info on allergies! We are calling the vet AGAIN tomorrow! Gunny seems to have broken out today with some sort of rash? up and down both sides of his body. He is sooooo miserable with this itching I will write down all the "solutions" everyone has told us to try and ask the vet tomorrow about them. And the claritan.....I really don't see where it is working at all. Guess we will have to go back to giving him benadryl even if it does make him sleepy [unless the vet can recommend something else]. I was glad to hear we aren't the only ones with these problems....hate it for all the dogs, but glad to know we are not alone fighting this. IF we get any good results from what we try next, I will be sure to post the info. thanks again! pat and gunny-lou

If you do a search on allergies you will find a wealth of info! I love the "crop circle" definition. That is perfect. Brutus also gets recurring staph infections that I have not had to treat w/antibiotics since Feb. but I gave him a bath 2x per week for about 3months with Micro-tek. You could try either the Relief that Kathy spoke of or I have used Allermyl and Histacalm.

Benadryl makes Brutus hyper and I tried Claritin and it didnt seem to do anything. I am now using chlorpheniramine--I bought the generic from Walmart called chlortabs. It is ok. We stopped the allergen injections due to 4weeks of nonstop hives. I havent given Brutus a shot since May25 and his hives are just now clearing up. We are going tomorrow to get a precript. of hydroxyzine and clavamox.

Good luck

Allison & Brutus

Oscar has bad allergies and benedryl seems to work best for him. At first he's sleepy, but he gets used to it and it's not as bad. Our vet gave us a shampoo called Relief that is for itching and it helps. As far as food, with the allergies he has, a fish/sweet potato food might be okay, Wellness makes a good one.

gets the same thing. She has not been tested for allergies, but the crop circles of hair etc. seem to hit home. My mom gives her benedryl during the bad allergy seasons. It seems to help some, but doesn't completely slove the problem. I have heard using an oatmeal based shampoo, for example Aveeno, which you can find in any store for humans is good and gentle and soothing. When they did the allergy testing did they offer any type of allergy shots, like for humans? I know that my mom had to break down and get Violet a shot of Cortizone (steriods) to start to solve the problem, and that seemed to help, but your vet is right, it isn't good to have a lot of them. I would just try to limit her time outside to pottying only and keep trying the claritan or try benedryl, and yes she may get sleepy, but it may just work.

Good Luck.