Hi,
Excessive scratching and biting can have several causes, such as:
* The diet, as others have indicated already: I've seen major improvements in several guest dogs just after changing from a low grade dry dog food diet to a high grade one. But, the best results I've seen in dogs that switched to a raw food diet (=species appropriate diet). In principle you don't need to add any supplement to a raw food diet.
* vaccine side-effect: excessive scratching and biting is one of the Rabies vaccine side-effects.
* sarcoptic mange (scabies)
* Malassezia
http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/s ... course.htm
* I believe that a slow working thyroid also can be a cause of excessive scratching and biting.
My late GSD also was continuously biting and scratching. So badly that often the skin was raw, oozing, balding over his whole body, it thickened on many places, became dark grey, bad body odor, excessive wax in ears.
Several vets diagnosis: demodectic mange with secondary bacterial infection, sarcoptic mange, malassezia, allergies, and a few more.
None of their treatments worked.
Then finally at the (his) age of 7, I came in contact with a veterinary homeopath over the internet. Based on his totality of sx she prescribed a remedy (in his case it was Lyc. C30). Within a day the itch went noticeably down, 3 days later I saw the hair growing back, 7 days later there was a tiny layer of hair all over his ears and body (that went really fast!) and about 10 days later he got full bloat and died.
((
I asked later to other homeopaths if this could have been an aggravation, and the answer was "possible'. Major bummer, who could have expected that! I mean so sudden and so severe.
Before my GSD came to me he had his puppy shots at about 6, 8 and 10 weeks of age (all combined vaccines) and a Rabies one. Somewhere around his puberty his skin problems started. His thyroid tests all came back within normal range, and thus the thyroid was okay according to the vet. However, when you took the average of the normal ranges, then all test were below that. According to Dr. Jean Dodds, world renowned specialist in canine thyroids, this means an impaired thyroid. Hence me now thinking his problems were a result of his puppy shots that messed up his thyroid, and as a result of that his other health problems occurred.
Of course I can be wrong about this. I'll never know for sure probably. But I do know that a dry dog food or rice diet would give an increase in the itching, and a grain free raw food diet a slight decrease. But correcting only the maintaining causes did not do the trick with him, and a full homeopathic consult and treatment was needed in order to help him.
With other dogs just only correction in one of the maintaining causes was needed, that is a switch towards a grain-free raw food diet already did wonders. And I've seen dogs improve on only supplementing with omega 3.
Nienke
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