# 4-month-old puppy constantly scratching, biting, and losing hair



## acleali (Apr 9, 2011)

Hello!
I got my new puppy Lola two months ago and since I've had her she has been scratching intensely on her face, paws, legs and lower back. She was also losing a lot of her hair from her lower back down to her back legs. I have taken her to the vet several times, and we ruled out mites. The vet has put her on Prednisone twice. Both times she was on Prednisone her scratching stopped until we started to wean her off of it. She has been off of her second round of Prenisone for two days and she is straching horribly again. Lola seems pretty miserable, she whines and cries a lot and usually has to stop to scratch when I am trying to play with her. I have been giving her children's benadryl but it doesn't really seem to help that much, but it makes her very sleepy. Her vet believes she has a food allergy, Lola has been strictly only eating a special diet of venison and potatoes since March 28th. I have been reading articles that say it could take several weeks to see if the new diet she is on will show any signs of improving her symptoms. Does anyone have any advise or have the same problems? I wish there was something else I could do.


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## clare (Feb 6, 2010)

Oh poor little Lola, there are so many different thing that can cause allergic reactions,I'm afraid I can't be of any help,hope someone jumps in and has a helpful suggestion. :welcome:


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## Jplatthy (Jan 16, 2011)

I can't really help either....Smokey never has issues....Sissy seems to scratch more when she comes back from the groomer...could be something they use that bothers her...I gave her a bath today and used TROPICLEAN kiwi scent and so far she has barely scratched.......and of course she's scratching as I type this lol


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Welcome to the forum. What makes the vet think it's food allergies. ?


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

What about flea bite allergy? What are you feeding your pup? How often are you bathing? What are you using to bathe your pup?


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## acleali (Apr 9, 2011)

The vet believes it is a food allergy because we ruled out fleas and mites. They did a skin scrape and she has had two doses of Advantage. And she didn't believe it was environmental because of a couple reasons. First, because she thought because Lola is so young she hasn't developed her immune system enough to be allergic to environmental allergens. And second, because she had symptoms during the winter.


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## acleali (Apr 9, 2011)

HavaneseSoon said:


> What about flea bite allergy? What are you feeding your pup? How often are you bathing? What are you using to bathe your pup?


We treated her for fleas, she's white and we haven't found any fleas. I really don't think it's that. We were feeding her Royal Canine puppy food. Now we are feeding her Science Diet venison and potato.
The vet gave me dermal-smooth medicated oatmeal shampoo and told me to bathe her once a week, it's supposed to help with the itching. We have to leave it on her for 10-15 minutes. 
I also give her omega3 fatty acids in her food everyday. Nothing seems to help.


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## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

acleali said:


> The vet believes it is a food allergy because we ruled out fleas and mites. They did a skin scrape and she has had two doses of Advantage. And she didn't believe it was environmental because of a couple reasons. First, because she thought because Lola is so young she hasn't developed her immune system enough to be allergic to environmental allergens. And second, because she had symptoms during the winter.


OK. If it is indeed a food allergy, I might recommend Sabine who is a nutritionist and works with allergies on a regular basis. This is not expensive and quite often finds out the culprit. She can do this all over the net. If you are interested you can contact her at http://www.betterdogcare.com/?page=about


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## motherslittlehelper (Mar 18, 2010)

Has the vet considered it may be the Advantage? I do remember Augie itching some as a pup. Vet said they are still developing their nerve endings in their skin and that will cause itching. But he did not lose hair over it and it did not last all that long. He was also given a dose of Frontline by the vet before I realized it was happening at the visit when we took him to get checked out per the breeder contract. I am very suspicious of those chemicals.


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## acleali (Apr 9, 2011)

davetgabby said:


> OK. If it is indeed a food allergy, I might recommend Sabine who is a nutritionist and works with allergies on a regular basis. This is not expensive and quite often finds out the culprit. She can do this all over the net. If you are interested you can contact her at http://www.betterdogcare.com/?page=about


Thanks for the information, I will definitely look into that.


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## acleali (Apr 9, 2011)

motherslittlehelper said:


> Has the vet considered it may be the Advantage? I do remember Augie itching some as a pup. Vet said they are still developing their nerve endings in their skin and that will cause itching. But he did not lose hair over it and it did not last all that long. He was also given a dose of Frontline by the vet before I realized it was happening at the visit when we took him to get checked out per the breeder contract. I am very suspicious of those chemicals.


She was itching like this way before we gave her the advantage. I noticed her itching the day we brought her home and we didn't give her a dose until about 3 weeks later. The vet thought the advantage might help the problem if it was mites.


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## LilyMyLove (Jul 11, 2009)

I would ease up on the topicals.They have some very toxic chemicals. She could just have a poor immune system, and the Royal Canin was making her itch, then the advantage just piggybacked and made it worse, and seasonal allergies could be exacerbating it. At least with humans who have allergies a large percentage of them have more than one (Food, skin, outdoor). GIven the severity of the situation that would be my guess. Poor honey!


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## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

My dog Maddie went threw the exact same thing. The only difference is our vet treated for mites even though it didn't show up on two different skin scrapings. She arrived to us at 8 weeks itching. Lost a bunch of hair and got very matted on back and side's and down her back legs. Our vet thought that her hair fallacious had been compromised from all the itching and caused the hair loss. At around 4mo she just got better. I never changed her food I did add fish oil too her diet. I started bathing her in cooler water. She also had skin flaking. I have no idea if it was a seasonal allergy or to hot of baths or a chemical reaction to something. I hope your pups gets better I know how hard it is when you can not pin point what is causing the problems.


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## Debrina (Oct 28, 2013)

I am wondering if Lola's situation was resolved. We are having the same problem with our almost 5 month old puppy CoCo. She seems aggravated because of it. I wish I knew what to do. The vet said she could be allergic to fleas even though there are none on her. 

Hope to hear from Acleali for some advice.


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## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

acleali said:


> The vet believes it is a food allergy because we ruled out fleas and mites. They did a skin scrape and she has had two doses of Advantage. And she didn't believe it was environmental because of a couple reasons. First, because she thought because Lola is so young she hasn't developed her immune system enough to be allergic to environmental allergens. And second, because she had symptoms during the winter.


 I went threw the exact same thing with her at about the same age. I had an appointment with a dermatologist and right before the appointment it all cleared up. Her breeder gave her a mite treatment before she came home because she was itching her ears.I gave her a flea treatment and the vet gave her mite treatment. Our vet ended up saying it was a seasonal allergy. He said food allergies are the last on his list for problems. I often think her problem was just a overload of chemicals from all the flea and mite treatments. Mine will have excessive itching with certain shampoos and conditioners too. I started adding fish oil to her diet and also rinse with a Apple cider vinegar.
* Funny I had already answered this trend*


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## MarinaGirl (Mar 25, 2012)

Debrina - it's better to start a new thread instead of trying to get an update to one that is more than 2.5 years old. Good luck with CoCo's allergies and welcome to the forum.  -Jeanne-


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

I was thinking it could be the advantage too. My guys were extremely itchy after advantix..I now use frontline,

I hope you get to the bottom of this. While you are trying to figure it out, you can also bathe with the Virbec shampoo. Just ask your vet which one is best for her.


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## Debrina (Oct 28, 2013)

Actually I was wondering if it could have been her rabies vaccination. With all these stories it seems to be happening around the same age and I know that most of us get the injection at the 4th month. 

Sorry Jeanne, I'm new to this and didn't realise the thread was so old. I was just desperate for help since it's hard to see such a sweet, little, vulnerable puppy suffer so I typed it in google and it lead me here. Thanks for all you advice!


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## SJ1998 (Feb 4, 2013)

It could be the rabies. Try the suggestion earlier of a medicated bath with the Vibrac shampoo. The vet will probably want to give drugs, I wouldn't...try other methods first. Maybe change the diet as well? I went down this road with my first lab, it is pretty frustrating. My second lab and my hav I have followed Jean Dodds, major difference.


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