Excessive itching and scratching

[Adaisymom01]

My border collie sheds and scratches alot. The vet recommended supplementing linoleic acid, however I cannot find how many mg per day are required for a 50 lb dog. Does anyone know? Right now I am giving 144mg, but it doesn't seem to help much. She is flea free, so I know that isn't the problem

[kaos]

my houndX has what we call her "Autumn Itch" bascially she has a seasonal allergy. She is 6 years old and every year round about Aug 15th or so (The same time that rag weed rears its ugly little head!) she begins to scratch adn mutilate herself to a ridiculous degree.

 

At one point she scratched and chewed most of the fur on her body and had irritated her bowels so badly she was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. Emergency vet bills, extreme shock and fear and several cortisone shots later she wasn't paralyzed but still mutilating herself.

 

We have tried every thing, the coat conditioners, frequent bathing, infrequent bathing, periodic cotisone and steroid shots, adding olive oil, flax oil, raw egg etc etc etc to her food.(I am told that fish oils work best but as I am allergic we can't do that!)

 

This year we are trying 50mg of Benadryl twice daily and while it hasn't stopped her itching, it has lessened it to the point that she can rest, sleep, and not be itching ALL the time (seriously it was all she could do, the poor thing was so exhausted from itching all night she was a complete mess and her body was just decimated)

So it isn't a complete fix but she is more comfortable, we are all able to sleep at night and she still looks like a dog and not a scabby, psychotic little mess!

Just something to think about, we wasted two summers trying to over medicate her to get rid of fleas and mites which she didn't have! Of course hindsight has been our best diagnostic tool for this....

sara

oh and by the way it all magically goes away with the first major frost of the year!