AHHH! The scratching!!!

[MiaRose100907]

So, I am really not sure what is going on or what I can do.
My 3 year old GSD/Pit mix has been scratching lately. Normally, you would think fleas, so I looked him over under the brightest light in my apartment and looked him up and down and all over. NOTHING. No flea dander, no fleas, period! Even gave him a flea bath, hoping to see any fleas drop off him; none did. Not even a speck of dirt. However, he's brindle colored and it is hard to look through his fur because his fur is very wirey and close to his skin. But, he's still scratching. He scratches up around his neck and chews and licks around his butt. I have NO clue what is going on. I have not seen any fleas around my home, and my other dog, which is a very light tan/light brown color does not have any on her either, and she scratches, just not as bad as he does. The food they are on is Innova, and they've been on that for months now. I do not feed them anything unusual or anything they are not used to.
I have heard that salt will kill fleas if you sprinkle it on your carpet. Is this true?
Anyway, please if anyone can give me some insight as to what might be the problem that would be wonderful! Thanks

[CoolDog]

I'm thinking your dog has dried skin, so if this is the case, bath your dogs using dog shampoo with moisturizers. Also, if you're feeding your dogs dry dog food all the time, you might want to change their diets to moist dog foods like Alpo but without all the preservatives and other chemicals, but something that is moist and have whole-organic foods such as EVO, for example.

If they keep scratching after all this, you may need to see your vet to see if your dogs have some sort of skin allergies.

[MiaRose100907]

Well I guess, could they have fleas even though I don't see any evidence of them????

[Nettle]

Could be fleas, could be mites (which are devilish hard to see) could be a reaction to something they have encountered when out, could be the food because manufacturers do change the ingredients as this or that becomes more available/more difficult to source.

I'd go with a veterinary flea/mite treatment and get your vet to take a skin scrape

Then I'd be looking at adding more raw green vegetables to their diet

[Suzette]

There are so many reasons a dog scratches. Fleas is definitely one of them. And some dogs are so sensitive to their bites, even one flea will make them feel very itchy. But other things are culprits too. And the Innova might be one of them.

I used to feed Innova to my dog. It's a good food, but does have grain in it. She was itching moderately and fleas weren't the culprit. So I decided to switch her off the Innova and onto Taste Of The Wild (it's grain free). Once the transition was complete and she was totally on TOTW, the scratching stopped. I think she was sensitive to the grains in Innova.

Anyway, all this to say that a vet visit wouldn't be amiss, but it might be as simple as switching to a grain-free food. It seems so many dogs are sensitive to grains these days.

[MiaRose100907]

I had him on TOTW before, and he loved it, but there was only one store that sold it, and they aren't open on Sundays. I ran out of food before I had a chance to go get more and it was Sunday, so I had to come up with an alternative from Petsmart. Innova I heard was good (it had grains which turned me off to it, but I had no choice). He did fine on it, no scratching at all, until recently. Could it still be the food even though the scratching wasn't happening right away?
I had been thinking about changing his food though anyhow because I don't like the grains in Innova.
I do know that he is very sensitive to flea bites, and I know that one little bite would effect him. So, how would I help him ease this itchyness? I mean, I get rid of the fleas (if there are any), he will still be itchy from the bites for a while.
Also, I really wanted to start my dogs on raw food, but I have NO idea how to start that process, what I should buy for them for their first meals and such. That is so foreign to me. I read through the huge thread that is on here, but there is so much information on there it was quite overwhelming.
What would be good things to start my dogs on regarding raw? I have a GSD/Pit mix (3 years old) and a Chi/Shih Tzu mix (8 months old).

[Suzette]

You can give Benedryl for the itchiness, but for the correct doseage, you would want to call your vet. There is a standard dosage rule, but I can't remember it. I know for my corgi puppy, she got 5ml (1 teaspoon) prior to her vaccs as she had a reaction to her first set and at the time she weighed around 8 pounds.

My friend has a sheltie that is allergic to many, many foods (virtually anything but venison) and if Muffin gets something she shouldn't she scratches like crazy and Sandy gives her Benedryl to calm it down.

[Nettle]

Miarose, it may be a chore to you to read the thread on raw feeding, but it's unfair of you to expect us to retype the same information when it is already there and we have also recommended books and websites so do bite the bullet and read the information, which leaves us free to help other people too, as we volunteer helpers all only have so much time we can spend on the Board. We will be only too happy to help you where you have a puzzle or two, but you have to do some of the work as well.

[JudyN]

Also, I really wanted to start my dogs on raw food, but I have NO idea how to start that process, what I should buy for them for their first meals and such. That is so foreign to me. I read through the huge thread that is on here, but there is so much information on there it was quite overwhelming.

Miarose, I know exactly how you feel because I couldn't get my head around raw feeding myself until I found a local specialist who literally loaded me up with boxes of raw meat and gave exact instructions of what to feed when. So I can tell you how it worked for us, though this may end up being just one more post with conflicting information to take in...

First week: minced chicken, cartilage and bone included, plus pureed veg, twice a day. Small lump of pig's pancreas before each meal.
Second week: same as above, but with a bigger range of mince - mostly chicken combined with lamb/beef/fish/offal/tripe etc etc.
Third week and thereafter: morning meal replaced with two chicken carcasses (what's left after the butcher has removed head, legs, wings & breasts. Occasional meaty bones.

Quantity wise, Jasper, at 31 kg, has 400g mince & 400g pureed veg, plus the two carcasses.

Hope that helps!