We have a 3 month old lab, she is constantly itching. We have put frontline on her so I dont think it is fleas, also we havent seen any fleas at all either.
We are feeding her Iams, Do you think it could be the dog food? I have read where some food cause the dogs to itch, is that true?

 

Dogs have allergies just like people. They can be allergic to the grass, flowers, cleaners and various other things. They can also be allergic to the flea preperations. They can be allergic to fleas, so allergic to a single bite that it causes severe itching.

If its the Frontline you can give a bath in mild shampoo without perfume(baby shampoo) to wash the meds off. Look for any fleas that may be present. Remove with a flea comb.

If your puppy is allergic to ingredients in the food, you will have to eliminate ingredients. Start with a single ingredient and add to it. You can get single ingredient foods from pet speciallity stores. Single ingredient meat with rice added are usually ok. They also have allergy formulas availiable.

Your vet can do allergy tests to narrow the causes down or give you ideas of what may be the problem. If the itching is severe and causing sores or reddened skin call the vet.

Good luck with your puppy.

 

As majakdragon mentioned, dogs can be allergic to many things, including food.
Corn and wheat are often common ingredients in dog foods and corn and wheat allergies are not at all uncommon in dogs.
I would suggest trying a rice or barley based dog food to see if that might help.
Since it would take a bit for the new food to help (if that is the problem), a trip to the vet for a steroid shot would help contol your dogs scratching in the meantime.
Good luck!

 

I would suspect a food allergy. I had my dogs on Science Diet and one of them got ear infections rather frequently. I switched them to California Natural and he has not had one ear infections in the past two years. Plus the Calfornia Natural is way better for him than Science Diet. Just compare the ingredients. I'm guessing Iams is similar to Science Diet.

 

Iams is not a bad dog food to feed a puppy, however if you do suspect that it may be the food, try feeding a low-allergen food. Several different brands make low-allergen dog food. If this does not stop the itching, consider taking the puppy to be checked for skin parasites. Other than fleas, puppies commonly have skin mites (usually there is some sort of hair loss, but not always).

 

Dylan, my MinPin, has itchy, dry skin. Bathing him in baby shampoo and rinsing super well helps with that problem. Don't use anything with perfumes in it, including conditioners (my girls are bad to use conditioner on the poor dog...which only aggravates it!).

We have also found that we can't use frontline on Dylan, but use a flea collar instead. He just cannot tolerate having the liquid repellants put on him.

Also do as the others suggested, watch the food allergy possibility.

Kay

 

we switched our dog to IMS for the same reason... but we had to take her off red meat..also because we switched her food she wouldnt eat it so we had to add tunafish with oil..a table spoon mixed with her food... also since we added tuna to her diet..we had no problems with flees... and the tuna with oil... help with her dry skin..

 

My hound/lab cross is going through much of what your puppy is going through. Though I don't believe Iams is very good for puppy, I don't think its the food. I believe its the time of year and the ragweed and pollen that is the culprit. For the record, I switched over to Costco's brand of pet food called Kirkland, and have found it somewhat satisfactory, but as posted in an earlier thread, I believe natural dog food is the way to go.

 

We have noticed our puppy go from okay to bad in the last year. Raven was a pound pup originally, 3 months old when we adopted her. She is a beautiful and intelligent Border Collie, Husky, Chow mix. We started her out on Iams puppy food as our adult dog ate the Iams adult dog food. Recently, we put them both on the Iam's adult dog food.

The puppy has always had some problems with itching, and sometimes people would say, "Oh no, does she have fleas?" She takes Advantage so I would always insist that she didn't have fleas. She mostly just scratched her stomach, lifting up her back leg. Her coat didn't have the gleam that it had when she was a puppy, and I thought maybe it was because the adult coat was naturally more coarse and dry looking.

She also seems too skinny which I thought may just be because of her very high energy level. She has access to food when she wants it because of this. She just has little interest in the Iams. In looking around online and talking to people, Iams seems to be a common factor in alot of allergy problems (but Iams says it's the corn or the wheat). I find this very disappointing as I thought I was making a good choice for my pet, and instead I was being misled.

Raven is now eating Eagle Pack. She is itching less, eating more, and now, hopefully the several patches of missing hair that have developed over the last 2 weeks will disappear and she will gain a few more pounds. Her itching before was near constant, and would wake me up in the middle of the night.

 

Jumping in here a little late to agree with folks about the food allergy problem. Many pets do not do well on certain foods because of their ingredients. Corn and wheat as mentioned are big problems for some dogs, whereas rice tends to not give them trouble.

My first thought would be to change foods to one that does not have the same type of main ingredients that the one you are feeding has. Check with your vet also about other environmental factors that may be causing the trouble as well.

Another thing as mentioned may be the Frontline. If you want to try a different flea product that is similar, try Advantage. It usually does not have as many reactions as Frontline does, at least in my experience. You can get it locally at many pet stores, or online. If the it does not work, then a more natural approach to keeping the fleas down may be in order.

Our lab has hot spots that get her really aggrivated during warm weather, or if she is stressing about something. She will literally rub/itch herself raw at times. Sulfadene has a good product out for this that I use.

You may also want to check to see if her bedding is a problem. One of my older dogs could not be on fiberfill dog beds as it caused him to break out in hives.

Do keep us posted on how things are going and good luck.