Excessive Itching in Dogs

Types

• Reasons for your dog's itchiness fall into six categories. They are environmental, nutritional, parasitic, allergic, infectious and neurogenic, according to the Pet Center website. Your veterinarian will examine your dog to determine which category is the likely culprit.

Features

• Dogs with thick, dense coats can be susceptible to hot spots, an environmental reason. Hot spots are a type of eczema, caused by moisture on your dog's skin. The dense hair holds the moisture in, allowing bacteria to reproduce, kind of like an infectious soup, according to the Pet Center website. Poor nutrition from a steady diet of the cheapest dog food can put stress on your dog's system, including its skin and hair, which can cause itchiness. Fleas, mites and scabies (red mange) are a parasitic cause of itching. Allergic dermatitis, caused by certain foods, medications or plants, can cause itching. Ringworm is an example of an infectious reason for itching. Neurogenic is often the category your vet will classify your dog when nothing else seems to fit.

Identification

• Hot spots look like ugly, red lesions on the skin. If you dog's entire skin and coat look bad, and your dog is in general poor health, it could be because of poor nutrition. It is easy to identify fleas, because you can see them moving around on your dog's skin. They are copper colored and the size of the head of a pin. Mites are white and look like moving dandruff. Red mange looks red, inflamed and scabby. Allergies are determined more by the dog's behavior than by how the dog looks. For example, one moment your dog may be acting normally and the next minute, it is scratching its eyelids, face and ears or chewing its paw. Fungal infections, such as ringworm, cause circular patches of hair loss. With neurogenic disorders, your dog has an urge to continually bite, lick or scratch one particular area.

Prevention/Solution

• Treat hot spots by trimming the hair around the sore, washing it and using antibiotics. Prevent this from reoccurring by regularly grooming your dog either at home or at a professional groomer's salon, according to The Dog Owner's Guide website. Switch to a premium dog food that lists meat, such as lamb, beef, poultry or fish as the main ingredient. You can also give omega fatty acid supplements. Your vet can prescribe one of many types of flea treatments and preventatives that are on the market. Your vet can prescribe something for mites as well. If your dog has allergies, you can buy an "antigen specific" diet for it. You can also try medicated baths, sprays and creams. With an infection, your vet will clip the hair around the infection and apply a topical medication. Neurogenic disorders are often because of boredom, separation anxiety or confinement. Making sure your dog gets the proper amount of exercise and social time every day can help with this.

Expert Insight

• A chronically itchy dog is not a hopeless situation, according to the Pet Center website. Pet owners and vets working together, if persistent, can usually determine the cause of excessive itching, which can lead to the right treatment and prevention methods.