German Sheperd Allergies

[samara56]

Our sheperd has skin allergies, always scratching. The vet gave her some spray and tablets and it is not working. What else can be done for her and her dry skin?

[Jenny Tools]

What food is she feed?

[phl666]

Tea tree oil

[RogerK]

As Jenny says, change of diet could be in order. One of mine was always a bit 'dandruffy' and itchy but I changed his feed and it cleared up in about a month. Some dogs seem to like a bit more oil in their diet, you could try the odd pilchard for a treat or add soya oil life my wife feeds to her horses.

[woofgang]

this could be mites or mange. By all means give oily fish in diet and tea tree is great for the itchies, but do go back to the vet and ask for skin scrapings microscopy if this hasn't been done. You could also ask to be referred to a specialist in canine dermatology. Consider, what you wash her bed in, what you use on your carpets and hard floors, do you use air fresheners or febreeze type sprays. Often these things are environmental (just like humans) hope this helps, being constantly itchy is torture.

[Mrs_Pegasus]

Hi There My sister bred GSDs for many years and her dog used to suffer badly with a skin complaint. The hair would come away and she was generally miserable. After much testing etc my sister went to a homeopathic (sp??) vet and he perscribed some tablets which she had twice a day and it did the trick. Summer was the worst, she appeared to have a cut grass allergy, and my sister would always wash her back yard down with Jeyes fluid, she also reacted to this. All wet meat was removed from the diet, she was fed on dry food only. Hope this helps.

[samara56]

Thank you all for the quick responses. She is on a good dry dog food and she has allergies. I will seek the oil treatments and see how well that works. I know it will make her feel so much better..

[Jenny Tools]

Hi samara56 seeing as you are already feeding your dog dry food, try swapping to James Wellbeloved. All their dog foods are hypo-allergenic. I had a simlar problem with my dog and was advised to bath dog using Head & Shoulders and change to J.W. after about 2-3 weeks the problem cleared up.

see here for J.W. info http://tinyurl.com/5zfb3

[RogerK]

Mine are on JW now and seems to thrive on it.

[cris]

have you tried aloe vera oil? you can find it in spray form for pets in pet shops, also tea tree mist for dogs is extremmelly good. Good luck!