Just returned from vets after my dog having skin scrapes and hair follicle testing for anything that may be causing him to be itchy. He itches and nibbles at himself frequently throughout the day and has pinked areas.
Nothing was found and now we are looking at diet, which needs at least 8 week commitment of being very strict. Vet suggested doing a home cooked diet of fish and rice which I am happy to do. My questions are what can I give as treats? I have 4 other dogs and they get a treat when they come back to whistle and have a night time biscuit. I don't want him not getting anything.
All of them are fed a raw diet -nutriment which have veg in it but vet said veg has to be cut out as well.

If I don't do this then we could just put on steroids and see what happens.
I also wondered about a liver problem as that can cause itching but this wasn't put forward by the vet so not sure. I know in humans abnormal liver function can make the patient itch.

Any help and suggestions would be great.
Coincidently they didn't see him scratch whilst he was with them (9 - 3.30) but since being home he has scratched and nibbled himself quite a lot. Dogs are in the kitchen all the time so not on carpet and beds washed 2 or 3 times a week.

Did you ask for an allergy test?  An exclusion diet is all very well but if your dog has a contact allergy then you'll simply be wasting 8 weeks...

Ask for a York test - not cheap BUT will save you money in the long run

Oh and if you want fish treats, look at fish skins from Fish4Dogs - 100% dried fish

The vet did say about allergy tests but wanted the food exclusion diet first.
What's involved with York test?
I have seen the dried fish skins so will get some.

How smelly are dried fish skins? I suspect very! I'm looking for some chews for my pup which aren't too smelly. She loves dried tripe, but she is banned to the garden with that which is fine at the moment, but not in the bad weather. I don't like rawhide chews that much because of the large bits that tend to get bitten off and swallowed.

A York test is simply a blood test - you can read a fact sheet here.  There is some useful information about food exclusion diets on p5 but remember they are only useful if you are using completely novel protein and carbohydrate sources...  Raw feeders often struggle with that as they feed quite a broad diet

Re fish skins - I don't find they smell much at all.  Obviously you can smell them when you first open the box/bag but the drying process removes much of the odour.  You can buy all sorts of different sizes and shapes - I like the tiddlers and the skinny strips and the dogs love them!!  They aren't chews as such, one crunch and they're gone BUT you can freeze salmon mousse inside a kong if you want a fish treat to last a bit longer.  Mind you that makes a mess too so will need to be on a wipe clean floor or outside

What do you wash your kitchen floor with? A big name floor cleaner has been known to cause allergic reactions in dogs.

Lorripop, you say you wash the bedding regularly which is obviously very important but have you checked out it is not the washing powder that's causing the itching? I prefer a non biological one and use Ecover.

As for washing the floor I use Trigene which is what my vet uses. Fantastic stuff. It is not cheap but you only need a small amount. You'll need to compare prices to buy it online but I have seen small bottles of it in my local Pets at home.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Contact with grass is another cause of allergies in dogs, made worse when it rains and the grass is wet. Had to get rid of my grass for just this reason.

I use non bio washing powder and as my floor is karndean I either use washing up liquid or mistral disinfectant stuff that we use in the yard.
Today he hasn't been scratching so maybe I am just a bit paranoid about his nibbling and scratching because my others don't do it.
If I do the diet I will start next week, but if it is grasses or house dust mites it won't improve with diet!

>How smelly are dried fish skins?

Not overly, but they are not a chew but a 'crunch and swallow' about an inch square.

Thanks Brainless