My medium coated Parson Jack Russell keeps digging at her skin and shaving herself, first of all I though it was because of the heat but I am not so sure now. She has even made herself bleed in places. She doesn't have fleas as she has been treated. Does anyone have any ideas before I take her to the vet.

Try changing her food. JH

Wouldn't she scratch and bite all over, it just seems to be her feet and legs and belly.

This could be a symptom of an allergy to new growth in the parks and fields, seems to be pretty common!
Maybe you could try piriton,(not to sure of the spelling) available from the chemist, only give the childs dose and see if there is any improvement

I agree Millie :-) Canine Allergies

The feet, legs and belly are the classic sites for allergic reactions to food I'm afraid :-(

Hi, if it is a food allergy she may respond to being fed on "real" chicken and rice. I buy cheap chicken joints in a big back from the supermarket, defrost, simmer for 30 minutes. Let it cool and and de-bone carefully. Mix with well cooked plain boiled rice. About one plump joint made up to the volume she normally has with the rice. Add a min/vit supplement like SA37. In my expereince if it is a food allergy, most dogs respond well to this diet. If you are going to try this, feed this for at least 4 weeks before you dismiss it, it wont work overnight. If it were my dog, I would ask the vet for some prednisolone, which although is a steroid, which I know some people are not happy about using, a short course will give her great relief from itching and eating herself and may discourage secondry bacterial infections from developing in the open wounds. Have you been to the vet yet? I would as it could be many things and you should also check that she doesn't have mites, which most flea treatments wont solve. Good luck. Keep us posted please as to how she gets on.

Have a bitch who used to pull her hair out and it took some while to find out that it would stop if she was feed on one particular food, in this case Arden Grange Lamb and Rice - also tried Burns which improved the itching but it did not stop totaly. I'm not saying that this food will work with yours but it is worth a try. Jackie H

there is a new shampoo on the market called sebomild P it (also comes in a lotion) we have had some could results with this on my parents itchy spaniel, also evening primrose oil, piriton etc help, i would avoid steroids if you can but as it was mentioned earlier they will relieve itching perhaps a short acting injection would be better ? with regards to the food i would try something like walfcol salmon and potato, hills also do a sensitive skin diet. I would probably go and see your vet if she is making herself sore.

Funny that you should bring this up because I was going to post about Alice my TT. She has started to scratch on her shoulders. I feed her Burns and nothing else. She finished her season about 3 weeks ago could this be the cause?

Thanks for all the advice. Jazz has been spayed so the season answer is ruled out, not to keen to feed her chicken and rice as she nibbles all day and don't really think it is a good idea to leave fresh food out all day. I feed her on Bakers Complete at the moment so will try and change her food, but she is a fusy eater. I am going to take her to the vets tommorrow and see what he has to say.

I have a westie who has inhalant allergies(pollen,house-dust mite) and a mild allergy to soya. I agree with the many ideas that the posters above have suggested. My dog is currently on the Wafcol Salmon and Potato diet as suggested by the vet.

All I really wanted to add was I hope you have your dog insured as we have discovered it can be an expensive condition to treat long term.

Thanks for that, we got Jazz in the New Year she is 5 and she was used to living in a kennel. Thankfully we have got her insured so we won't have to worry how much things would cost.

I am so glad. Our bitch is insured too but we have to pay the vet first and claim back later. Bills so far (since November are around £600). The blood test for the allergies was over £200 alone.

The website www.marvistavet.com is worth a look - in the pet web library section.
The web address gives the page for inhallant allergies and shows a diagram giving the classic sites of itching. There is a similar page for food allergies and one on itch relief. It is an American site so some of the shampoos etc suggested may be hard to get hold of.

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/inhalant_allergies.html

Thanks for the info the web site was very imformative. Took Jazz to the vets this evening, she has a skin infection so she has antibotics for 3 weeks and a shampoo which she must use twice a week. The vet is hoping this works. She is treating Jazz for mites first, if this shampoo doesn't work I have to try another one so fingers crossed. Though she looked relieved when I said I had Jazz insured as she said that skin problems sometimes take a long time to resolve.