Please help .... My Westie puppy has started rubbing her face on the carpet and sort of rubbing her ears.  I have looked in her ears but cannot see what the problem would be.  It looks as if she is itching when she does this.  She is wormed and treated for ticks and fleas on a regular basis.  She is also bathed and is due at the groomers on Friday. 

Maybe ear mites?

Dawn R.

Might be skin allergy of some sort.  I know that Westies are prone to skin allergies.  Our Bichon has skin allergy as well and he does this sometimes and scratches his ears a lot.  Try some Otodex dog ear drops from petshops or pets at home and see if he stops rubbing his ears.  It could be an allergy to food or anything. We still don't know why our dog scratches his ears and neither does the vet because he hasn't got any infection in them at all and they look and smell clean.

When my Megan did this, we discovered she had an absess quite deep down in the ear canal, AB's sorted it out very quickly. I would ask the vet to have a look just to rule it out :)

Yes I agree with all the above. I have a 3 year old westie and he has suffered with the typical westie skin problems. How old is your pup? Have you checked to see if there are any scabs on the skin? It is more likely than not the westie skin atopy problem, and so you will have to take her to the vets. However, having said this all the vets can prescribe is steroids and long term tablets which I am not too keen on. I read an article and it recommended MSM and Vitamin C. To be honest, offhand, I cant remember the dosage but if you want to PM me I will send you the apporopriate link. Having said as much I think that a vet's opinion is essential before you go down my route. Do let me know how you get on as am interested given Mack's skin problems.

Your westie is a puppy so do not panick.. it is not likely to be displaying allergies.

What age is the puppy.. ??

Westie puppies like a lot of harsh coated breeds when they get to around 12-14 weeks right through till about 6 months start stratching...

IT IS NOTHING To do with skin trouble it is the second coat coming it and it jags them and tickles .. plain and simple.

Whilst I cannot guarantee that is what it is and as always if you have concerms go to the vet BUT it is VERY VERY unlikely it is skin trouble showing up at this age..

BTW Westies is one of the most popular breeds and the percentage that ACTUALLY do have skin trouble is very low.

BFN Pam

PS forgot to say I have 2 puppies just now 16 weeks and 17 weeks old and you would think they had fleas they way they scratch it is their coats coming it..   Ask any knowledgable breeder and they will verify this..

Our dog started with skin problems at 17 weeks old and our vet told us that westies were well known to have skin problems and every westie owner I see I make a point of asking and the majority of them say yes they have or have had skin problems. 

I am not going to get into a huge debate about this but :-) , statements like that are I am sorry, nothing but sweeping gross generalisations and are so unfounded infact worse than that just not true . As a breed enthusiast I have to reply.

I am sorry your dog had skin trouble from such a young age but that is very rare at such a young age. I would also be suprised at a vet starting a young one on drugs also so early.  Diet and shampoo can control these things quite often.  Someone has to keep the vet in a job though ;-)

Yes westies can suffer from skin trouble.. just like labs can have hip troubled and so ,many other breeds have their troubles BUT I can 100% assure you that the percentage is very low considering the amount registered and bred every year.

We don't see every lab owner jumping on tha bandwagon and shouting Hip dysplasia when someone posts and says their dog is limping :-))) do we?  :-)  it almost sounds ridiculous so why do it with a westie??

I have been showing mine for a few years now, own/owned 10 dogs,  been grooming them for a couple years now ( and I have to point out it is the ONLY breed I groom so I do see a few ), I have been around them all my life and I have to say I  have yet to actually own or personally came in contact with one who had skin trouble.  I tell a lie there was one at a seminar I went to and someone brought a poorly one along to show some of the problems. It came from a well known puppy farmer in Scotland.

Generally ( I am not saying all ) but generally it is the poorly bred ones that will have troubles if any are going to have it in my experience.

I have also heard through various groups I am part of that changing the diet alone can help the dog.. so in that case is it the breed at fault of the Junk that some companies distribute as food..??  People run their dogs on grass etc with weed killer etc which can tigger things off.. is this the breed or is it the weed killer and environment??

VEts are often quick to criticise  breeds but bare in mind they only see the sick ones..

I have westies that a several years old and apart from vaccines as puppies have never seen the vet again. 

BFN Pam

PS forgot to say IF EVERY OWNER or nearly every owner you pass has or had skin troubles then I would say that there is an evironmental issue in that particular area because that almost defies logical statistics..:-)

Have to agree with Pam about this. I have had westies for 15 yrs and any I have owned have NEVER had skin problems and as far as I am aware any I have bred over the years dont have this problem either. All dogs scratch, mine do, but it does not mean they have skin problems, vets are very quick to tell new owners of westies, "must be skin problems, westies are prone to this". Lots of skin problems in any breed are not inherited, they are allergic reactions to types of food, dust mites etc.  If you are going to a pet groomer be carefull how they clip your dog, if they clip the coat too close to the skin that can start off problems as well, get what we call a pet show trim done, they look nicer like that and not like a "skinned rabbit". 

Anna , I am confused by your post DO you have a westie or not? you are talking like it is a westie you have with skin trouble but then say you have a Bichon.. do you have both or are you just giving your opinion on what the vet said and the people you meet with westies and actually don't have experience of a westie at all ?  don't take that the wrong way it is just that I am confused by your post  :-))

You also said "We still don't know why our dog scratches his ears and neither does the vet because he hasn't got any infection in them at all and they look and smell clean." so you don't actually know if the dog has an allergy either. :-))

DO you see what I mean you can't just make generalising statements without anything to support them..  :-))

Look I wasn't meaning to start an argument here just stating what 'I' had been told by the vet and various owners of westies. 

No I do not have a westie, I have a Bichon as you state quite correctly.
I know all dogs can get skin problems although this is the first one that we have owned that has had skin problems.  The vet that we took him to at 17 weeks old said it was a very common problem with white fluffy dogs and that Westies in particular had more problems than others.  Obviously this was probably in her experience.  Perhaps the dogs that she has seen have been badly bred or come from a kennels which sells puppy farm puppies like our has or something I don't know.  I have tried our dog on different foods over the past 12 months.  He is now on naturediet and seems a bit better with his ears.  He was on James Wellbeloved lamb and rice before but still scratched them pretty bad.  Like you say it could be grass, dust anything we will probably never know.   If our dog hasn't got an allergy then why does he scratch???

Vets see dogs with problems & a lot assume that it is common as they do not see the dogs without problems as a norm

One vet I saw told me all beardies were nasty as he had only seen nasty ones(turned out he had only ever seen one !)

Don't worry Anna no argument caused.. that is why we try to use the smilies :-)) so that although though wording can seem strong it is meant is a constructive way also :-))

I was  laughing with a collegue recently about generalising and how we all do it to a degree  he is Canadian  ( I am also but have a Scottish accent) anyway I digress.. when I first met him he said to me

" you British always think....about us Canadians" I was laughing for ages as he could see that saying " you British " was the same LOL..

People are funny eh..

Dogs and why the scratch.. boy that is a toughy ;-) anal glands, foot, shampoo, grass, nits, there are hundreds... sometimes it is habit..  process of ilimination I think is about the best way to identify it..

Hi Blue,

Yes I am gradually working through the list with our dog.  I have tried episoothe shampoo and Malaseb shampoo, different diets etc but it is so hard to find out what it is.  The vet gives him prednisolone tablets every couple of months which I don't really see the point of because he usually starts scratching again as soon as he has finished the course.  He has his anal glands checked about every two to three months.  I have tried thornit ear powder but with no success.  I only ask people with westies about skin problems because I am just trying to see if they can recommend anything for our dog which I haven't tried.  There is one woman with a Scottie dog near us and her dog had skin problems when it was younger and she recommended the Malaseb.  He was terrible last summer and pulled all the fur out on his backend, legs and tail and looked like a baboon from behind.  I just hope he doesn't do this again when summer arrives.   My dog groomer says our dog is the only Bichon she has seen with skin problems.

What part of Canada are you from?   I went to Ontario for a month to visit my Aunty and Uncle when I was 16, it is a beautiful country, so clean and wonderful weather (well in summer anyway, not sure I would like the winter weather lol)  I would love to go again.

Anyway sorry to generalise about westies, its nice to hear another opinion and like Moonmaiden says vets only see the ones with problems don't they so really they shouldn't give opinions unless they know the full story.

Hi Anna,

I was born in St Catherines which is in Ontario. It is 5 mins from Niagara falls.  Great weather. Grew up with a big swimming pool in the backyard. My parents are Scottish though and my mother wanted to come back to Scotland when I was a teenager.

Have you tried piriton etc in the summer ( of course after asking the vet)  now although it cannot cure the allergy, if he has an allergy that is worse in the summer Just like hayfever sufferers you can use it over this period quite well.

Do you keep him off the grass etc during the summer , this I think sometimes helps.

Regarding the diet have to tried some of the raw food groups on line and a lot of the barf/raw food feeders transfer to this because of alergies so sometimes they are the best people to strike up dialogue with..

I know of a couple of people who have successfully gotten ontop of things.

Some of the others here could maybe advice some other groups also..

Pam