Posting this to a friend who is yet to register....

I have a 2.5 year old retriever that has recently (within past 6 months) started scratching himself. First I noticed that after longer walks he would start scratching his armpits so much they started bleeding. I thought he had hurt himself outside and that's what had caused the bleeding - he is a very active boy and keeps running into things, so often has bruises around his body! I sprayed the wounds with antibacterial fluid and that healed fine within days.

However, I kept an eye on him for several weeks and realized the scratching starts first and that caused the skin to break. This came and went about three or four times, but then he started getting itchy all over. It started in February when he started to moult. He lost more hair than any dog I have seen, I vacuumed the hall and his bedding area daily collecting 2 Dysonfulls of hair every time!!! This went on for 8-12 weeks. He had dandruff all over him and very thin hair. He was scratching fairly badly, mainly when I touched his back or sides.

The moulting eventually stopped and he started to get his coat back to normal. Scratching stopped and dandruff almost disappeared. This period lasted about a month or so. Then, earlier this week I woke up and found him panting and looking very uncomfortable, he had been scratching himself all night, I remember waking up several times to tell him to stop it. When I got up there was hair everywhere and he couldn't even walk properly because he was so itchy.

I took him to the vets that afternoon (Tuesday ) but was only advised to give him Stronghold flea treatment. I explained that he was treated regularly and only 3-4 days earlier, but they insisted it must be done again. I did and needless to say it didn't help. I waited the 24 hours as I was told to do. Meanwhile he was sick once and very itchy all the time. Next day I bought Tea tree oil shampoo and EXMA-Spot spray which also has aloe vera and tea tree oil in it. I washed him twice and rubbed the oil all over his skin. After that the scratching stopped almost completely. But later that night he started scratching again and woke us up several times. He seemed ok in the morning but had been scratching his neck and it was covered in small red dots.

His behaviour has been ok, he is bouncy and happy dog and eats and drinks fine. He eats Arden Grange hypoallergenic food and hasn't had anything else for over a week now, sometimes I give him raw bones and wings but no wheat, additives etc... He is wormed and treated for fleas 4-5 times a year and has never had fleas or even worms as far as I know. He has never had ear infections or any other health problems. I believe this is an allergic reaction but I don't know for certain. When he received the flea treatment I also sprayed the whole house, washed all his bedding and vacuumed.

I cant figure out any connection between these occasions, the only thing may be longer walks we have done but then again we do those all the time and he hasn't had a reaction like this every time - and never as bad as now.

The worst areas are his back and sides, plus the armpits and most recently his chest. His chest is almost bald at the moment and his coat is very thin. The scratching is worst at nights. These areas are covered in red-brownish dots, but I don't know if that is what makes him itchy or whether that has been caused by scratching.

Could anyone give me any idea what may be causing this and if there are any treatments worth trying. He is insured so money is not the issue, but I would like to hear similar stories and ideas to get this under control as soon as possible. I will be seeing the vet again today, and although he has been ok all day I'm worried he will start scratching again at night.

Has anyone done allergy tests and how do they work?

Best regards,

Stanzy

I would suggest having allergy tests done to give you a starting point.
I have had them done with my dog and it helped me with a few things I hadn't thought of, like house dust mites and storage mites that are found in dry dog food.
Also its worth bearing in mind hypoallergenic foods are ok if your dog is not allergic or intolerant to any of the ingredients in that food.  For instance if your dog is intolerant to chicken or rice then most of the labelled hypoallergenic diets would be of no use.  These foods are mainly based on the assumption that your dog is only allergic to the main culprit wheat/gluten.
My dog it seems is intolerant to any meat proteins and cannot tolerate dried food in any shape or form, so we are now trying a fish and potato wet diet.
I would also suggest maybe getting some skin scrapes done to rule out mites.

I was at a show last week and was amazed by how many people said that their dogs were itchy and scratching this year. Even dogs that had never shown any signs over previous years. Strange.