Hello,

I'm just pondering something...

3 months ago, my dog was looked after by some friends while we went on a rare trip without him. At the time, we were also trialing him on a new food. We were only away for three days, but when we came back, it was immediately noticeable that he was scratching like mad all over his body, including inside his ears. Several times he yelped in pain. This went on for a few days and I took him to the vet, but he gave him the all clear.

I was at a loss, and wasn't entirely convinced that he hadn't picked up some kind of mite from camping in the country. But, as the vet hadn't found anything, I simply changed his food back (don't fix what's not broken!), and slowly his itching got less intense. However, it didn't stop altogether, leaving me wondering what on earth was going on.

Interestingly, during this time, on occasion, if you touched the middle of his back, the skin on it sort of wriggled and jumped (very easy to see as he's brindle). My friend who also has a brindle Greyhound X showed me that her dog had the same wriggling thing!

I mentionned to her that a few weeks back we'd been to the seaside for the first time in ages and I'd immediately noticed the next day that he'd all but stopped scratching, and since then I would say his itchy skin just isn't a problem. My friend reported the same effect after she took her dog in the sea last weekend! Her vet sister insisted it must be diet related, but my dog had continued to itch 2 months after changing his diet back to the original food (he'd only been on the new food for 4 weeks, including the transistion periods. Another reason I changed was that he rapidly lost 2.5 kgs and he's already a skinny dog!!).

Has anyone else ever found sea water to be beneficial for itchy skin? And does anyone know what the wriggling skin might be about?

Cheers,
Liz