If your dog keeps scratching and licking himself as an attempt to ease his itchiness, please read on as this post will touch on this issue.
It’s important that you should never leave this disorder left unattended as it can lead to your dog persistently chewing his paws and scratching his open wounds, causing severe infection and health issues.
Get to know what’s causing his itchiness and work on the solutions.
When a dog keeps scratching and licking to relieve his itchiness, he could be suffering from infection (bacteria, fungal or yeast infection), Anal Gland Diseases, Parasites, Actual Skin Condition or Allergies. You can use home remedies such as coconut oil, yogurt and chamomile tea to ease his condition.
Infections
Infection could come in the form of bacteria, fungal or yeast infection. Getting to know which type of infection your dog is suffering from will help in getting the right remedies to address the disorder.
Bacteria type of infection usually shows symptoms such as itchy skin that comes with rash, crusts and small pus filled lesions. The infected area will also turn reddened.
One of the common home remedies used to treat this condition is the use of Manuka Honey. You can apply the honey on your dog’s infected spot to act as a form of protective barrier and to let him consume the honey (half teaspoon) daily.
Honey is rich in antioxidants and works great in reducing inflammation and cures allergies.
Yeast infection is often caused by overgrowth of yeast. It usually happens in your dog’s ears and you would see him performing actions such as rubbing his ears and tilting his head.
If the infection occurs in the outer ears, you would be able to spot it easily as there would be waxy residue and scabbing on the opening of his ears. Coconut oils and Yogurt are commonly used as natural remedies to address this condition.
As for the fungal infection, some common symptoms include skin lesions (especially around the toenails), enlargement of lymph nodes, loss of appetite and limping.
You could make use of apple cider vinegar as a natural remedy to work on this disorder. Mix the vinegar with water (1:1 ratio) and apply the solution on the infected areas.
Vinegar helps to change the PH level of your dog’s skin so that the fungal cannot continue growing.
Bring your dog for a proper diagnosis if you are unsure of the type of infections that your dog is suffering from. Your veterinarian would be able to offer you the appropriate treatment.
Anal Gland Diseases
Anal glands have two sacs on either side of the back passage and if they get enlarged as the result of infection, that can be rather irritating and uncomfortable for your dog.
Your dog might try to smoothen the discomfort by scooting his bum along the floor, biting his tail, licking and scratching his back.
You would observe that the scratching tends to focus on the back end of his thighs around his tail and back part of his spine.
He will be chewing and nibbling at these spots, making them quite sore and leading to infection in that skin.
Treatment for this condition involves emptying the sacs.You can make use of some antibiotics cream such as clindamycin to help improve the condition. If the condition is severe, you should reach out for a vet ASAP.
For prevention, put your dog on a healthy diet and make sure he gets plenty of exercise.
Parasites
The presence of fleas in your dog’s skin is going to make him scratch like mad!
Though it is really common for fleas to be present throughout the year, they could be more prevalent during the warmer months.
So if you find your dog’s itchiness problems happen more regularly during the warmer months than winter, that could be the cause.
Keep your home free from fleas by using a steam cleaner on your carpets and your pet beds and see if this helps.
Increase the frequency of the washing (remember to wash them in HOT water and dry them under the sun) of your bedding including your dog’s bed.
You should also allow your dog to lay in the sun daily for about 15 minutes, as that would certainly help to kill the fleas that are hiding in his fur.
Actual Skin Conditions
This could be the case of the poor skin conditions of your dog causing him to keep licking himself to ease the discomfort.
Some common skin disorders are dry skin and oily skin.
It could also be due to the underlying hormonal abnormality that causes the itchiness.
Not to forget that diet also plays a role in ensuring the healthy growth of the skin. For example, if your dog is not getting sufficient essential fatty acid in his diet, it could make his skin dry and dry skin can easily cause itchiness.
So take a look at your dog’s diet and ensure that he gets all the essential nutrients needed for a healthy skin growth and sufficient water intake daily.
Allergies
There are many types of allergies that your dog can suffer from and make him keep shaking his head to get relief.
For example, if your dog is suffering from flea allergic dermatitis, (which is an allergy to flea saliva), even with only 1 -2 fleas present in your dog’s skin, that would be sufficient to trigger a really severe itchiness problem.
Another type of allergy will be to the environment (dust, grass, trees or pollen) or other things that are present in the air. Just like humans could be allergic to dust or smell of perfumes, so is your dog.
You will likely see your dog keeps sneezing as the result of these irritants.
Next will be food allergy which could be your dog allergic to the protein part of his diet and could be chicken or beef (being the most common ones) that triggers his skin disorder or ear infection.
Finally, your dog might get in contact with some chemicals or solutions that he is sensitive to. Just like in my case, I’m sensitive to paint so if I have direct contact with paint (without hand gloves), my hands will start to turn red and itchy.
So keep a lookout on what’s causing your dog’s allergies and try to steer clear of them.
EASE His Itchess Using Kitchen Remedies
Look for things in YOUR Kitchen…LET’S GO
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is very commonly used on a person who is suffering from skin infection due to its antibacterial effect.
So what it means is THAT it would work on your dog as well!
The WAY to do this will be:
1. Scoop 2 teaspoons of harden coconut oil and place it in one small bowl.
2. Spread the oil evenly on the bowl so that you can take a bit of the oil on the tip of your finger and cover it on the red infection spots on your dog skin.
3. You can carry out this as often as 3 times a day. In case your dog attempts to lick on this, there would not be any danger as it is completely non-toxic.
4. You could also add 1-2 drops of CBD oil to the coconut oil. CBD oil is also known to possess anti-inflammatory and helps to heal the infection.
So you will have coconut oil which is to address bacterial infection and CBD for anti-inflammatory.
It’s a great natural antibacterial remedy and best of all, easily available from home. So give this a try if you already have the coconut oil in your kitchen.
Cabbage
There are certain ingredients in the cabbage especially once it is crushed that releases specific anti-inflammatory properties and it works great in healing any inflammatory related skin disorder.
This is how you can do it:
1. Peel off about 3 leaves of fresh cabbages and crush it using a rolling pin.
2. You would need to do the crushing till the ribs of the cabbages are fully flattened. This is to ensure that there is moisture release from the cabbages.
3. You can then apply that to the affected area and leave it as a compress for around 20 minutes.
Sunflower Oil
The great benefit of sunflower oil is that it helps to rebuild that fatty layer of protection that your dog loses when he starts to scratch his skin.
So what happens is that when your dog loses that protective barrier in his skin, there is a breakdown in his skin barrier allergens and pollen starts to penetrate in through the skin causing him to start scratching and licking.
What you need to do is to help in rebuilding that protective barrier in his skin and this can be easily done using inexpensive stuff such as sunflower oil.
This is how you can do it:
1. Apply a bit of the sunflower oil on your palm and rub it throughout your dog’s coat, in particular on areas where there are moist red patches. This gives your dog a little extra oily layer of protection.
2. This works great if your dog has a chronic allergic condition. Do this remedy once a day for at least 2 weeks to see the positive outcome.
3. That’s going to increase the fatty acid on your dog. He may look a little greasy but a lot less itchy.
4. Apart from applying the oil on your dog’s coat, you can also let your dog consume a little slip of the oil (½ a teaspoon), twice a day. Work on external and internal approach to rebuild his skin barrier.
Yogurt
Yogurt has been proven to ease any yeast infection and what you can do is to add some low fat yogurt as part of your dog’s daily meals.
Just a small amount will do and it has an amazing effect to relieve that itchiness that your dog is suffering from.
Remember to go for only PLAIN yogurt with NO added sugar. I would suggest giving your dog a ½ teaspoon per day for a start and monitor the performance.
Chamomile Tea
Prepare some chamomile tea and put it in a sprayer and leave it in the fridge.
You would want the tea to be chilled before applying it on your dog.
Chilled tea works great in killing any bacteria and yeast presence in your dog’s skin and helps to relieve any inflammation.
So the next time you see your dog scratching his wound, spray some chamomile tea on his skin, and it should offer him some relief within a few minutes.
Epsom Salt Bath
Your dog will certainly need a bath at least once every month. Make use of this opportunity to prepare an Epsom salt bath for him (if you see that he keeps licking and scratching himself, you may want to increase the frequency of the bath to once per week).
Epsom salt bath helps to relieve and soothe any dry, itch skin. It can also assist in much faster healing of wounds and improve any swelling.
The way to prepare the bath is pretty straightforward:
1. Fill a tub with warm water and add 1 cup of Epsom salt per gallon of water.
2. Let your dog soak in the tub for about 10 minutes.
3. Remember to give your dog a clean rinse after the soaking.
4. Care must be taken to ensure that your dog doesn’t drink any Epsom salt water as just a few mouthfuls can cause him to have diarrhea.
Give this remedy a try if your dog starts showing sign of itchiness.
Baking Soda
Baking soda possess antifungal properties and is an effective treatment to soothe any inflamed skin and ease itching.
To prepare this remedy, just mix 50% of the soda powder with 50% of water and rub the mixture on your dog’s inflamed area.
Leave it on for at least 20 minutes before cleaning it off. You can do this treatment twice daily.
Brush Your Dog Daily
Simple tasks such as brushing your dog daily goes a long way in preventing your dog from suffering any allergy disorders that can lead to itchiness.
You see, regular brushing helps to prevent any inflammatory blood cells and chemical compounds from accumulating in his skin and this will reduce the likelihood of your dog from allergy flareup.
And in case if you find your dog likes to lick YOU all the time and you want him to stop doing that, the information from HERE will be useful to you.