[Ry K]

Hi all,

My husky/lab has been on the raw diet for over 6 months now. I’ve verified with the raw pet food store and with a few raw diet books that he’s getting the right amount, proper bone/meat/veg balance, extras like green powders, kelp, fish oil, etc.

All of his health problems have gone away except for one – skin irritation. He’ll be good to go for a month or two, and then all of a sudden he’ll start chewing all over himself to the point of stripping the hair off and making it even worse. Then I put the cone on him for a few weeks, and he’s either fine or back at the chewing.

I exercise him every day so I don’t think it is a stress problem. I avoid fields with long grass that might bother his skin. If it’s bad enough I’ll give him a bath with oatmeal, baking soda, aloe, etc.

Does anyone have any additional thoughts on this topic? I find it especially important because I convinced a friend to switch his dog to raw recently. He did so, and it fixed some MAJOR problems the dog was having, but now 6 months later his dog is having skin irritation problems as well. It doesn’t seem to be an allergy like pollen, especially because right now there shouldn’t be any pollen issues at all where I live.

Thanks in advance for your time!
Ryan

[Kristin C]

Hi Ry-my only thoughts are (1) yeast overgrowth. Are you feeding sweet potato? (2) he’s allergic to the protein you are feeding. (3) His diet doesn’t have the proper fat ratio. Not sure if that helps.

[Akari_32]

I have a dog with the exact same problem. Not only was he extremely allergic to everything blooming here in southern Florida, as well as fleas, but he’s also got over active yeast on his skin. We had to cut as many carbs as possible out of his diet for him to clear up, and even then, you can’t avoid a dog (especially not a terrier) from going in the grass.

We first put him on By Nature 95% canned food, and now he’s on See Spot Live Longer raw. He still breaks out when it rains and the grass shoots up and grows like crazy and pollinates, but it’s Florida, and there’s no preventing that. He did have himself chewed bald from his ribs back, and we finally have him down to chewing just his feet after rainy days.

[theBCnut]

Look into coconut oil. It has many positive properties that may help your dog.

[Susan]

Hi Ryan, when he was going really well, was he eating what he is eating now when he’s scratching or have you added something new to his diet, also fleas maybe a flea has bitten him, some dogs are allergic to the fleas salvia, one bite & they go mad with scratching…I’d start an elimination diet, I’d start again, just 1 protein & 1 low carb for 2 weeks & see how he goes, then if he’s not scratching start slowley adding back everything your feeding him now, every 3-4 days, add 1 new food, then you’ll see what food or oil or powder is making him itch, my boy starts scratching within 2 days when I added a new food that he was allergic too, as soon as I stopped the food (potato & sweet potato) the itch stopped within 2days, also were you adding the green powder & kelp when he was doing really well, I’d keep a diary & every night write what he ate, where you walked, what you did that day with him, then you can look back 6months or 2 weeks & see if there’s a pattern if he starts his scratching again when he’s doing better…. winter is coming, so if its environment allergies he should get better in the winter, it drives me mad.. but it will be something simple, real little that can be causing the itch.. have you tried Malaseb Medicated shampoo it kills any bacteria on the skin but doesnt strip the good oils from their skin, its very good shampoo for itchy skin..

[Ry K]

I’ll definitely start keeping track of his day to day – that’s a great tip.

I virtually bathe in coconut oil myself, so I’ll definitely start applying it to him topically or even adding a bit to his food.

Another person just mentioned to me that it may be fleas. I made a 50/50 apple cider vinegar and water mix and sprayed him today – hoping that will help. He’s really not that bad lately to be honest – it’s always so hard to tell why it gets worse and then goes away.

I don’t add any carbs like sweet potatoes to his diet – the raw food comes with the proper vegetable ratio already added into it. I never considered yeast – definitely another possibility.

Thanks again – great info!

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