I have a white Labrador pup (about 12 weeks old now). He is constantly scratching himself at the sides, chest and belly. Also constantly chews and licks his feet (all four, not any one in particular). I have seen something like sores inside of his ear. This could be may be due to this constant scratching. He also has many red spots which he nibbles at time and again. Shakes his head quite often. Yelps when he sometimes scratches his ears. We feed him dry kibble for starters (Pedigree is the brand name). We took him to the VET who first gave me a lotion (Clobetasol Propionate, Oflaxacin, Miconifazole Nitrate & Zinc Sulphate). Cephalexin Oral Solution and Cod Liver Oil and Soya Bean Oil suppliment, to be administered twice a day (half tea spoon). Apart from this he is having a daily doze of Iron Tonic and Vitamin tablet as he was having less hemoglobin percent in his blood when we brought him home. It is almost more than a week now, he is not out from his problem yet. VET says it is due to seasonal change. It is fag end of Winter and Spring will be soon approaching. 3 days ago the VET gave me a spray ATOP7. When I spray he quivers (does not yelp tho), but tries to avoid the spray and does not scratch for a while, but some time later he scratching starts. During the day, when I am with him, I physically hold his legs from scratching. But cannot stop him from biting his legs or nibbling his red spots. The area behind his ear lobes have become pinkish. He is losing hair too much and already started having bald spots. Please someone tell some remedy which could bring him out of his pain. I will be so very thankful to see him out of this problem. Thanks
Hello, your reply notified me via email and I've checked back here for the first time in a month or two. People are very very generous with their advice and experiences with what helped them. Whilst that is fantastic, and I'm forever thankful for the advice, you can find yourself bombarded with suggestions, cures and remedies. No two pieces of advice will be the same either! I'm by no means an expert, so I read everything everyone offered and just tried one thing at a time. I had got to a point with Mollie where we were trying so much to help her, that, combined with all the drugs/potions/sprays and injections the vet was giving her, we were getting nowhere and Mollie was getting worse. All the while I was getting more stressed and my credit card bill was getting bigger and bigger. In the end, I took the decision to stop everything. I cut out all the sprays, drugs, ridiculous oils and bizarre creams. I even took Mollie off of the steroids she was on; "oh don't worry she can take these for life" I was told. 2 months later I've now got my old Mollie back. She behaves like a puppy again and seems full of life. I wash her twice a month with the remainder of the Malaseb, I brush her every other day and I invested £38 in an anti dust mite carpet/bed for her to sleep on. She also wears the neck collar at night when we can't watch her. The hair has mostly grown back (she went very bald), but her skin still feels hard and very occasionally she will scratch her shoulder - BUT, she looks a million times better and you can tell she feels so much better. We've learnt to live with the occasional backward step, but when she looks better every other day it's good progress overall. I'm convinced all the crap the vets were giving her made her worse - and it cost me a fortune to boot. Don't do what I did, this is just my experience (though it will flair up again next autumn I'm sure and we'll start again!). Speak to your vet, take on board all the advice on these boards, but try one thing at a time and, sometimes, do what you think is best for your pet. Good luck.
Your puppy is so young that I would go back to the vet. I looked up Cephalexin and see it is a broad spectrum antibiotic, so if it hasn't worked perhaps your vet would do a skin scrape to enable him to prescribe something more targeted. With a puppy who should really only have just left his mother I wouldn't' treat with anything apart from what a qualified vet suggests.
Tha Thanks Joy for your advise. Since I am a novice puppy parent, I just want to know whether the things I do are right for him. He visit to the vet is coming up on Monday, hope he recovers soon. Will keep developments posted here.
Hallo. I also wondered how when I came to this forum! Click on the forum name in the breadcrumb. So, if you wanted to post in the Labrador Health section, click Labrador Health above. Otherwise click on Forums further back in the breadcrumb and find the forum in which you want to ask your question. When the page loads, you'll see the "Post New Thread" button to the right. Click that button and fill in the fields to create your post.
Poor you and poor pup. May I ask how old the pup was when got him? i ask because low Hb (haemoglobin) sounds a bit unusual, possibly due to a poor start in life or something else. Giving an iron tonic to a pup is probably a waste of time, plus could irritate the gut, I suspect there may be some inflammation there anyhow. Pedigree is also not a good quality food, maybe look at better quality, or even consider home cooked, until things settle down. Has the vet excluded parasitic infection?
Hi There, We have a daughter named cinnamon and she is 11 months old, chocolate Labrador. So far, she seemed healthy and no problem with her skin. But, few weeks ago, some red itchy spots started to show up around her neck and belly. We have changed the food of her from acana grass fed to acana puppy & junior. Do you guys think that this would be the reason of those spots ? I am planning to take her to a vet of course. But unfortunately, the city we live is a small one where there is no much pet knowing vets and I cannot trust them much as they are more familiar with bovine animals. Hope someone knowing Labradors and familiar with such skin problems would comment.
