I just joined the forum in hopes that someone else with a GSD could help me better than internet sites!
So I am a new mom to a ~1yr old female GSD named Levy (60lbs). We found her on the side of the road about 2 months ago. She had escaped from someones yard and was dragging 5' of chain from her collar. No tags, no chip, fleas, and both ears infected, we kept her and everything is going great, except the ITCHING! My boyfriend and I are often woken in the middle of the night to her incessant scratching and biting, we are going nuts!
It started about 2 weeks ago, I noticed some itchiness and gave her a bath with dawn since the vet had found some fleas during her spay. I got her a flea collar until we could decide on heartworm meds that would cover the fleas (We recently just started Sentinel which says it kills adult fleas?). This didn't seem to help much. Then about a week ago it got worse after a fall in the pool, a trip to the dog park, and another bath. I thought it was me maybe drying out her skin too much with the dawn. I had never found any fleas until this point, but after looking at where she was itching I found some red irritations (maybe just from itching) and a 2-3 small bumps throughout. I thought maybe she got bit by something at the park so I gave her some benedryl before bed to hopefully let us all sleep better without any luck. I have found ONE flea since, but at this point she is starting to get small bald spots from itching so much. (Maybe shes allergic to the flea bites?) I feed her Simply Nourish by Petsmart, it is very similar in ingredients to the blue buffalo she had for the first month with us. I tried the half and half apple cider vinegar and water in a spray bottle (didn't use the organic unfiltered ACV yet though, heard that might be better), didnt see much relief. Then I made a homemade oatmeal bath (grinded oats, baking soda, and water) which maybeee helped a bit, but she was very focused on eating the soap which proved to be difficult. Oh! I have also started giving her 2 tbsp coconut oil with dinner every night (for 2-3 days now), I tried rubbing some on her dry spots but she ends up just licking that off too!
I hope I gave you all the info you needed, I would appreciate ANY advice. Specfically home remedies, I dont want to medicate her if I dont have to, and I am a college student, so minimal vet visits are best for my budget
THANK YOU!
So I am a new mom to a ~1yr old female GSD named Levy (60lbs). We found her on the side of the road about 2 months ago. She had escaped from someones yard and was dragging 5' of chain from her collar. No tags, no chip, fleas, and both ears infected, we kept her and everything is going great, except the ITCHING! My boyfriend and I are often woken in the middle of the night to her incessant scratching and biting, we are going nuts!
It started about 2 weeks ago, I noticed some itchiness and gave her a bath with dawn since the vet had found some fleas during her spay. I got her a flea collar until we could decide on heartworm meds that would cover the fleas (We recently just started Sentinel which says it kills adult fleas?). This didn't seem to help much. Then about a week ago it got worse after a fall in the pool, a trip to the dog park, and another bath. I thought it was me maybe drying out her skin too much with the dawn. I had never found any fleas until this point, but after looking at where she was itching I found some red irritations (maybe just from itching) and a 2-3 small bumps throughout. I thought maybe she got bit by something at the park so I gave her some benedryl before bed to hopefully let us all sleep better without any luck. I have found ONE flea since, but at this point she is starting to get small bald spots from itching so much. (Maybe shes allergic to the flea bites?) I feed her Simply Nourish by Petsmart, it is very similar in ingredients to the blue buffalo she had for the first month with us. I tried the half and half apple cider vinegar and water in a spray bottle (didn't use the organic unfiltered ACV yet though, heard that might be better), didnt see much relief. Then I made a homemade oatmeal bath (grinded oats, baking soda, and water) which maybeee helped a bit, but she was very focused on eating the soap which proved to be difficult. Oh! I have also started giving her 2 tbsp coconut oil with dinner every night (for 2-3 days now), I tried rubbing some on her dry spots but she ends up just licking that off too!
I hope I gave you all the info you needed, I would appreciate ANY advice. Specfically home remedies, I dont want to medicate her if I dont have to, and I am a college student, so minimal vet visits are best for my budget
THANK YOU!