I bred my bitch three weeks ago and have noticed since she has come into season this time she is scratching non stop and her ears are full of gunk.
She has been on Pro Plan chicken and rice since she was weaned. Her coat is gorgeous and there is no hair loss. She is also licking her feet now.
Could it be that it is the possible pregnancy and hormones causing this or should I suspect that she now has developed allergies? She was two in February and has always been healthy. Never scratched or licked prior to this. Would is be wise to switch her over to another food? Open to suggestions.
When my girl is in heat she gets itchy until about day 65 and then stops. I wondered the same, I don't change her food. Another possibility, right now pollens are very high and a lot of dogs have trouble Aug. to Oct. Go to pollen.com and enter your zip code, see what your pollen reading is. You can have pollen alerts emailed to you when the pollen is high.
My vet once told me that he has seen this with bitches in season and they are actually allergic to the increased estrogen levels in their body and once it subsides they are fine. My related question is, for bitches with environmental allergies (pollen, dust mites, grass, not related to their heat cycles or pregnancy), has anyone found that they get better or worse after being spayed? Or does getting spayed have no effect at all?
Day 28 is next Wednesday and we are going in for an ultrasound. I am going to inquire about the hormone shift. I have been breeding for 10 years and I have not had this issue before. I have this girls Dam and she never had issues the four times I bred her.
I noticed her eyes were really goopy this morning as well. Poor thing. :-((( Is there anything I can do for her in the mean time that won't compromise the litter?
You can use GenTeal saline eye drops, once and hour or so to flush out the eyes. This happened to my pregnant girl (not the scratching, just the eyes) from hormones. She would wake up with such goop in her eyes and they were raw like chop meat. I took her to the vet to be checked and although the optimal treatment would have been prescription drops the vet would not give them sue to the pregnancy.
This treatment worked great and within a few days she was feeling better-I kept it up for 2 weeks.
You're getting a hormone surge at 28 days so just give her body time to adjust, I think she will be fine. Keep us posted and best of luck with her.
Just had our ultrasound and my girl is in whelp!! Her scratching seems to have subsided a little and my vet says the same. He hormones are really surging right now and things should calm down quite a bit in the next few weeks. She said I could give her an oatmeal bath and that may help her skin.
Most definitely, hormonal activity can trigger that behavior. I have a bitch that started displaying allergy type symptomes when she was almost 3. Had her tested and they were environmental (not food or anything else). She gets naked about 6 to 8 weeks after every season. Just FYI - upon the advice of a nearby teaching hospital associated with a prominent vet school we bred her, and in 3 litters there has not been a single case of allergic symptoms. The puppies now range from 2 to 5 years old. Just sayin'....
