We have a 7 year old kelpie/something cross. She has alway scratched since she was a pup but it is now virtually continuous scratching all over her body – notably where her tail joins her body. We have taken to washing her regularly. Anything you can suggest?
There’s a few things that could be going on. What you describe could well be flea allergy dermatitis.
The thing with flea allergy is that it only takes the bite of one flea. In susceptible dogs you may not even see fleas on the dog at all if there is just a low level in the pets environment.
If it is flea allergy then you need to be absolutely rigorous with your flea control. It must be applied every month without fail all year round. If you are bathing the dog a lot then you can also potentially reduce the effectiveness of the monthly spot on products. Weekly bathing should be ok, but any more frequent than this may actually be removing too much of the product from your pet.
Flea allergy is quite common and it does manifest itself in just the way you describe with constant scratching/itching and getting bare patches and even thickening of the skin in areas above the tail etc.
If its not a flea allergy then it may well be an allergy to something else, or you may even have some sort of bacterial or fungal skin infection. In any of these cases the only real way to try and determine what is going on is to take your pet to see your local vet where a full examination can be undertaken.
It certainly would not do any harm to increase the levels of omega 3’s in your dogs diet. You can supplement with Omega 3 oils which have a beneficial and protective effect for the skin. We have a range of these types of products which can be found here.
However, I would also strongly suggest you go to your vet for a consultation where they can run through the range of possibilities with you and visually inspect the dog.
To settle any sore patches in the interim any type of topical wound type product will suffice, but it may require some kind of cortisone cream or other type of prescription type preparation to have any great affect and settle the area down. It is likely that as soon as you put something on the dog is probably going to lick/rub it straight off again if she is that itchy so a vet appointment at your earliest convenience is the best course of action.