dog itch problem
(x-posted to dog_lovers)
Every year about this time, Oct-Nov, our Papillon (now 7 yo) chews patches off his hind end. It doesn't seem to correlate to fleas (we diligently have none), humidity (happened in dry OR/WA and in muggy VA), diet (was consistent for years; he's now on bladder stone medicated diet), or anything else we've tracked.
The only apparent difference, this year, is temperature. We typically use the heat pump very little so the house is cold or hot according to the weather. A couple of times the past 3 weeks it's been either unusually warm weather or someone was ill and needed the house heated to the upper 70s. Those times, he seemed to chew less and started healing.
Has anyone heard of this, and other than incurring massive heating bills is there anything we can do about it? The dog still needs to go outside in the cold regularly!
I'd rather not use cortisone shots - we've had dependency troubles in the past with other pets and cortisone for itching.
Every year about this time, Oct-Nov, our Papillon (now 7 yo) chews patches off his hind end. It doesn't seem to correlate to fleas (we diligently have none), humidity (happened in dry OR/WA and in muggy VA), diet (was consistent for years; he's now on bladder stone medicated diet), or anything else we've tracked.
The only apparent difference, this year, is temperature. We typically use the heat pump very little so the house is cold or hot according to the weather. A couple of times the past 3 weeks it's been either unusually warm weather or someone was ill and needed the house heated to the upper 70s. Those times, he seemed to chew less and started healing.
Has anyone heard of this, and other than incurring massive heating bills is there anything we can do about it? The dog still needs to go outside in the cold regularly!
I'd rather not use cortisone shots - we've had dependency troubles in the past with other pets and cortisone for itching.