Dog Scratching like mad. Any ideas?

We have a Chawawa (SP tocobell dog). He has been scratching like mad. He has had Frontline on him. I find no fleas at all on him. He has been bathed regulary. He has scracthed his hind quarters to the point that the hair is getting thin. I believe it maybe dry skin.
30 years ago, when I was showing Lasa's, we would spray the coat with Alpha Kara lotion and water (again sp) to moisterize the coat.
Any ideas? We do have a Vet appointment, but it is 2 weeks out.

What are you feeding? He may have food allergies.

I would suggest fish oil or salmon oil and Vitamin E oil capsules with his dinner (never one without the other) and you can get both of them at WalMart.

How often are you bathing and what are you using? It could be that you're bathing too often and stripping the natural oils or the soap is irritating his skin.

How long ago did you apply the Frontline? Could be a reaction.

Hey Roger! We've had a rash (pun intended) of dog "allergies" down here. All the vets I've talked to, said almost every dog that has come through their doors in the last month are scratching and chewing themselves raw in places...and they don't know what's causing it. Our vet gave Rascal a shot of Depo Medrol and it seems to have helped. I would insist on an earlier appointment!

There can be many reasons for scratching and puritis of the skin in dogs. Definitely allergies, as mentioned- actually chicken is one of the most common! But it can also be one of several skin diseases, or mites (mange). Biting and licking especially of paws can also be psychological. Best to leave it to the experts to investigate and diagnose.

The vet will most likely want to do a skin scrape and prescribe a medicated shampoo (here we use Pyohex or Malaseb, don't know if they are available over there) to be used regularly. If it is a food allergy, they will need to be on an exclusion diet like Hills Z/D. Good luck!

My Dog Jenibelle just recently was scratching at her neck, legs, behind her ears extermely bad.. i took her into the vet and she did a little skin scape sample and it turned out to be a seconday bacterial skin infecton due to a seasonal allergy (thanks goodness it was just seasonal) well, 2 weeks of meds and an oatmeal shampoo bath later shes as good as new! Lets hope its something simple like that..

I have a chihuahua, too. She just went through the same thing. The doc changed her flea meds to one called Comfortiss. He said the fleas have become immune to Frontline. She also had to have some antibiotics because she had a skin infection from scratching. I didn't see any fleas on her, either but evidently she had them because after the dose of Comfortiss she stopped scratching.

We had a Vet appointment testerday. Same diagnoisis as yours. Gave him antibodtics and changed to a different flea med.

He'll start feeling better soon. Maggie's "burn marks" on her back are all gone now. No more scratching.

Thank you for the update Roger. Rascal is still scratching and chewing one spot on his leg. We're headed back to the vet and I'm going to talk to him about what your and jneen's vets have had to say.

Hope this helps and Rascal will get better. The chihuahua is still scraching but not digging as much as he has been. All dogs have been scratching more than normal.
I don't know what the new flea medicine was, but has to be fairly pricey. Normal Vet visit is around $20 plus meds. This bill was $80 with three doses of the new flea treatment.
DW forgot to ask the Vet about the cat. He is scratching a little. Normaly he does not scratch at all. We have a shot up date for the Yorkie next week. DW will ask about the cat.
Frontline for dogs is toxic for cats. Normally my cat goes outside after morning feeding so we apply the flea dope to the dogs in the morning. The cat will play with the Yorkie. So far no problems.