Belle is itching and chewing herself.

I just got a call from my daughter Lisa, she said her year old blenheim cav girl Belle has chewed paws and feet and lower legs and chest, i think. She said "her lower half." She said they hadn't noticed it because it was covered with hair. She made an appointment with the vet for Tuesday.

I'm very worried. I'm afraid Belle will do more harm to herself and create a worsening condition. Apparently it's fairly widespread.

I urged Lisa to get a cone collar. I'm wondering if anyone knows of things that could be done for Belle while she waits for her vet appointment--is there anything topical that could help, should the vet see her sooner, should the vet prescribe something, i'm afraid she'll get pyoderma like Zack had. Belle does not apparently have fleas, they put Advantage on her regularly.

Lisa said the scratching had begun soon after they got a kitten a month or more ago. Could belle be allergic to the kitten, could the kitten be carrying some sort of mites or something? She came from a rescue group.

I think there are not any vets open on Saturdays where she lives, San Diego. She's looked for one before. I hope it's not as bad as it sounds. I hate to think of waiting until Tuesday if Belle is making herself raw. I begged Lisa to call around and find solutions such as for sure a cone collar, and hopefully something to spray on the lesions to help them heal. Colloidal silver spray seemed to speed healing of zack's pyoderma lesions a lot.

I am late for some place i have to be, and am not able to work on this problem with her right now. I hope she is working on it. I j ust don't think it should wait til Tuesday, and would l ike to at least find out about some kind of first aid. I got somethihg at the health store called Scratch Free by Dr Goodpet, homeopathic, never used it though because Zack stopped scratching after the Revolution (though he still scratches a little but i still have fleas jumping on him :x )

Judy - if she's in San Diego there's a clinic on Sorrento Valley Rd that is open 24 hours if she needs to get in this weekend. Here's the contact info

Veterinary Specialty Hospital And 24 Hour Emergency

10435 Sorrento Valley Rd
San Diego, CA, 92121-1607
(858) 756-5634

Thanks Cathy! i'll pass that along. I talked to her again and she said it's not that the skin is broken, it's that belle is chewing her fur off. She took belle to the vet today and they considered giving steroids, but instead she made an appointment for dermatolist to do an allergy test on her on Tuesday and they gave her two antihistamines that work together. I'm relieved that she has been seen by a vet. I remember karlin said something about not undergoing allergy testing. I hope it helps. poor belle. Lisa said the cat has beens scratching a little too, so there might be something in the house that's an allergen.
That's good to have a 24 hour animal emergency place, thanks agan

I recently went to a gathering (up in Mission Viejo) where the speaker's topic was scratching. Yes, for the most part allergy testing is a waste of money. There are thousand of allergens and the testing only eliminates about 250 allergens. It could be a food allergy or it could be idiopathic. Jake and Shelby have finally stopped scratching.

I have found I have to vigilant about flea meds (Jake is horribly allergic to fleas bites and chews himself raw). I'm also careful to only buy my topical from the vet....I've been told my several sources not to trust online sales of flea meds. The two times I've thought I was saving money and purchasing online we've had problems.

I didn't say not to have allergy testing; just that it can be hard to pinpoint an allergy and they aren't always very accurate. There are fairly common things that cause allergies though and I think they should be checked for. You won't be able to narrow what is causing the problem unless you eliminate the likelihood of allergies. Reasons for scratching/chewing at limbs etc can range from allergies to skin conditions to contact with some irritant to neurological effects of PSOM and SM so you want to work through all the possibilities, starting with the more obvious, like allergies.

Biting and scratching

The vets won't thankme for saying this but my first cavy was allergic to flea treatment. It took me three years to convince them. In the end I still bought the wretched stuff and stockpiled it.f :lol: I then bought indorex which you use over the whole house, and last for 12 months. After about 18 months and the vet suddenly realised I hadnt purchased any flea treatment, I told her that since taking Candy off the treatment the problems had gone. She told me I was lucky to have found the cause so quickly. :x But my instinct told me.

karlin, i remember now, you said to first check all the things it could be before going through allergy testing, and that it often wasn't very helpful. I'm worried about belle. i hope the vet dermatologist is good and knows what they're doing and that they know something about cavaliers. belle is so precious. She changed my life. i sure hope it's something simple and they can find it soon. i hope Lisa doesn't end up having to pay a lot of money for useless things.


Fern's Mom--that is really interesting about Candy's allergy to flea treatments. Which kind did you use?

I'm really grossed out by them, just the idea that they stay in the system and are excreted through the skin day after day, and bathing doesn't wash it off., For many years, i've avoided using them with my cat, though i did give her Program (internal, not topical), but only one time per year. But she is an indoor cat.

Fleas are endemic in my area, they live in the soil, i am told, and my dog who i just got in January does go outside, and he has had a lot of fleas. That stuff you got, Indorex, is that an Insect Growth Regulator (IGR)?

I finally had to give in and put flea treatment on zack, Revolution, because no matter what i did they kept getting on him, like he was a magnet, they were apparently in the carpet, but i'm pretty sure they're outside too. but even after putting Revolution on him, which GREATLY improved things, he still gets fleas on him and still occasionally scratches every day. They sometimes jump onto me, and i can get them off him with a flea comb. :x

Last Sunday, i put diatomaceous earth in the carpet, for the second time in a week, i tried a different kind, but fleas are still getting on him. I put beneficial nematodes in the backyard, three times, which is supposed to be overkill, but i'm not sure it's working.

I am desperate for solutions.

I did not put Revolution on the cat because she was barely scratching, they are so attracted to zack that they have been leaving her alone. But maybe it will help if i give it to her too.

Zack does not seem to be allergic to flea treatment thank goodness, no symptoms. I wonder if Belle is allergic to it, she gets Advantage.

Congratulations on getting rid of the allergy, AND avoiding the flea treatment.

Here is a link for Indorex; it is a pesticide and a long lasting growth regulator:
https://www.hyperdrug.com/prodinfo.asp?number=INDOREX

I wonder which is safer overall, the Indorex or the Revolution?

Indorex

I forget that other parts of the world have different problems. The area in Kent, UK. is quite open with a lot of wildlife. This includes foxes, squirrels, hedgehogs and other rodents. The bird life is quite prolific too. The vet was concerned about the foxes that had got mange in our area. And as we had a resident fox at one time, advised us to use stronghold. Now as I said before, instinct said no. I am a hairdresser by trade, so it is no problem for me to clip dogs fur, ears, tail also clipping nails. Every night I go through Fern's coat, it seems to have a soothing effect on her. Although she see's it has a "chew mum's hand" time, when we first start!
My new vet also understood when I said I would'nt treat Fern, but I would treat the house. He does seem to listen more than than the vet I had for Candy. Hope you find the answer soon, because if your dog isn't happy, you are'nt.
This is a wonderful, helpful, caring group of people and I'm sure somebody will come up with some good advice.

Cathy Moon said:

Here is a link for Indorex; it is a pesticide and a long lasting growth regulator:
https://www.hyperdrug.com/prodinfo.asp?number=INDOREX

I wonder which is safer overall, the Indorex or the Revolution?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. I have heard of people using just the IGR without the poison, with one year results. This is what FleaBusters uses, i think. Or, they use Boric acid, i wonder if that's an IGR. They guarantee it for a year. I have not had them come out yet bcause when i talked to them about it, they said i had to move all my furniture and stuff out of my closets, and my place is crammed. I need a week or two off from work to make a dent in it. I have one room that was my daughter's room that now has stuff stored in it taking up the whole room, can't walk in there, they won't guarantee their stuff unless you move everything so they can get to all the places, and i can't do that. That's probably why nothing else is working. As soon as i can get time off from work, i'm going to throw everything a way.

i would rather use the Revolution than a flea poison in my carpet all over my house. But maybe diatomaceous earth, nematodes in the yard, boric acid treatment in the rug and IGR in the yard and around the house, started early next year, a couple of months or more before flea season, will make the Revolution unnecessary--that's my hope and my goal. If it doesn't work, i have to use the Revolution, there are too many fleas not to. It wasn't like this with my cat, but she stayed indoors all the time. It's not even a problem for me and the cat, the fleas are just eating zack. so, he has to have Revolution as the lesser of evils. but i will do everything in my power to have it be different next year, including throwing away all my stuff. I've already started.

Room clearing

Yes you must remove everything of the floor but I have not sprayed this year and fingers crossed, no problems so far. Have you not good friends or family that would help you.

You need to treat all animals in the house, the bedding, carpets etc. If you get a flea infestation in the house you really need to do the whole house and then the situation should be a lot better. Once they are living inside they won't just die off, they will keep breeding inside. The mild Calif weather makes the state a flea heaven!

This might be helpful:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=36548

Karlin said:

You need to treat all animals in the house, the bedding, carpets etc. If you get a flea infestation in the house you really need to do the whole house and then the situation should be a lot better. Once they are living inside they won't just die off, they will keep breeding inside. The mild Calif weather makes the state a flea heaven!

This might be helpful:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=36548

Click to expand...

thanks for the link karlin--this confirms my hope for boric acid. This is what i'm going to do. I am planning to take time off the week of Labor Day, in less than a month, and i'll put stuff in boxes, throw stuff away, take it to the thrift store, do all i can, and either spread boric acid around myself, or have Flea Busters come out and apply it. I'm not sure if they apply it outside. If not, i can do that myself. Boric acid is very minimally toxic to people and pets, when i used to live in a place with roaches :yuk: i used it, and it worked excellent. I already have the boric acid. I just need to have some time to get rid of stuff so i can get to all the spaces where fleas could be. Maybe i'll put it down just where i can in the meantime. I think that frequent vacumming is probably the best thing i can do. I'm doing that. After i vacuumed last night there was no scratching going on. I was at the vet today and got Revolution for Miss Cat aka Fluffy. So i feel hopeful and have plan. While at the vet, i found dead fleas on him, and one live one :yikes which had seen better days, i picked it off and it just stumbled around, it didn't jump. So the Revolution is getting them, but they are here so they are getting back on. I'm new to fighting fleas because i've never had a problem before, except in grad school when i lived with several room mates and my dog Frank and a cat, and you could see the fleas flying through the air above the floor, that was really something. That's before i had any worries about poisons. Frank always had a flea collar. My room mate regularly flea bombed, and she bathed the cat in Malathion, and almost killed the poor thing, it had severe neurological damage and was never the same again, it changed from a sweet nature to a depressed nature. sad memory. Her name as Tsiao Ping which means Small Peace in Chinese. she was a small Siamese.

earlier this year Merlin got a really bad attack of the fleas (they were all around his winky) - Frontline didn't work. I bathed him every seven days according to the shampoo I bought - they didn't really bother him - they bothered me more. I used Johnsons flea bombs and bombed the house. I also put this growth inhibitor on the carpets and bedding - I left it down for two weeks as I was holiday. Came back from holiday and they popped up again! I treated the house constantly and everywhere Merlin lay I sprayed after he moved. Eventually I went to the vets as it was getting me so down.

Guess what? One treatment of Stronghold and a spray of the house with a spray that was £17! - we've never seen one since!

They do make you paranoid though - every time Merlin has a scratch - I think ....Oh no not again - get the flea comb out and fortunately so far they have been false alarms :v*cuum:

merlinsmum said:

earlier this year Merlin got a really bad attack of the fleas (they were all around his winky) - Frontline didn't work. I bathed him every seven days according to the shampoo I bought - they didn't really bother him - they bothered me more. I used Johnsons flea bombs and bombed the house. I also put this growth inhibitor on the carpets and bedding - I left it down for two weeks as I was holiday. Came back from holiday and they popped up again! I treated the house constantly and everywhere Merlin lay I sprayed after he moved. Eventually I went to the vets as it was getting me so down.

Guess what? One treatment of Stronghold and a spray of the house with a spray that was £17! - we've never seen one since!

They do make you paranoid though - every time Merlin has a scratch - I think ....Oh no not again - get the flea comb out and fortunately so far they have been false alarms :v*cuum:

Click to expand...

I can just imagine how relieved you are to be rid of them!

this is an update. Lisa told me yesterday that for several days belle had not been scratching and chewing herself. The most likely explanation is that she was treated with Revolution. The theory was that she was suffering from a flea allergy, even though no one was seeing any fleas. She had been treated regularly with Advantage so i don't know where that fits in, but the vet wanted her to have Revolution, and that's the only treatment she had. She was also given antihistamines but lisa said those didn't have any effect and they stopped giving them.

anyway, i am so relieved that belle isn't having this problem now.

Thats great news Judy.