I think the latter is unlikely Becky
- unless they seem very red, or swollen [fluid]
The scooting can be a learned response, do you give him attention for doing this?
It sounds like he is having some irritation, whether from parasites, allergies or sensations is hard to determine. Allergies usually do cause red spots, raw areas etc. To do an elimination diet, you need to feed a novel protein source and something like potato [if he's not had that] for AT LEAST 8 weeks, with nothing else AT ALL, no treats. Obviously this has to be done under veterinary supervision.
Parasites, COmfortis ONLY works on fleas as far as I can see? It might be worth speaking to your vet about something else, just to rule them out - I think you get Cheyletiella over there too which can be very irritating and is sometimes hard to see, although you can generally see wee flakes in the coat.
Are you bathing him a lot? Really Cavaliers should only be bathed 3-4 times a year unless they've rolled in something disgusting! Otherwise this can dry the coat and skin out, causing itching.
You could try something like Salmon oil, also look at his diet.
If you are really concerned, try to get some video and at the very least, keep a diary of what is happening and when - see if anything triggers it. It's hard as most of these things are normal behaviours, but in SM/CM we see them to extreme. If you've not had a Cavalier or even a dog before, it's very hard to judge.
If you are still worried, then the best thing would be to have a consultation with a neurologist...they would address your concerns and rule out other causes.
There is lots of information about diet on the forum, this is "my" view:
After a considerable amount of research, I was feeding a home prepared diet, getting frozen raw meat delivered, but it was Durham Animal Products and I wasn't happy with the quality - the lamb and beef was mainly tubes [vessels] Then adding a mix of pureed raw veg and fruit, you need to feed a wide selection. It's better to feed pureed than cooked veg - esp don't microwave anything as that destroys the vital energy in living things. I also fed a mineral supplement to get he correct dose of calcium and phosphorus. Although tripe is well balanced for the latter two, they are not in sufficient quantities.
However when I was ill it was hard for my husband to deal with all this, so we went over to Darlings preprepared raw. http://www.darlingsrealdogfood.com/ Although I thought this was very good, it seemed expensive, but you don't need to feed the amount they suggest, and by the time you've bought decent quality meat and veg and fruit etc, it doesn't really work out any more expensive. Unfortunately they changed their system and now send it out frozen rather than chilled, which doesn't work for us as it takes 2 days to deliver it to here [north Scotland]
So we've switched to dehydrated raw - K9natural which I'm really impressed with http://www.k9natural.co.uk/index.php/about_k9_natural/
ingredients are: meat, blood, ground bone, seasonal fruits and vegetables, heart, liver, kidney, green tripe, eggs, garlic and cod liver oil. All of these ingredients are of a quality deemed fit for human consumption, and all except the cod liver oil (from Norway) come from New Zealand farms and growers. Because it's dehydrated, it doesn't need any special storage except keeping it dry [so no freezer running costs either!] it also doesn't take up much storage space. I got mine from http://www.partnerspets.com/store/pr...ood-Lamb-4-Kg/
Lauren actually prefers this to the raw meat!! she picked it out of the bowl before the meat when I mixed the two.
K9natural recommend you also feed raw bones for their teeth cleaning and amusement effects! so we feed chicken necks [which I get from a wholesale butcher] for one meal - I stand them on the worktop in the utility room with a bib on to keep them clean and feed them one at a time using pliers as one day I wasn't concentrating and Tommy bit through my nail EEK
Feeding necks for one meal and K9natural for the other works out at under £3 per day for the three of them including supplements - they have Carob flour, natural live [bio] yogurt, garlic granules, oatbran etc They often have Neem sticks for treats, Fish4dogs treats, and dried meat treats which I bake myself - liver, rabbit, chicken etc. Even something like Naturediet works out around 78p per day each.
I am very wary with bones as there have been incidents, but then there are also horrid things that happen with kibble, contamination [remember that melamine in the Chinese raw ingredients?] also bacterial contamination, bloat etc. You can grind bones in a mincer. Alternatively you could wrap the bits in a tea towel and bash thoroughly with a rolling pin or mallet. or cut up the meat into pieces with the garden pruners - so no choking on bones. There are mincers around the £150 price range which do a pretty good job on chickens - used to do whole carcasses through them. They are not great at rabbit though, and tend to struggle with the chicken skin.
Everything fresh is frozen for 2 weeks before use, to kill off any parasites - it doesn't kill bacteria and you have to be extremely careful when handling raw meat. Richard Allport the homoeopathic vet actually recommends the use of Zoflora as a disinfectant.
We use bibs for the dogs as here
Lauren wasn't impressed with breakfast!
I've discovered that the large size of the Junior Macare bibs are perfect, they do up with velcro at the back so adjust a bit, and are the perfect length so they don't drag on the floor.
