Tigs'n'Taffs

Thanks guys for all the replies and ideas. We too thought it may be a tooth problem and had them checked out. We found that one of her big back teeth was broken (which was on the side that was giving Tiggy most of the grief). We had it extracted and thought "gotcha" ..... and then the scratching continued She has had 2 of the dermal allergy tests (by a veterinary dermatologist) - these were the tests that said she had no allergies! She also had a biopsy on the area, and I know this sounds odd, but we got quite excited when the vet said that he had found something there. "At last - an answer" we thought. Well .... the vet said it was staphococci (?) and proceeded to give her more antibiotics that grew in strength as we went along. None of them were successful (apart from the first week of taking them). We became very disillusioned when the vet eventually said he thought it was "just one of those things she is going to have to learn to live with". I wish he'd said that many throusands of dollars ago! We are trying very hard to "live with it", but its very hard when you see her poor bald and bleeding cheeks with great chunks scratched out. Very upsetting!

My "bitza" dog - a very lovely labrador cross rottie has developed what we think may be an allergy. She has scratched her face so much that she now has two totally bald spots on her cheeks and, thanks to the use of an elizabethan collar for a very long time, what were bloody and cut cheeks, have now healed to very hard and scarred cheeks. This is SO upsetting, and everything we have done so far has not worked. This has included 2 x allergy tests (negative!! apparently this dog is allergic to nothing!); topical applications - including tea tree; aloe vera; crtisone creams; moisturing & cooling creams; various strengths of antibiotics (initial relief then back to scratching); cortisone tablets (gave initial relief and then created other problems); some other tablets recommended by the vet that is really for humans and cost us $400+ per months - no result; natural therapies - homoepathic vet who recommended remedies (reduced the problem slightly, but we are back to full-on again); dog-whisperers; change of diet to all natural and veggies. I just feel as though she is going to be condemned to a life of elizabethan collars to at least stop her face being raw all the time if we can't find out what the root of all this is. Is there anybody out there who knows of similar problems with their canines and has had a successful conclusion? Any bright ideas ..... anyone?????????