How to Stop a Dog from Scratching Itself

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Countless people owning dogs would like to learn how to stop a dog from scratching. A dog that continues to scratch nonstop can cause a number of problems. These problems maybe hot spots, infections, or any other skin problems and are caused by fleas, food allergy, and a fixation on their skin. These problems can turn out to be harmful long term problems if proper care is not taken.

Reasons Why Dogs Scratch

There are quite a few reasons why dogs scratch so often. But before knowing how to stop a dog from scratching, you must first know the root cause of scratching.

Infection – The symptoms for infection are greasy sores, hairless patches or red swelling. The causes are bacteria, yeast or fungi.

Neurogenic – It is mostly caused by lack of exercise, laziness, or mental stimulation but sometimes it is also caused by separation anxiety. It can also be caused by licking and chewing and is a nervous issue.

Allergenic – Severe itching can be caused due to several reasons. They can be plant and dust allergies, food allergies and flea allergies.

Nutritional – Sores, developing eczema, dry skin and bad hair that that leads to dryness are results of lack of nutrients in a dog’s diet.

Environmental – Scratching can also be caused by digging, too much water from swimming and playing outside.

Parasites – Parasites are a major reason of scratching. These include mites, flies, ticks, fleas and gnats. There are a lot of medicines capable of stopping parasites.

So before you can find how to stop a dog from scratching, you must first identify the causes of this continuous scratching.

Pay a Visit to the Vet

To find out how to stop a dog from scratching and find the reason behind the scratching problem, pay a visit to the vet to get your dog thoroughly checked. Your dog will need some antifungal, cream or antibiotics if it is suffering from some sort of infection. In the case of allergies, a change in diet and antihistamines are needed to cure it. Medications and flea baths can be used to get rid of parasites.

Treating Neurogenic Scratching

When you think of how to stop a dog from scratching, the most difficult one to cure is neurogenic scratching. All of the other five can be easily cured with medication, shifts in diet or a change in exercise routines. For chronic neurogenic itching, you must first clearly identify the problem because of which your dog feels an unstoppable urge to scratch its skin.

In  most cases, the dog just develops a neurotic tick to continuously itch or lick hypnotically due to boredom. So you must first make sure your dog is getting enough exercise. To stop your dog from scratching, you will need to prevent this kind of behaviour. This can be done by putting cayenne pepper or bitter apple spray on your dog’s favourite licking spots.

Another way to prevent your dog from licking is to use a cone that will not allow him to reach his licking spots. This cone can be attained from the vet. When your dog starts to get a more active routine filled with exercise, you can slowly return it to normal activities and remove the cone and the spray.

Even after this your dog still keeps scratching, make another visit to the vet to check for other physical ailments. Infections might have grown in this time.

So all in all, it your duty as a dog owner to pay close attention to a dog and to find how to stop a dog from scratching. It may not be a big problem but you can never be too careful.

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