Help! Meli won't stop scratching!

[rnbstone]

I need some help from others who have Cairns. Meli is my 16 mo. old baby. About three and a half months ago, she began having scratching fits. Usually, they go away after a day or two, however this one is lingering hard!

It started about three weeks ago, and Meli now has raw spots all over herself. The vet said that she could do allergy testing, but that it would be a long and expensive process (I live in Hawaii and the testing is sent off to the Mainland). I got some oatmeal lotion from the vet, and I put it on her nightly after finding irritated areas. But it just isn't keeping the itches away, as Meli begins scratching somewhere new.

Tonight I found at least four red welts on her where she had scratched herself raw while I was away at work. They are the sizes of quarters and bigger. Her fur is coming out in matted chunks. I find them everywhere in the house. She also rubs her face and back all over my bed and floor in an effort to relieve the itching. I can tell by her growling and whimpers that she is miserable with itching.

This is breaking my heart ... has anyone else gone through this? What worked? What do you advise I try? I have taken away all treats ... except for the very bland ones, and still ... nothing seems to be working. Any suggestions?

[Scully'sMom]

I'm sorry your Cairn's going through such a tough time.

My other Cairn had a summer allergy that she would get from lying in the grass. What worked for her was a one week course of the steroid prednisone. It quickly knocked it out. That will make her drink a lot of water so be prepared for a lot of peeing! Good luck!

[hallswel]

We had a very similar problem with Rebel. I finally changed vets and we figured he had a tough time with his shots.... this combined with allergy season beginning caused me such headaches. He is 18 months old and every time he just scratches a little, I worry, Last year he lost so much hair and his skin turned dark. Now he has healthy pink skin and his under coat looks great. Now that spring is here I do wipe his belly and legs off with non-scented baby wipes every evening to get all the pollen off. He really like it when I wipe him down so I suspect it makes him feel better.

The first vet just treated the symptoms not the cause he did it with steroids and when I read how dangerous that was I tried another vet and it really was the right thing to do. Good luck I hope she feels better soon.

[Guest Guest]

I've read that this could be food allergy mainly caused by dry food. Try switching him to wet/can food instead and see if it improves. Just my two cents.

[Mama Kim]

My other cairn had allergies to certain grasses and weeds. She'd get the scratching fits too, so we gave her Benadryl, which helped ease the discomfort. My cousin had a cairn that was allergic to grass as well.