Dear Miss Jane,
Our wonderful little baby is now almost 5 years old and is the most wonderful and good dog ever. His problem is the skin. He chews on himself and scratches all the time. He loses a lot of hair. The Dr. has him on Prednisone which controls it but I have been told that I can not keep him on it. It could ventually kill him. Do you know of anything else that could help him?

I have him on a food that is catfish and rice. I use special shampoo products. Do you know of what the allergy is in Westies that cause this? Thanks for your help.
~ MS3MARINE@xxx.xxx

I don't have any experience with the catfish and rice diet. But here are a few recommendations to help with scratching.

Stop bathing so often, that will only exacerbate the problem. Let the skin return to it's normal ph. If you must bathe, you can try Murphy's Oil Soap, which is found in the supermarket cleaning section. I've used it for years. Dry bathe the dog with corn starch. If the scratching isn't food motivated; i.e., allergy to beef, pork, chicken, wheat, to name a few, assume it's an inhalent allergy, a seasonal allergy, you can spot this by face rubbing, runny nose, sneezing, and of course, scratching. Benadryl can alleviate the symptons...1 dye-free gel cap once or twice a day or 3cc's (1 tsp) childrens dye-free elixer two to three times a day, for the duration of allergy season.

You can add an Oil of Evening Primrose gelcap (found at health food stores) and a garlic gelcap two to three times a week. Do not use brewers yeast since it too can cause severe reactions in some Westies, like adding fuel to the fire.

Good luck, and keep in touch.
~Jane Fink

Copyright © 2001 Jane Fink and Westie World.