Shedding mid summer

Question
I have a two year old Sheltie (Ivy) that is on the larger (very tall) side and VERY skittish!!  She Barks at a pin drop and then runs to hide!! Being summer we have our windows and doors open all the time due to no A/C and she is about to climb the walls. She has started scratching a lot and very hard when she does and big Clumps of hair keep falling out. It seems like a lot more hair than normal for her normal shedding. She does not have fleas and She has never had this problem before. We have a 6 yr old malethat has never done this,and also had two other that have passed and never had this problem.  Do you think this could be from stress? or Due to a change in food??  Our male has been having some weight issues and we changed the food about two months ago to help with weight control.  She has not thinned any and still has to much energy lol.... I'm clueless but she yelps sometimes she scratches so hard and Every thing in my house seems to be covered in hair. My vet seems to not be much help and told me unless she is still doing it in a few months, starts to get skin patches exposed or acts ill it's not worth the cost to take her in.   Any idea on what to do would be great.

Answer
Hi Sarah,

Ivy sounds like our Jinx in the skiddish department.  Sometimes there is no explaining the wiring inside of their heads.  If I have some success with Jinx's outbursts I'll make sure to contact you; so far I haven't.

About the scratching and shedding: you have one of four likely problems and all are allergy based:
stress, food, environment or demodectic mange.  

The first and simplest solution is to try switching just her back to the old food and see if that changes anything.  If so then it's the food.

Demodectic mange is different from sarcoptic mange.  Sarcoptic is environmentally caused skin infection on a dirty dog.  Demodectic is where the skin reacts to normal mites found there and causes itching and shedding, even in a perfectly groomed dog.  The area will appear red and have shedding skin flakes with it and can be tested with a scraping.  Do get this test if the food doesn't work.

Environmental: If it is a grass, dust, chemical in the house that she has become allergic to then you would call the vet to ask how much benadryl to administer and how often.  The OTC allergy drug works for most dogs the way it works for humans.  You can get the generic version for the same result.

If it's stress then I don't know what to tell you.  Go buy an AC unit?  Take her outside leashed with treats.  When an event happens that usually makes her go ballistic and she doesn't give her a treat.  It hasn't worked so far on Jinx but we are just getting started on it.

Finally, I answer these for you based on my experiences.  I'll also tell you that you should seek a second opinion from a qualified professional who does an in person physical exam when and if you aren't completely satisfied with your vet's performance.  Clearly the Vet is looking out for your financial interests and that's not a bad quality.  However if your pup is miserable thus you are too then money sometimes isn't an issue as much as eliminating the problem.  You "officially" have my permission to go and make him do a visit or go to a second vet for an opinion if that's what you want to hear.

I hope that helps!
Dave

PS: if they are too fat feed them less; my Shelties get about a cup a day (or almost 2 cups for the high strung 5 year old, one cup for the slow 11 year old) of high quality food and they are extremely healthy.