Yorkie licks constantly

Question
QUESTION: My Yorkshire Terrior licks himself constantly! It is so annoying to the entire family. He gets red places on his skin. Usually on his belly or under his armpit. This is driving us crazy, and I was wondering if there is anything on the market that I could get for him to keep from paying high vet fees. Thanks, Tina

ANSWER: Tina -

The top 2 reasons for dogs to get itchy and start licking like you describe are fleas and food allergies.  I assume you don't have fleas, so my very first suggestion would be to check the ingredients of the dog food you are feeding.

Many many dogs, and especially terriers, are sensitive to ingredients like corn and soy.  I encourage you to change to a dry food with no corn in it.  Choose the rice or oatmeal formulas instead - and it will be very hard to buy a decent quality dog food in the grocery store.

Probably 80% of itchy dogs will get better with just this switch.

If that doesn't help, tell me and I will get more specific

-Beth

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I give my dog Pedigree from Wal-Mart. I looked at the ingredients, and dont see anything you talked about. You can look at the ingredients on-line. Do you mind looking and see what you think. Where should I get him a good dog food from. What do you recommend? Thanks so much, Tina

Answer
Tina

Here are the first ingredients in Pedigree:

Ground Whole Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Animal Fat (preserved with BHA/BHT), Meat and Bone Meal, Natural Poultry Flavor, Wheat Mill Run, Potassium Chloride, Wheat Flour, Salt, Carmel Color,

There's a lot of corn in there, and also by-product meal.  By-product meal is ground up indigestible beaks, feathers, feet, heads, etc.  Does not have to contain meat

Obviously that's digusting and not beneficial for your dog.

Probably the most common, not outrageously priced quality dog foods are Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul or Nutro Natural Choice (not Nutro Max).  Here are the first ingredients in these foods

Chicken Soup:  Chicken, turkey, chicken meal, ocean fish meal, cracked pearled barley, whole grain brown rice, oatmeal, millet, white rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), potatoes, egg product, tomato pomace, duck, salmon

Nutro Natural: Chicken Meal, Rice Flour, Ground Rice, Rice Bran, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Soybean Oil (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of Vitamin E), Oatmeal,

I'm sure you can see the difference. And in feeding only one small dog, the cost difference in upgrading will be minimal (compared to me who feeds 20+ lbs per week)

You should be able to get one or the other of these brands at any pet supply store, including the chains like Petsmart.

If you absolutely cannot buy at a pet supply store, and must buy at Walmart, I recommend that you switch to Purina One.  It's the best you can usually get (better than Iam's) in a grocery store.   Here's the first ingredients from that food:

Chicken (natural source of glucosamine), brewers rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal (natural source of glucosamine), whole grain corn, whole grain wheat, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), non-fat yogurt, animal digest,

While it still has corn and by-products, they are further down the list, meaning there's less of them.

However, I would strongly recommend that you get rid of corn from your kiddo's diet if you are hoping to stop the licking and itching.

Good luck

-Beth