scratching and pulling out hair

Question
Hi, I have been on the compter trying to find answers on why my dog is constantly scratching and even pulling his hair out. I have a Shih Tzu and he is 7 years old. He is constantly scratching and chewing himself. He has chewed so much that he has several bald spots on his back. I thoght that since it is summer, that maybe he was allergic to fleas ( I fond a couple on him) and have used frontile plus on him to get rid of the fleas thinking that would help and he would stop the scratching and chewing. He has not stopped. He has had hot spots for a few years now, but they have never gotten this bad. I still use the hot spot medicine on him and it gives him temporary relief for only a short period of time. I have given him benadryl, put neosporin on his spots, and nothing seems to really make any type of difference. Do you have any ideas of what is casing this behavior and/or how I can get the little guy some relief? His back is scabbed, his tail is scabbed, and his little feet are scabbed. It is odvious that he is in pain and uncomfortable. He also has dry flaky skin. He likes for me to rub his back and lightly scratch it. After a few minutes of scratching he has to walk and shake it off. Any ideas and/or sggestions will help.

Thank You,
Jessica & ChiChi

Answer
Jessica-

It really sounds like he has food allergies!

What are you feeding him? Let me know in a followup and I may be able to assist you- there are several ingredients in a lot of dog foods that account for 90% of food allergies. I can help you find a food that may help!