Today, I am going to talk about things that are related to your Havanese feeling itchy. For example: how to find out whether your Havanese feel itchy. What cause them to feel itchy. What to do when it happens.
Finding Out that Your Havanese Feel Itchy Isn’t Really That Hard
Havanese make it very obvious when they feel itchy. They would do a lot of skin scratching and sometimes chewing and licking. Having said that, it is surprisingly that a lot of Havanese owners are not aware of that. Some people just are just born with below-average level of awareness. Now, you at least know that excessive skin scratching and chewing are not normal, you should be able to increase your awareness. Like many things in life, gaining knowledge is a good way to increase your awareness.
Take Your Havanese to the Vet
Even though I am going to explore with you on some possible reasons that cause the itchiness. It is almost always a good idea to be safe and take your Havanese to the vet. Some people may think that it is too safe to do that especially small issues do happen quite frequently for some dogs. I do think that it is better to be way too safe than to be slightly too risky. Think about your experience of taking care of your Havanese. In the past, how many times did you think your Havanese’s health issue would take care of itself. How many times did it end up that your Havanese didn’t auto-recover and you still have to take your Havanese to the vet a week or so later. It is not difficult to understand that we human tend to be a little too optimistic and always think that we can skip seeing the doctor and let our health issues auto-fix themselves. However, when serious things happen, we simply can’t afford to go to the doctor too late. As the old saying goes, “prepare for the worse and hope for the best”.
It Helps If You Know the Possible Causes
Sometimes, the vet would be able to find out the reason of the itchiness right away, but sometimes things are tricky and the vet may only be able to narrow things down to a few different possible reasons. Beside taking medicine as advised by your vet, you should at least have the basic knowledge of what may cause the itchiness. I will explain the most common reasons in the following.
Flea is the Number One Reason
Usually, flea is the cause of making your Havanese itchy. A vet can usually find that out and give your the medicine to make your Havanese recover. However, it is your own job to find out the root cause. Is it that your bed is full of flea? Or is it that your entire home is already full of flea? Sometimes, it is tempting to avoid finding out the truth as the truth is often very hard to handle. However, flea is one of those problems that can only get worse over time and almost never auto-fix themselves. If your home is full of flea, just call the professional to hand that for you. I think that’s the best way to handle it. For those that like to do it yourself, you may need to pick up some flea handling chemical from the supermarket but I would highly recommend you not to do it yourself.
Dry Skin is Another Common Cause
Havanese seems to have the problem of dry skin. When we human have dry skin, very commonly we would improve our skin condition by putting on lotion. That’s not the case for Havanese. To improve the skin condition actually requires you to fix his diet. You should take your vet’s advice on what to add to or to remove from your Havanese’s diet. He may ask you to add a teaspoon of fish oil or olive oil to your Havanese’s diet and that usually improves the skin condition. It is often surprising to see what a teaspoon of fish oil or olive oil can do.
Food Allergy is a Cause that Takes Patience & Time to Check
Another common possible cause that may make your Havanese feel itchy is the that he has some kind of food allergy that you are not aware of. It is not complex to find out whether your Havanese to allergic to the food you provided, it will just take some time and patience to remove and replace different part of your Havanese’s diet and find out the answer. The easiest way may be to replace your existing provided food with different brands of dry food. It doesn’t always work that smoothly as your Havanese may not be willing to cooperate.
Allergic to the Living Environment
Although flea is a big cause of the itchiness, it is not the only way that the living environment can cause your Havanese allergy. Just like for us human, allergy can be quite tricky sometimes. For example, your Havanese may be allergic to the material that your bed is made of. He may be allergic to your towel or carpet. Again, it takes a lot of time and patience and time to find out what works and what don’t.
The Lack of Omega-3
Even though it is believed that the dog food today is much better that those that was available decades ago, there are still some flaws in a lot of the dog food you can get from the market. To simply put, a lot of the dog food that claim to have Omega-3 actually don’t have the type of Omega-3 that is beneficial to your Havanese. In detail, these dog food still have Omega-3 but there are too much food processing going on that it is no longer in a form that is beneficial to your Havanese. Lacking Omega-3 can cause skin problems and a lot of other problems too. The safest way to get that missing Omega-3 back is to add a tea spoon of fish oil to your Havanese’s meals.
