Hey all,

My 3.5 year old siberian husky has been scratching alot lately, I ruled out that it is NOT Hot spots, I have been checking him over from head to toe. His skin is also not irritated or red, he is just itchy. All around his head and collar area as soon as you touch him or go to pet him his leg starts the "feel good shake"

If it gets to the point of real concern, I will be making a vet visit, but I feel like it may be an allergy to something in his food. We feed him Acana (kibble), he has always done well on it since he was a puppy. The hardest part is i'm not sure what ingredient he might be allergic to as we switch up the flavours every now and then for him, he gets bored easily. (or its his typical husky stubbornness)

I have done some research on how to eliminate and find the allergy. I was thinking of putting him on a bland diet for a few days first (rice/boiled beef) and see if the itching subsides. Then pick a flavor of Acana and stick to it and do a process of elimination.
Or should i get a new brand of food all together to try?

Just looking for tips, or some of your experiences with having to do an elimination diet to find an allergy.

ALSO... Maybe its not an allergy at all and there is something i haven't thought of that could be causing the itch, i should add that he has been groomed and blown out 2 weeks ago, i thought i would try that to see if it would solve the problem first.

Thanks in Advance

Nikki, elimination diets can be an undertaking...rather than give you ideas I have a useful link.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2111&aid=143

They give a pretty easy step by step help in that type of diet. It maybe worth adding in oil to his diet first. This time of year dry skin, especially if it has been very cold, would be a better guess to me. Fish, olive and coconut oil are great items to add into the diet, you can rotate between the three, you can add a teaspoon and work up to a tablespoon a day, or you can massage into his coat, tho I would opt to go with the olive or coconut. Try the oil for a couple of weeks, if no visible change, then probably allergies.

Hope I helped a little, good luck and please give an update.