We have a 2 yr old female sibe named Penny that we're becoming increasingly concerned about due to her constant itching and skin redness. We find her often itching at her front legs / paws, and at the "armpit" part of her body behind her front legs. If I get a close look at her skin on her front legs and her belly it has a definite pink / reddish hue to it - almost the color of a mild sunburn. There are no raised bumps that I can see, or any hard / crusty patches that I can find. When she does scratch, though, you can sometimes smell something - I don't really know how to describe it, but it's not a particularly pleasant smell.

She's on a raw diet - protein sources are primarily a mix of chicken and pork, with occasionally some beef. With her meals she also gets a combination of ground up (mostly cooked) organ meat (liver and pancreas), ground veggies, Vitamin E powder, and fish oil. There have been no recent changes to her diet, outside of the usual variability associated with getting different types of meat from the butcher.

She's outside almost every day, and swims most days. I was concerned that maybe her being wet so often (and it being so difficult to get her to dry off completely), so we took a 2 week break from going to the park / beach. However, we haven't seen a significant change over that time. I will say, though, that after breaking the 2 week hiatus yesterday and then giving her a bath she's the itchiest she's been in the last 2 weeks.

We think something similar happened last summer (this problem doesn't seem to be an issue during the winter months), but not to this degree. We'll likely be taking her to the vet within the next week, but I was hoping for any information / insight you all might have

The only meds she's on are her flea/tick/heartworm meds - heartgard and nextgard

I think your best bet is to get the vets diagnosis. It really could just be SO many things, and I think the vet is best for helping eliminate the possibilities. I believe Nexguard can cause some skin irritations, then there is the possibility of allergies to food, and things of that nature, allergies in general even, ugh, the possibilities can seem so endless but I do think the vet in this situation, is your best bet at getting it resolved.

Maybe someone here can advise you though, I just wanna bump your thread back up so it doesn't end up not being seen.

Some huskies do have allergic reactions to chicken. It seems like the protein most likely to affect her if indeed she is allergic to a food. You may cut chicken and see if you see a change. On the wetness issue you might benefit from a good high velocity dryer to make certain that she isn't retaining any moisture. On that note though too many baths can cause issues as well, not so much from the moisture but because it strips the good protective oils away from their skin so if she had been out of the water for two weeks and then you gave her a bath with soap, that soap stripped all the oils she had built up which will dry her skin out. Good oatmeal shampoos or conditioner can help with this if baths very often are a must. My girl gets a bath 2 times a year. Just general swimming shouldn't be an issue in that respect though. A vet can do skin scrapings to help nail down any allergies and I would definitely give them a try. Sometime a supplement of fishoil and vitamin E helps with skin issues also.