How allergy signs can affect your life. This is the story of an
otherwise very happy Labrador Retriever with concurrent allergies. It
is based on an interview held with Nell Kremers.
Scratching for Relief
Demi is a friendly Labby, she's always happy and playful... or at
least she used to be up until one summer at 15 months of age. She then
just started biting and scratching. As if the itching drove her mad
she was iterally rubbing and licking her skin away. The once beautiful
chocolate-brown Labrador lost her shine.
She showed bald spots in her arm-pits and below her tail plus self-
inflicted wounds in her face. Scratching for relief of allergy
symptoms does cost a lot of energy.
At first it just seemed as if she had developed a bad habit and the
owners at first tried to correct her for overdoing the scratching
thing as perhaps she was just seeking attention being in the puberty
age. Demi, the docile dog she is, obeyed and stopped the scratching as
long as one of her human family members was around. But as soon as
they left the room, she would make up for lost scratching time and hit
it like crazy. Also when she got aroused and her blood started flowing
more quickly through her veins, it appeared the itching increased....

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