My older boy has had occasional allergy issues for years, scratching and chewing on himself. Changes in food don't seem to help. Cytopoint injections do, but they're a temporary fix. He's got an appointment in two days to get another one. After reading that other thread I started giving him Dinovite a couple weeks ago but I don't know if it's helping yet or not (they say it can take several weeks to start working). Interestingly, his brother (different litters but same parents) doesn't have the allergy trouble.

I had a Golden that did this. It took 2 years to figure it out.

Various vets called it "hot spots" where he licked a raw sore on the tops of his paws.

Nothing seemed to work. We tried EVERYTHING. Benadryl, sprays, creams, baths with medicated shampoo.... EVERYTHING....

Until a little google-fu turned up something called "sarcoptic mange"

See, the dog had a nose to nose encounter with a fox on our property. Nothing other than them going face to face and then running the other way. But apparently, some little mite causes it and no vet had any idea.

Once treatment was completed, it never came back.

Mention it to the vet. It's a very small, nearly microscopic mite that causes it.

https://vcahospitals.com/know-...ge-sarcoptic-in-dogs

https://www.smalldoorvet.com/l...coptic-mange-in-dogs

Thanks everyone- I sincerely appreciate the ideas and recommendations!

I know of a woman who would not keep the collar on her dog. This was a postop situation and because the woman felt poorly for the dog being uncomfortable on the collar, so she removed it.

The dog proceeded to undo all the stitches and eat it’s own intestines. The dog did not survive.

Keep the damn collar on the dogs!

Modern collars (as long as they’re the right size) can be made of vinyl and very soft. Dogs can lay down on them easily.

Sorry in advance …

Our Rotty had "hot spots" and such until we no longer fed her chicken of any sort

I am not of the mind set of the heard here.
Wash your yard with a hose end sprayer with dawn and water mix.
The damn no see em bugs are most likely the problem.
This has been my route en for decades.
I could go into some details of family members spend hundreds of bucks and not listening to the old man.Son had three dogs as you describe ,would not listen poor dogs died a miserable death young.
Collage education takes away from old mans experience.

We have fought the same with our Bassett, Cytopoint, Apoquel, all short term solutions to a long term problem. Red stomach, itching skin, hair falling out.

Cytopoint is great to calm things down, Apoquel will help keep them calm (skin, itching, licking) but they are not solving the problem, they are simply making the problem less of a problem.

As discussed here, the culprit may be a yeast problem and and the solution was to find a yeast free foods to chose from for your dog.

These are different than "grain free" here is a list of those foods.

https://breedsy.com/best-anti-yeast-dog-food/

You may have to resort to buying online, we use Chewy and buy I Love and You Simply Sea. It's worked wonders, no more shots or pills, itching down to normal dog scratching from time to time.

This might be a solution for your problem

Thanks again everyone.

All of our pets are special to us, Jasper was my father's good boy so he's on another level for me.

I'll update you all as we work out his diet and supplements per the recommendations.

There are topical products that taste nasty. Check at pet store. Hope this works. Good luck with you're pup. We do anything for our furry family members.