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Why is my dog scratching and licking his paws despite diet changes?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Pit Bull Terrier | Male | unneutered

Good Day My dog is constantly scratching and sometimes licking his paws. We move from dog food to raw meat and he was still scratching and then we moved to a Environmental Allergy dog food the hills brand and he is still scratching. We thought it might have something to do with a grass allergy and we threw salt on the grass to kill bugs but he is still scratching. He is a Pitt Bull.

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1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS

Veterinarian

Published on September 28th, 2020

Hi, and thanks for your question. This could be due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment, then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

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