Why is my Silky Terrier licking herself so much? Does she have an allergy?

My two year old female silky terrier is almost constantly licking her groin area, where her legs meet the rest of her body (but not her female parts, just where her legs come together). The area has a very small amount of fur, there is no redness or scabs.

I feed her IAMS for small and toy breeds.

~ Does she do this to her paws also or just her legs?

What dog food are you feeding?

Iams is horrible:

The first ingredient in the food is a named meat product. This is not a meat meal, but is inclusive of water content (about 80%). Once this is removed, as it must be to create a dehydrated product, the ingredient will weigh around 20% of its wet weight. As ingredients are listed in order of weight, it is thus unlikely that this is truely the first ingredient in the food, but would be more accurately placed much further down the ingredient list as a minor ingredient in the food.

The main grain and main ingredient in the food is corn. Corn is a difficult to digest grain of limited value and that is commonly associated with allergy problems. Sorghum is decent quality, but this product is very heavy in grain content with little meat included for the canine.

The third ingredient is byproducts. It is impossible to ascertain the quality of by-products and these are usually products that are of such low quality as to be rejected for use in the human food chain, or else are those parts that have so little value that they cannot be used elsewhere in either the human or pet food industries. The AAFCO definition of Chicken by-product meal is 鈥渁 meal consisting of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.

The only true meat ingredient in this food is the 8th ingredient, which is far too far down the ingredient list to make any significant difference to the overall meat content or quality of this product.

Beet pulp is a controversial filler. It is a by-product, being dried residue from sugar beets which has been cleaned and extracted in the process of manufacturing sugar. It is a controversial ingredient in dog food, claimed by some manufacturers to be a good source of fibre, and derided by others as an ingredient added to slow down the transition of rancid animal fats and causing stress to kidney and liver in the process. We note that beet pulp is an ingredient that commonly causes problems for dogs, including allergies and ear infections, and prefer not to see it used in dog food. There are less controversial products around if additional fibre is required. We would prefer to see the use of whole eggs rather than egg product in the food.

If there isn't any redness then most likely she doesn't have an allergy. If a dog has allergies then they usually scratch a lot and they bite at their legs and feet a lot. My dog has them and he also gets small red bumps around his eyes and on his head. Dogs can be given Benadryl for this it's 1-3 milligrams per pound of dog. They also have anti-itch spray and cream for dogs.

no it may just itch some times so you may need a cream so youm should git her checked out ok.

she might just be trying to clean herself.