Fleas are gone, but still itching and chewing

My long-haired dog came back from an out of town visit with fleas. Luckily, the day of arrival everything got washed before we even knew about the fleas. Since then everything has been washed once, sprayed & vacuumed twice and the dog has been washed twice. I have been diligently checking the dog for fleas (hours, I tell you, just hours!) twice a day and there are no new bites, no bugs.

However, he keeps chewing and licking. Mostly licking. It's driving me nuts and balls up his fur. I'm right at the edge of shaving him, but there are two reasons I don't want to: #1. It's the wrong time of year for that here; we're moving into the cold season and 2. I'm wondering if he is doing this out of habit now therefore shaving is not going to help anyway. As soon as he feels the tiniest sensation is he licking even though it's something he would have ignored before? I just don't know.

I'm going to give him one more bath today. It's his last chance before shaving unless someone can give me another idea. And, yes, I do ensure that I rinse of ALL the shampoo. Today I will rinse an extra round just to be sure. That'll be three baths in about 6 days.

Baths dry the skin. Put him on an omega three fatty acid supplement, give him benedryl and keep him preoccupied. If you bathe use soap free conditioning shampoo. What feed is he on? Make sure it's not full of fillers and that it is doing its job to keep his integumentary system safe. Brush daily and believe it or not a longer toothed curry massage will help. I would use hylyt shampoo.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks, Cakemom. Yes, that's why I don't usually bathe him. This is more baths then he's had in the last year. I still haven't bathed today because I really don't think he needs it. I like the idea of benadryl. I'm going to check to see that it's safe for dogs. Just to be sure.

As for diet and supplements, etc. He's gets his dry dog food, whatever it is, and leftovers from the table from time to time. When I buy food, I always look at the ingredients and try to get something with meat and bone meal #1, then rice if needed. I try to avoid the corn based dog food. Why would anyone think that a dog eats corn???? He's kind of a farm dog, but a "princess" farm dog. :)