Itching and paw licking are often thought of as just a part of having a dog. Hard to calm and impossible to get rid of.
But now, retired vet Dr. Anthony Yores says that's simply not true.
He explains,
"Itching is one of the most common reasons dogs came into my clinic. But it's not something your dog has to put up with."
According to vets who've seen it for decades, the reason your dog's itching won't go away is not that it's impossible to fix.
It's because Apoquel, Cytopoint, Benadryl and the food switches don't go after the real root cause.
"Everyone likes to tell us allergies cause the itching and the paw licking," says Dr. Yores, "but most of the time it's parasites hiding in the gut that make the skin flare up."
In one study, puppies who had Giardia, a common gut parasite, were about 4 times more likely to have itchy skin later in life.⁵
In simple terms, gut parasites are like squatters in your dog's belly. They live where no allergy test looks, deep in the gut. And their main job is to eat what your dog eats, before he gets it.
But they don't live out in the open. They hide under a shield called biofilm. And the monthly chew most dogs get, like Simparica Trio, doesn't list Giardia or whipworm on its label, two of the most common gut parasites found in U.S. dog parks.¹
And since researchers found that about 70% of the immune system lives in the gut,² when the gut flares up, the skin follows.
The results? Paw licking at 3am, a red belly and that corn-chip smell, that we try to calm with all the wrong things.
But there is good news.
Once you break through the shield and flush the parasites out, his gut can do its job again. So his skin can calm down, and so can he.
What's better? It's easier than you thought.
"I want to help the owners who can't keep paying $140 for Apoquel every 40 days feel just as hopeful as those who can," he says. "A calm dog shouldn't have a price tag."
That's why he now points owners to one thing: oil of oregano. Not the leaves, the oil, with 70%+ carvacrol, the part shown to break into biofilm.³ In one study, people with gut parasites took oil of oregano for 6 weeks, and the parasite was gone completely in 8 of them.⁴ A few drops on his food. At home. With ease.
And his #1 pick, Pet Organica Oil of Oregano Drops, is already loved by over 30,000 pet parents, with rave reviews about this simple mealtime fix.
One owner, Kelly M., wrote in to say:
"he had been licking his paws raw for the better part of 2 years and nothing helped. 6 weeks in and they look normal. still kinda in shock honestly"
And she's not the only one. Dog owners everywhere are singing the praises of Dr. Yores and his simple fix for itchy dogs, helping them put the cone away and finally sleep through the night.
See how simple and easy it is to calm your dog's itching by checking Dr. Yores' #1 pick below.
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Citations: 1. Stafford K et al. Detection of gastrointestinal parasitism at recreational canine sites in the USA: the DOGPARCS study. Parasit Vectors. 2020;13:275. PMID 32487211. 2. Vighi G et al. Allergy and the gastrointestinal system. Clin Exp Immunol. 2008;153(Suppl 1):3-6. PMID 18721321. 3. Nostro A et al. Effects of oregano, carvacrol and thymol on Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilms. J Med Microbiol. 2007;56:519-523. 4. Force M, Sparks WS, Ronzio RA. Inhibition of enteric parasites by emulsified oil of oregano in vivo. Phytother Res. 2000;14(3):213-4. PMID 10815019. 5. Walz KC et al. Long-term follow-up after acute gastroenteritis caused by Giardia infection in juvenile dogs. J Vet Intern Med. 2025;39(4):e70123. PMID 40448678.