Hi Julie-
I never thought about boredom as causing him to scratch. But, I doubt that's it as we have another dog and they play outside all day while we are at work. I'm happy to report that he has not scratched at all since coming home from the vet two days ago. Yes, the doctor did say to give him 50mg of benadryl twice a day but I haven't yet since he hasn't been scratching. The prescriptions the doctor gave us are cefpodoxime tablets (kills bacteria like staph) and the drops for the wound are dimethylsulfox ide. I think he'll be ok and we'll probably bath him in anti-itch shampoo in the future just to be safe. Like i said, i really think it was the snow and then the sun that triggered it. Oh, and I have begun to give him the fish oil caps..he'll eat anything.
I agree about the cold..it's crazy. We live in Castle Rock, have a nice fenced yard, and built an insulated dog house, but I don't think our dogs use it. My wife and I decided it's too cold for them outside today so we are going to try our first attempt at letting him have free reign of the house while we are gone. We've been really lucky because he hasn't chewed anything in the house and think he'll probably just sleep most of the day anyway. He hasn't given us any reason to not trust him, so all we can do is see what happens I guess.
What's your philosophy on dogs and staying out in the cold weather?