More speculation

Maybe the wounds just taste good. Maybe it's the salt in the blood. Check it out - lick your wounds!

So how come these animals can overcome the scratching urge like that? Maybe they don't itch? There again, my dog scatched her eczema to shreds and then licked the wounds.

Maybe there's evolutionary value in not knowing these things?

Licking, not scratching

Well, most animals do not scratch wounds - they lick them. The itching reminds them to keep the wound clean and moist.

itching to reply

"If scratching really does have shown negative effects (infection, slowing of tissue growth etc.) then evolution usually has the complexity to work around it."

There again, evolution may not be all it's cracked up to be. Maybe itching - and consequent scratching - is just a ba-ad thing that doesn't help us at all. Maybe we'd all be much better off if we didn't do it. Maybe all those sabre-toothed tigers were even more itchy than we were. Maybe itchy wounds are caused by wolf genes "reaching out into the world" a la Dawkins to weaken their prey. In a world without references or personal biographies anything is possible.

I thought the itching was just the bits of torn tissue beginning to join up again.