My dog has hair loss, raw peeling skin, and pain. What can I do?

Skin problems can have a variety of causes, sometimes more than one. Allergies, parasites, bacterial or fungal infections, even contact with some surfaces or substances will cause itching, rash and/or hair loss. It is important to have the problem checked by your vet to determine if there is a medical cause for your pet’s skin issues and treat accordingly. In pets of all ages, fleas, food allergies and exposure to chemical irritants such as cleaners and soaps can be a cause. Any one of these may not be enough to trigger the breakouts, depending on how sensitive your pet is, but a combination can be enough to start the itch-scratch cycle. Finding out the cause and eliminating it is the best course of action. With flea allergies, if your pet is sensitive enough, a single bite can cause them to break out scratch enough to tear their skin. Check for fleas with a flea comb. Look for fleas and/or tiny black granules, like coarse black pepper. This is flea feces, consisting of digested, dried blood. You may find tiny white particles, like salt, which are the flea eggs. Applying a good topical monthly flea treatment and aggressively treating your house and yard will help break the flea life cycle. If you use plastic bowls, this is a possible cause for hair loss, though this tends to be on the chin, where their skin touches the bowl while they eat. If you suspect this to be the culprit, try changing the bowls to glass, metal or ceramic. Food allergies are often caused by sensitivity to a protein in the food. Hill's Science Diet offers some non-prescription options for sensitive skin as well as prescription hypoallergenic foods for more severe cases. Royal Canin carries limited protein diets that may also offer some relief. Your vet can recommend a specific diet that will help. If there is no relief or not enough, consider getting your pet checked by a veterinary dermatologist and having allergy testing done.

Siku may be fighting a bacterial or fungal skin infection leading to these symptoms. He could also have a severe allergy or skin mites. If you are unable to get to the veterinarian right away, I would recommend using the below products to start. I hope these help! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. 1. Douxo PS Chlorhexidine combination shampoo and bathe twice weekly until resolved 2. Malacetic conditioning spray and apply twice daily until resolved 3. Douxo PS mousse and apply to affected areas once daily until resolved

This may be due to parasites (fleas, mites), infection (bacterial or fungal) or allergies. Lucero would need to be physically examined by your veterinarian to diagnose the underlying cause. This may take diagnostics such as skin scrapes, cultures, allergy testing or food elimination trials. In the meantime, place an e-collar (cone) on him to prevent licking or chewing. Treat him for fleas, even if you don't see any, using a topical or oral preventative. Treat monthly for 3 consecutive months, preferably year round. Treat the environment as well by vacuuming everywhere and washing all bedding. An area treatment, such as Knockout ES or Indorex, should also be used. If Lucero has allergies, they can be frustrating to diagnose. Discuss allergy testing, hydrolyzed diets, food elimination trials and antihistamine use with your veterinarian.

Poor girl. I would highly recommend having her tested for demodexx mites, hypothyroidism, and a fungal infection. Either of these can cause these symptoms, but they can also all be treated with relatively good success. Best of luck to you at the vet. Best wishes and take care.

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. From the pictures you have provided, I suspect that ceasor has a skin infection. Now, whether or not the skin infection is due to skin parasites, bacteria or Yeast is difficult for me to say by looking at the pictures. I would suggest having a veterinarian examine him in order to get a diagnosis for the most appropriate treatment. Treatment will likely consist of antibiotics, antifungal drugs and topical therapy. If you are unable to get to the veterinarian right away, I would suggest starting a medicated shampoo such as Duoxo chlorhexidine PS combination and bathe twice weekly until the infection is resolved. I would also recommend starting him on welactin omega 3 fish oil and essential 6 spot on by dermoscent. I hope this helps! Please feel free to contact me with any further questions or concerns you may have. I am also available via consultation if needed.

Otis needs to see a veterinarian as soon as possible. They can identify the cause of the itch and provide the appropriate medication. It is always a bad idea to get veterinary advice from the employee at the pet store. They do not have nearly the knowledge of a veterinarian and are not supposed (by law) to give advice about medical treatment. This is a good example why: 1) The olive oil will not help his condition and may just set up an environment for infection. 2) The use of borax and peroxide is extremely damaging to the skin and has probably made the condition worse. 3) There is no need to change the diet right now. Food allergies are actually a rare cause of itching and take a long time to diagnose. I know you are trying to do your best to help Otis, but some things are best left to the professionals. In the end, you'll find that you spend less time, less money and Otis gets better quicker if you take him to the Vet. In the meantime, give him a bath with cool water and use an oatmeal based shampoo. This will help to give a little relief, but is no replacement for seeing a vet.

It sounds like he could have allergies. Allergies commonly cause redness of the skin and can affect pretty much any part of the body. If there is also flaking, crusting, itching or an odor, those are signs that the skin is infected. Infection can be from yeast or bacteria or sometimes a combination of the two. It could also be a parasite on the skin such as mites. I would recommend taking him to your veterinarian for a skin scraping. This is where they take a sample from the surface of the skin and look at it under the microscope. This way they can determine the cause and know how best to treat it. Until then, you can try a topical triple antibiotic ointment and some hydrocortisone to see if that will give him some relief. I hope this helps and that Bob gets feeling better soon!