My dog has hair loss and scabs. What else can I try for his skin?

Poor guy, he does look miserable. You did not indicate if he has had a skin scraping. It really looks suspicious of a type of mange caused by the Demodex mite. This is NOT a contagious form of mange like Sarcoptic mange....so Ben may have it and his sister could be fine. Demodex presents as very red skin with hair loss. If he had not been checked for this, that is the very first thing to do.

The hairloss is a bit worriesome for mange (skin mites). I suggest you try apply Goodwinol ointment to the affected areas and if no improvement after a couple weeks of treatment then she should see your vet. ( https://www.amazon.com/Goodwinol-GOODOINT-Ointment-1-oz/dp/B00JFRPKCW?th=1 )

Poor guy. There are really only 2 types of mites that we see in veterinary medicine- Scabies and Demodexx mites. Scabies (a type ofmite) is infectious to people so if you yourself are not itching then you can kind of rule that one out. The other mite, Demodexx isn't infectious to people or other pets, and nowadays it can be treated with oral flea preventatives such as Bravecto, Nexgard or Simparica + a medicated topical shampoo through your vet. I would recommend just starting Baileys' on one of these to cover any kind of mite issue. Then I would suggest getting Bailey on an oral antibiotic to clear up the skin infection that is present. The ears look to be infected as well. This will require a topical ear medication and cleaner from your vet to resolve. Skin allergy testing is not commoonly used anymore due to the poor overall response to allergy immunotherapy shots. THe most common allergy medication used nowadays is Apoquel. I would ask your vet about this as well, especially if mites are not the underlying problem, which can be easily confirmed or denied with a simple skin scraping test done through your vet. I hope that you can get Bailey's skin issue resolved soon. Best wishes and take care!

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. Judging from the photos you provided, I would suspect a skin infection, either bacterial, fungal or parasitic. I would suggest having a veterinarian examined him so that further tests can be performed in order to determine what the exact cause of these scabs is. Flint may need to be on a course of antibiotics or anti-parasitic medications to treat this. However, treatment would be based on test results and physical examination findings. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns. I am also available via consultation if needed

It's probably not mange. It looks like chronic skin allergies (could be from food or the environment or atopy) with secondary bacterial and yeast infections. The thickening and darkening of the skin tells me that this isn't going to be a simple case to fix. As far as I am aware, specialists are still open in the US, but with some modifications. Most often they have a decreased appointment load and you will be asked to wait in the car. I would recommend that you make an appointment with the specialist, since this is a case that will not resolve with short courses of antibiotics and cytopoint injections.

This is probably due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment, then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

In his armpits and on his chest this is a skin infection. I would recommend taking Thor to the veterinarian to get a course of antibiotics to heal this. I would also recommend getting a skin scraping for the hairloss on his back. This may be a skin mite like demodex. I would make sure Thor is on either Simparica, Nexguard or Bravecto. These are oral flea and tick preventions and are used off label for demodex and skin mites. These are prescription so I would discuss them with your veterinarian. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.