Why is my dog still itching and losing hair despite vet treatments?

Milo needs to see a veterinary dermatologist or internal medicine specialist and have allergy testing done. You need to know what the underlying cause of the allergy is to properly treat it. All that has been done so far is treating the clinical signs, no the underlying problem. I don't know where in India you are located but maybe these links can help you find someone in your area. http://indianvets4u.com/ http://www.indiacom.com/bp/animal-medical-services_in_pune/ My other thought is she may have mange and that is why the treatments are not working or only work short term. Speak to your vet about this. It is very easy and inexpensive to treat even if you are only going by a presumptive diagnosis. I hope this helps. Best wishes.

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.

Skin can be very frustrating. The most common cause of skin irritation is allergies (food, flea or environmental). However skin mites, endocrine and auto immune disease can also cause skin issues. I would recommend applying flea prevention every 30 days year round to make sure the fleas are not an issue. Also if the skin is not resolving Kim might need medications for longer, stronger medications or more testing like a skin scrape for mites or biopsy for auto immune disease. I recommend taking Kim back tot he vet to discuss the skin not resolving and further testing. Hope that helps and thanks for using pet coach

The only way to definitively diagnose mange (Demodex) is by skin scrapings which should be repeated every 2-3 weeks during treatment until 2 negative skin scrapings are found. Make sure that the flea and tick medication prescribed will also treat mites (milbemycin or moxidectin) and keep in mind that the dosage frequency is different for mite treatment than it is for flea preventative. Treatment needs to continue for 1-2 months after there is a negative skin scraping. Steroids are usually contraindicated in treatment of Demodex. Demodex mites are not contagious to other animals so your other dogs may not be affected.

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!

It looks as if your dog has a skin infection, most commonly caused by an allergy, a skin mite (Demodex) or fleas. 

The allergy could be a due to a protein in your dog’s food or an environmental allergy like to dust, pollens, grasses, etc. 

The allergy causes your dog to itch and chew at the skin which breaks down the skin barrier. This then leads to infection. Skin infections are typically characterized by large areas of hair loss, redness, crusting, flaking, and pustules. A thorough skin examination by your veterinarian should be able to determine the cause of the itch so it can be treated appropriately. A skin scraping and skin cytology should be performed to rule out mites and to determine the type of infection present (bacterial vs fungal). Your dog will most likely need antibiotics/antifungals longterm to help clear up the infection and possibly an allergy/anti-itch medication like Apoquel, Atopica, or Cytopoint to give some relief while the infection clears up. A medicated shampoo will be beneficial as well. I would also recommend he be on a good flea control routinely too. Once the infection has resolved a long term allergy medication (like Apoquel or Cytopoint) can be given on a regular basis to prevent any future problems. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck.


Poor guy. I would highly recommend asking your vet to perform a skin scrape on Tombo. These lesions are suspicious for possible demodexx mites. The trumectin is a Demodexx treatment; however, you didn't mention that your vet actually tested for this. If this is a mite problem, then a topical medicated shampoo can be used in conjunction with the injections to gain better control of the overpopulation of mites on the skin. Also there are several other products that treat for mites that may be more effective for him, such as the off-label use of Nexgard, Bravecto or Simparica (have to be 6 months or older, so this may be an option depending on his exact birthdate). Also a skin culture should be done to determine which antibiotic will get rid of this infection for a certainty. Most skin infections will respond to broad spectrum antiobitcs, but there can be resistant infections that don't respond, which may be the case with your pet Tombo. This infection doesn't look particularly fungal in nature; however, if your vet already did a skin impression to confirm there is yeast present on the skin, then definitely continue with the Fluconazole treatment as prescribed. These viable tests (skin culture, skin scrape, impression) should give us a good idea on how we should be treating him from here moving forward. As a general rule of thumb, you can give you pet pet formulated fish oils for just about any skin condition in which the skin is red. Fish oils act as a natural anti-inflammatory and can also held with overall skin health. You can find these at your local pet store or through your vet office. I would also inquire with your vet about prescribing some antihistamines to help with any itching that Tombo has right now. That will help him allow his skin to heal and respond to all the treatments he is receiving. I hope this helps you find some resolve for Tombo's itchy/irritate and balding skin. Best wishes and take care!