My 8-month-old Lab has red, crusty skin. Is it allergies or fleas?

Poor Laboo! This scratching can be caused by fleas, mites, ringworm, or allergies. If he isn't up to date on his flea treatment, I can give you one for him. First, I would give him Capstar. It's a one time pill that starts killing fleas within 30 minutes. Then follow up with a spot on treatment, such as Advantage or Revolution. This is a treatment that has to be used once a month. You will also have to disinfect the environment. Wash his bedding in hot soapy water, and vacuum the furniture and carpet surfaces. You can use a spray to kill fleas in the house, such as Indorex, or a flea bomb would work well to kill the fleas in the home. If he is up to date on his flea treatment, I recommend taking him into the vet for an exam today or tomorrow. The vet can do blood tests, skin scrapings, and use a Wood's lamp to diagnose allergies, mites, and ringworm. Once the cause of the itching is found, the vet can prescribe the appropriate treatment. Best of luck.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Logan! Sadly allergies are very common in labs. Without examining him or seeing a picture of the skin I can't be sure of what is going on. Possible causes of a red itchy rash are: bacterial or yeast skin infection, Scabies, Demodex, hives or rash from contact (like from grass). Levocetrizine is an antihistamine and would not help a bacterial or yeast infection. Logan needs to be seen and have his skin examined. I would put him on Nexgard, Simparica or Bravecto to cover scabies and demodex mites. If he has an infection he would be treated with an oral antibiotic and/or antifungal. There are many drugs now to control scratching: prednisone, apoquel or cytopoint. Sometimes medicated shampoos are prescribed. I wish Logan a speedy recovery!

I'm sorry to hear that Hatchi has developed this skin lesion. Possible causes include a bacterial skin infection (most commonly caused by underlying allergies), ringworm, mange, or simply irritation from the sand outside. Without diagnostic testing at the vet's office, it is impossible to definitively determine the cause of this lesion. However, given his recent changes, you can try a few things at home to try to resolve the issue with a bit of trial and error. For starters, try to return Hatchi to his normal diet, but be sure to do so gradually by mixing the foods together over 5-7 days to decrease the likelihood of causing gastrointestinal upset. Try to keep him indoors, particularly while this lesion is healing. If possible, try to eliminate sand from his normal habitat since this can be quite abrasive. While indoors, leave his collar off to prevent moisture from building up under the collar and clean the collar well. You can also try bathing him in a medicated shampoo (this is one example: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=27982). Make sure that Hatchi is receiving a high quality flea and tick preventative, such as Nexgard, Bravecto or K9 Advantix II regularly, even though you haven't had any noticeable issues. If after all of these changes the skin lesions persist or worsen, Hatchi will need to go to his vet for further evaluation. I hope that all goes well!

Hi, and thanks for your question. This could be 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. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

Poor Brutus sounds itchy! This itching can be caused by fleas, mites, ringworm, or allergies. If he isn't up to date on his flea treatment, I can give you one for him. First, I would give him Capstar. It's a one time pill that starts killing fleas within 30 minutes. Then follow up with a spot on treatment, such as Advantage or Revolution. This is a treatment that has to be used once a month. You will also have to disinfect the environment. Wash his bedding in hot soapy water, and vacuum the furniture and carpet surfaces. You can use a spray to kill fleas in the house, such as Indorex, or a flea bomb would work well to kill the fleas in the home. If he is up to date on his flea treatment, I recommend taking him into the vet for an exam today or tomorrow. The vet can do blood tests, skin scrapings, and use a Wood's lamp to diagnose allergies, mites, and ringworm. Once the cause of the itching is found, the vet can prescribe the appropriate treatment. Best of luck, I hope this helps!

Hi there! There are many different skin related diseases that can cause the signs that you describe. The most common diseases include infectious skin diseases (i.e. bacterial pyoderma, dermatophytosis), or ectoparasites (i.e. Demodex, fleas, lice). From the picture you provided Ecru looks as though he may be suffering from Demodex, more commonly known as mange. To be certain of what exactly is going on with Ecru I recommend that he be seen by a veterinarian to evaluate samples of the affected areas of Ecru's skin under a microscope and get him on the appropriate medications and/or shampoos. It depends on what exactly is going on to know how long treatment will be, but I would estimate anywhere between 1 - 3 weeks of treatment. I hope this was helpful and Ecru gets better soon.

This can be caused by various reasons such as fleas, mites ,fungal infection, bacterial infection and allergies. the first 4 needs to be ruled out before we start treating for allergies. in order to do that first de-flea him with a high quality flea treatment such as advantage spot on, if it doesn't help - take him to the vet in order to check for/treat the other possibilities. If everything is ruled out, then an allergy treatment can be started. Usually an hypoallergenic food is a good way to start together with anti histamines. if it doesn't help - the best solution is a medication called Apoquel which treats allergies with great success and without side effects