Why is my dog scratching, red, and losing hair in hot, humid weather?

Hello, sorry to hear about Marley. It sounds like he is having an episode of allergic skin disease. Skin allergies in dogs may be cause by 3 common problems. 1. Flea allergy dermatitis - Allergy to the flea saliva which is caused when a flea bites a dog wether it has flea protection or not. A single flea bite can be enough to induce an allergic response 2. Environmental allergies - Allergy to the environment includes things such as dust mites, pollen, human dander, cat dander, grasses, and detergents. These are typically contact allergies, meaning an allergic response is caused when your pet comes into contact with an environmental allergen. 3. Food Allergies: Allergies to a protein in the food. Most commonly chicken and beef are proteins that dogs can be allergic to. Diagnostics include ensuring your pet is protects against fleas on a monthly basis and treating your environment for fleas monthly as well. The next step is to try food trials with novel protein foods or hypoallergenic food. Finally, doing an allergy test to check for environmental allergies. Treatment includes administering allergy medications, calming shampoos, and treating secondary bacterial or yeast infections as needed. Consult with your veterinarian about examining and testing Marley for allergies. Hope this helps and best of luck.

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.

Your dog needs to see a veterinarian for a skin scraping to rule out parasites and then a culture to see if there is an underlying bacterial or skin infection. Place a cone on him to prevent licking and chewing.

Itchy ears are most commonly a sign of allergies. Your dog may have food allergies, environmental allergies, or parasitic/bacterial skin infection. If he hasn't had a skin scraping to rule out parasites, or skin cytology/culture to look for bacterial or yeast infection, these things should be done. Some dogs actually have skin tumors or autoimmune skin disease that is causing the itching, and those dogs need to have fine needle aspirates or skin biopsies taken for diagnosis. Also, you should try a veterinary prescription allergy diet like Hills z/d for 8-10 weeks fed exclusively to treat potential food allergies. It's really important to feed ONLY the prescription diet during this time. Also, I have had great success with the oral pill Apoquel for some allergies as well, and this is a medication that is much safer to use long-term than steroids like prednisone. If this course of diagnosis and/or treatment is not possible with your current veterinarian, pursue a second opinion somewhere else. If all of these options are explored and your dog is still itchy, it's time to visit a veterinary dermatologist specialist.

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.


This could indicate an allergy to the environment, food or another skin disease like sabeceous adenititis or an autoimmune disease. Sometimes an oatmeal based pet shampoo and conditioner help as well as omega 3 fatty acid supplements. However if this is due to an allergy he may need a long term medication like Apoquel for control. If Shadow gets worse, or the over the counter treatments don't work, he needs to get checked out by his veterinarian.

Allergies and mange would be at the top of my list. A vet can easily check for intestinal parasites (mange) and then figure out a treatment plan for allergies if you don't have any parasites. There are many many different way to treat allergies, depending on how much you want to spend on medications/testing.