My dog has skin issues. Could it be mange, allergies, or mites?

This could indeed be mange, an allergy or a bacterial or fungal skin infection. Sarcoptic mange and a fungal infection are contagious to people so I strongly suggest you make an appointment with your vet for a skin exam. Your vet will do a skin scrape and look at it under the microscope, hopefully finding a mange mite. He may also take a brush sample to try and grow a fungus in a test tube. Please make an appointment today.

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.

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!

You are absolutely correct that mange or allergies are possible. The doctor may recommend a diagnostic called a skin scrape to check for mites. For now just protect the area from any itching. It doesn’t look really inflamed so I’m not sure there’s much you can do at this point. As a general recommendation, starting Lexi on an omega 3 fatty acid for dogs can help improve skin health and it certainly won’t hurt anything. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Birch. I recommend that he sees a veterinarian. There are actually several different types of mange caused by different mites. Each requires a different course of treatment. He will likely need skin scrapes to look for mites under the microscope. There are a variety of other skin problems that can affect young puppies as well. It is important to have him properly diagnosed and treated. I hope this information helps!

Since there is a smell, severe pruritus (itch), and hair loss this is very suspicious for sarcoptic mange, especially since both your dogs are affected. You will need to take them to your vet for a skin scrape to verify that it is indeed mange. Mange is relatively easy to treat with an injection of an avermectin. Sometimes a second injection is needed. Unfortunately sarcoptic mange is contagious and if you have other pets (dogs, cats) they should all be treated. You will also need to watch out for itchy skin conditions as humans can also be affected.

It depends on what kind of mange they have. Sarcoptic mange (also called scabies) is contagious to other dogs as well as humans, so it's common for multiple dogs in a household to be affected. Demodectic mange, on the other hand, is not contagious and is normally inherited or caused by an immune deficiency of some kind. In that case, unless the dogs are all related, there is no good reason why three dogs in the same household would have this problem. I'm not sure if the dogs have actually been diagnosed with mange by a veterinarian - but if not, I would definitely recommend a vet check. There are many things besides mange that can cause itching and hair loss in dogs, including allergies, fleas, or a bacterial or fungal skin infection, which can often affect multiple dogs in the same house.