Why is my senior Chinese Crested dog restless with skin issues?

Hello, This appears to be a very large region of skin infection- it could be fungal, bacterial, or both. This looks quite serious due to its size and will take a bit of dedicated treatment with likely both regular topical (shampoos, creams) and daily oral medications for a few months to get under control. She may have underlying skin disease that makes her more prone to developing infections due to her breed. I'd try to have her seen by a veterinarian this week.

Hello, sorry to hear about Chintu. It looks like his skin disease has progressed quite a bit. He would likely benefit from a dermatologist to assess him and depending on what has been done, potentially, obtaining skin biopsies would be a next step. One potential cause could include allergies, however other more aggressive lesions like cutaneous lymphoma and fungal diseases should be ruled out. Unfortunately it is difficult to attain a diagnosis based on a picture alone, as this will likely need contributions from diagnostics, physical exam, and history to obtain the most likely diagnosis for Chintu. I would recommend seeing a dermatologist to obtain more specialized care and information. You may ask your veterinarian for a referral to a dermatologist near you. Hope this helps and best of luck.

I'm so sorry to hear that Lucy isn't doing well. The appropriate treatment very much depends on why she is scratching and chewing. She could have allergies, an infection, mast cell tumors (which release histamine in to the blood stream), or even be chewing because of the anxiety itself. There are also many different medical treatments for anxiety (including daily and just as needed options) as well as various behavior modification protocols. So it's hard to help without knowing what has been tried so far and what her diagnosis is. If you were starting from scratch, I would recommend a fine needle aspirate (FNA) of both masses to try to get an idea of what type of tumors she has (and determine if surgery is possible to remove them), as well as general bloodwork to make sure her organ are functioning ok and there's no indication of endocrine disease, and skin cytology and skin scrap to look for yeast, bacteria, or parasites. If you're not having luck with your vet after several follow up visits, it's reasonable to seek a second opinion.

A food elimination trial should last a minimum of 6-8 weeks feeding one food exclusively, no other treats or foods. Afterwards, the condition should be reassessed. If this is the case with two different diets containing a novel protein/carb combo and still no improvement, then a consultation and exam with a veterinary dermatologist may be your next step. If Samson is licking or chewing excessively, an e-collar (cone) should be used. Consider an essential fatty acid supplement, such as DermCaps or EicosaCaps, to promote healthy skin and coat. If allergies are the underlying cause, they can be frustrating to diagnose, but once you determine specific allergens then management may be easier.

Although a picture of the lesions would help to determine the underlying cause, this is probably due to an allergy, but it could also be due to an infection or mites. Old age itself is unlikely to cause anything like you described. 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.

Honestly this sounds like a potentially serious skin problem. I would highly recommend at this point to get Daiquiri's skin biopsied to check for immune mediated diseases and skin cancer. Especially since it seems that everything else has been tried. Also baseline bloodwork (CBC, Chemistry) is highly recommended here. I don't see how depression has anything to do with your pets skin problems.

There are four main causes of persistent skin issues and you must figure out the underlying cause to address the problem. The causes are: flea allergy, food allergy (this needs to be ruled out with a hydrolyzed diet), environmental allergy or hypothyroidism. With out any further information, it’s hard to know how to advise next steps. If your veterinarian is not comfortable with treating chronic skin conditions, find one who is. I recommend to rule out fleas with a product like Simparica. I rule out food allergy with a diet called Ultamino. Hypothyroidism is a blood test. Environmental allergies are unfortunately very common and also more complicated but they can be determined with a blood test as well. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.