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Ask a Vet (Pet Health) (Expert Forum)
Scratching
Answered by
Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M. - Small Animals, dogs, cats, CVA
American Animal Hospital
Randolph - NJ
This forum is for pet health questions! Dr. Cheng's interests include: Small animal medicine & surgery, Veterinary Acupuncture and Veterinary Chinese Herbal Medicine and Veterinary NAED, Allergy diagnosis & treatment
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Doctor's Answer
by Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., Jul 31, 2007 07:55PM
, Jul 31, 2007 07:55PM
Your veterinarian should do a skin scraping for mites, check for ringworm with a fungal culture, and wood's lamp, check for staph pyoderma, via cytology, and more. Causes for itching include: fleas and flea allergy dermatitis, scabies, demodex and other mites, chigger bites, Atopy (environmental allergies), food allergy dermatitis, endocrine and autoimmune disorders, yeast dermatitis and more. If your dog has staph pyoderma she/he would need antibiotics. There are good shampoo's out there that help with itching. If your dog is still itching despite these treatments than further diagnosic procedures are necessary, which I have listed above.
The treatment is dependent on the cause and is beyond the scope of this forum. In my experience very few skin disorders are limited to one cause. Usually they include a cascade of problems such as scabies mites causing the dog to scratch and bite the affected area thus breaking skin, which will introduce bacteria from the skin and nails and mouth into the open areas causing a secondary bacterial, or fungal infection. The mites must be eliminated, and an antibiotic must be given to eliminate the bacterial infection.
The treatment is dependent on the cause and is beyond the scope of this forum. In my experience very few skin disorders are limited to one cause. Usually they include a cascade of problems such as scabies mites causing the dog to scratch and bite the affected area thus breaking skin, which will introduce bacteria from the skin and nails and mouth into the open areas causing a secondary bacterial, or fungal infection. The mites must be eliminated, and an antibiotic must be given to eliminate the bacterial infection.
somthings to look for would be:
-redness under her chin on her skin
-redness inbetween her paw pads on the skin
-scratching her ears a lot and scratching in general
if these symtoms ocure to your dog you should contact your vet and ask if a dermotologist is necesary.
some symtoms can be worst than others. some treatments could be shots(which my dog has to be given) or medication
also keep up with giving her baths (my dog is the same)
try changing her food first though because it could be something in her food such as weat so u could try an all natural food
if u have any questions just send me a comment
thank u and good bye
wheat
and the baths really do help