The vets at Abbey House Veterinary Hospital in Leeds see over 400 dogs every week.
Skin problems are one of the most common things they come across.
If you notice that your dog is constantly scratching and itching and that the skin looks
really red and sore, then definitely go to your vet straight away and quite commonly
skin problems can be treated.
Rachel and Neil are in the waiting room today with their dog Boo.
Come in to bring our Boxer dog today, because she's got a skin irritation.
She keeps scratching herself and nibbling bits of her feet and her elbows and things.
And it's like there's actually little bits of like patches of her skin and that where
it's missing.
So it looks as though she's going bald in patches.
So it's a bit of a concern as well.
So I know she's had skin problems before, but obviously not to this degree, so we want
to just get her checked out and make sure she's alright otherwise.
Boo has been off her food because of a skin condition for the last few days and the couple
are concerned.
I understand it's a problem with her skin again today.
Yeah.
And where are the main areas that she's scratching, or is it chewing or what is it she's doing.
She's scratching her chest and neck.
There's two back areas here and her chest.
Right okay.
But these bits she's scratching and then it's almost as though she's biting, but she's like,
nibbling at them.
Right, okay
One of the easiest things to treat is if it's a parasitic problem.
So that includes both fleas and mites.
If you see any fleas on your dog, then they will likely be scratching, so we do recommend
regular flea treatment to stop fleas becoming a problem.
Parasites are the major source of skin irritation in dogs.
Yet according to the PDSA 2.4 million dogs are never treated for fleas.
Boo has regular flea treatments but there are several other possible causes of skin
irritation.
Dogs can also pick up mites, especially from foxes and hedgehogs.
In this situation, not only may your dog scratch but start to lose its fur as well.
Then go straight to your vet and they will take samples of your dog's skin and fur to
make sure that it is mites, and then start the correct treatment for that.
Will you sit down for me.?
Sit.
Sit down.
Can you lie down?
Do you want to lie down?
Oh, there we go.
Good girl.
Can we have a look under here?
Right then, so the actual skin under here looks okay, doesn't it?
It is quite mottled on the fur.
Yes, and that's never been like that.
Sorry.
Are you finding that her hair's falling out by itself, or is it more ?
She's pulling it out.
She's chewing it out, is't she?
We're not really noticing it any more around the house.
Right okay.
But we've never really noticed her hair anywhere.
We looked at her for fleas.
Yeah, there's no sign of any fleas on her or anything like that, that's a problem.
No, we already checked that out a little bit.
If you have a look here.
Yeah, she's quite sore.
There as well, a little scab.
Okay.
Allergies are another common cause of skin problems.
Just like humans dogs can be allergic to almost anything especially in the summer months.
The most common areas you see are the inguinal areas and the feet and the ears.
They're the ones that first flare up.
So the skin'll look red and the dog'll be scratching and looking at these areas a lot.
In these situations, antihistamines can work quite well.
But sometimes they may need to go onto steroids as well, just over the summer months, to try
and help with this allergy.
In case it's an allergy to something, we can put her onto some antihistamines just to help
with the itching in case it is an actual allergy she's got to something.
If you find that it's getting red and we're not seeing any resolution over time, then
we should definitely see her again and then we might have to look at doing some further
tests and a skin scrape and maybe even a biopsy of the skin just to make sure there's no underlying
cause of it.
Right then, see you later.
Good girl.
Go on then.
See you later, bye.
Bye