Friday, September 17, 2010

What is the best place to start with dog skin problems

Dog skin conditions can be confusing to diagnose and even more confusing to solve. But they are very important as they are irritating and painful to your dog and can really influence in his life.
Skin disease in dogs can be anything from a small hot spots on the body, hair falling out and skin turning black. What causes it? Anything or everything from grass allergy fleas food and plant allergies, and sometimes more severe internal organ issues. Once your dog has a skin problem, you should work hard to remedy this.
If your dog's itchy or notice small patches of bare skin or clumps of hair at home, take him to the vet immediately to begin the process of solving what is causing the problem. It is often a process of elimination, since different irritants may cause similar skin problems.
The first thing that your veterinarian can do is to check for fleas because fleas are a common cause of skin conditions in dogs and they are easy to diagnose and fairly easily treated. If so, then your veterinarian will recommend a treatment program that will kill the eggs to adults. And your vet will tell you not only need to treat your dog blanket, but possibly the entire house as well, because the nasties can spawn many areas.
If fleas are not the culprit, an allergy is your next stop to get to the cause of skin problems of your friends. A common form of allergy that affects the dog's skin is a food allergy. Dogs can be allergic to something in their food - wheat, corn, milk, chicken and soy are common items in the back of allergy in dogs.
To exclude a food allergy, then systematically eliminate the elements that you think might cause this. For example, if you think your dog is allergic to wheat and then switch to a diet with corn in it - if the skin problem goes away after a few months after you have your answer. Of course, this time consuming, and if you want to cut some corners you can buy foods that are non-allergenic and have most of the illegal removal of components.
yeast infection, or even bacterial infections can cause skin diseases in dogs as well. A yeast infection is extremely itchy and have a greasy appearance and foul smell. A bacterial infection may look like small bumps on the skin. Your vet can do tests to determine if this is the cause.
One of my dog Archie have very sensitive skin, are more sensitive than my other dogs, and terribly allergic to grass. Recently her skin allergy was so bad we took him back to the vet who did a swab on his stomach. veterinarian yeast spores found on his skin. What? How? We believe they came from backyard grass - but yeast? Justifying the study!
We now have a special shampoo to wash him, and antihistamines only giving him only when his allergies flare up. (Hopefully not). We'll see how we go.
Dog skin diseases take time and patience to succeed, but it is well worth the overall health and wellness for your dog.
To stop any skin problems from taking too long, take your dog to your veterinarian at the first sign of skin conditions.

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