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Miserable Dog

Toby

My dog is about 15 years old. He normally gets very dry in the fall and winter but this year it has been especially bad. His skin is flaky and he has been itching so much that some of his exposed skin has turned black. He is half cocker spaniel and half golden retriever. I have given him a bath once or twice a week with Sulfodene and it seems to help for a day or two at most. When I bathed him I did notice 1 or 2 fleas but that's all I could ever find. What could this be? I have given him Brewer's Yeast pills to try to help with the skin condition but the success has been very limited. Is there anything else, short of taking him to a vet, that I can try?

Symptoms: Itching & Scratching

• Veteran Advisor Helen Fines says:

  February 11th, 2008 at 11:51 PM

  The first priority would be to treat him with an effective flea product- whatever else is going on with his skin, it won't resolve if there are fleas present. If you have seen one or two, there will be many more. Baths are only effective in the short term, so treat Toby, and the home environment. If he is very itchy he may have a flea allergy, so it's crucial to eliminate any contact with fleas. He may need something from a vet to relieve the scratching, but when both these aspects (the itchiness and removal of the allergen) are treated, the skin condition should improve without any more intervention. If it doesn't there are several supplements which would help, or it may be that further investigations are needed to find another cause.

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• User suggests:

  March 26th, 2009 at 10:37 AM

  could this be cancer of the skin as well?

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