Posts Tagged ‘dog skin disorders’
Dog Skin Problems
Dog skin conditions can be difficult to diagnose and even more difficult to cure. The condition of your dog’s skin is an importance indicator of the general health of your dog, and it is crucial to find the cause of the irritating to your dog.
Canine skin problems can range from small isolated spots on their skin to their entire coat being affected. Dog skin disorders can be caused by anything from fleas to allergies and once your dog show signs of has skin problem, you’ll have to work meticulously to get rid of it.
If your dog is itching or you notice patches of bare skin, get him to the veterinarian right away to start the process of figuring out what is causing the problem. More often than not, pin pointing the exact causes of a skin condition is a process of elimination.
The first cause your veterinarian will probably do is fleas, since fleas are a common cause of dog skin irritation – and they are easy to diagnose and fairly easy to treat. It makes sense to rule out fleas from the start. If the dog’s skin condition is caused by fleas, your veterinarian will likely recommend a treatment regimen to kill the adult fleas as well as the un-hatched eggs. It is a good idea to treat the dog’s bedding and, possibly, your whole house.
If fleas are ruled out as the culprit, then you might look into the possibility of that your dog’s skin condition is a symptom of allergies. While we typically think of signs of allergies such as sneezing and running eyes, skin problems can also be indicators of allergies as well. One common type of allergy that affects dog skin is a food allergy. Dogs can become allergic to something in their food such as wheat, corn, dairy, chicken and soy, which are common food ingredients that are known to cause allergies in dogs.
To rule out a food allergy, you must systematically remove the ingredients one by one that you feel might be causing it. For example, if you think the dog is allergic to wheat, then switch to a food that has no wheat in it and if the dog skin condition goes away after a few months then you can be fairly certain that you have isolated by food have your answer. Of course, the trial and error method can be rather time consuming. If you want to or need to come up with a solution faster, you can always switch your dog’s diet immediately and buy foods that are non-allergenic, with most of the ingredients know to cause allergy reactions removed.
Yeast infections, or even bacterial infections can be the cause of skin conditions in dogs as well. A yeast infection is very itchy and has a greasy appearance and bad odor. A bacterial infection caused condition might look like bumps on the skin. Again, your veterinarian can do diagnostic tests to determine if yeast infections or bacterial infections are the cause.
Dealing with dog skin conditions can take time and patience. But dog skin problems can be signs of deeper underlying illnesses that affects the overall health and appearance of your dog. To cure whatever may be responsible for your dog’s skin problem and to prevent the problem from getting worse and causing irreversible damage, take your dog to the veterinarian at the first appearance of any skin condition.