I have a 10-month old yorky/maltese mix. When adopted, ...

The most common cause of these crazy skin problems is allergies, especially with this breed. These allergies could be from grass, contact with a cleaner or chemical or could even be food related. The allergy part is sometimes tough to treat but there are some simple things that you can do.

1. Talk with your vet about a low allergy diet. Rabbit and potato is my favorite and my dogs do well on it.
2. Get the dog started on frontline to eliminate the chance that this is a flea allergy. If he's already on it, keep in mind that it only takes ONE flea to get the cycle started if the dog is allergic to fleas.
3. Use a prescribed dose of benadryl when this gets bad. My vet recommends 1 mg per lb of dog given every 8-12 hours as needed when the itching starts

When the dog abrades the skin by chewing and scratching, this opens up the body to infection. Many dogs need antibiotics because of this.

See the vet so that they can get the dog started on antibiotics if you suspect this.

Many dogs also need a shot of prednisone to control the itch and give the skin time to heal.

I hope this helps!

Let me know if you still have questions.

On the advice of our vet, we've already changed his food to a non-allergenic type. Also, he's been on antibiotics and antihistamines, which didn't seem to do much. He's itchy, but NOT where he's losing his hair. And he's losing only his black hair. Front legs so far appear to be unaffected, only his back flanks and his belly.

Edited by Customer (name blocked for privacy) on September 23 2005 at 12:43pm

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I figured allergy testing was next. Funny thing... when he itches and scratches, he almost never does it in the areas where he's losing hair.

Yeah... This is a tough thing to figure out!

Allergy testing can be expensive so you might want to look into Care Credit to finance it if money is a problem. www.carecredit.com

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