I have two of these critters 4 1/2 and 2 years old. The 4 1/2 yr old seems to have small scabbed over sores on her back. When you pet her in this area she lifts her chin up high but it seems like she likes it, she doesn't leave. I find her sometimes ripping out the fur in that area. I think she may be itchy there. Is this some sort of a condition these dogs get? I'd say there's about 4 sores there now. Or is my other dog maybe biting her there? Maybe she's only itchy as the sores heal?

Those might be 'hot spots' from itching. The dog scratches itself so much, it creates sores from the chewing and biting. You need to take her to a vet and have a skin scraping done of the hot spots to make sure there's no bacteria or worms in it. Sometimes those spots may be indicative of types of mange or other problems. If it is just hot spots caused by itchiness, you need to determine what is causing the itchiness, be it fleas (as has happened in our dogs) or allergies to food and such. Once the cause is determined, then you can work on stopping the itchin so all the hot spots have time to heal up, because they're just going to get worse until then.

she could have gotten a cut or scrape. it is not nessesarily an injury. it could be a bacterial infection. it could be a sign of an underlying health problem such as fleas, thyroid problems, or cancer. it could be fleas. this happens mainly in dogs, not cats. it could be a flea allergy. it may be ringworm. all the patches will be in the smae spot if it is ringworm. cats can spreadringwrom to dogs without showing they have it. it could be mites. it may be dandruff, but that is mainly in puppies. take your dog to the vet if she is scratching a lot.

your dog most likely has an allergy. take her/him to your vet, it must be on medication for this problem. it will need a bath, I currently use a shampoo, purchased at the vet, called Relief, ask for it. This will only get worst during the summer months, so my suggestion is to take the dog to the VET now. hope you listen to my advice otherwise they or he will be bald. signed Jack

The dog doesn't necessarily need medication, though in some cases it will help. I've rescued an Akita with horrible flea allergies and hot spots and scabs all over his back and legs. He was basically bald from his shoulders back, it was so bad. All it took was giving him a bath in flea shampoo and some advantage to first get rid of the flea problem. After that, I just put a dab of Neosporin medicated ointment (as the vet recommended) on each of the hot spots. If you put it on them as soon as you see the hot spots, they really clear up fast and the dogs don't repeatedly scratch the spots over and over again. You want to watch them for like 15 minutes to make sure the dogs dont lick it off, but if it's been on them for more than 10 or 15 minutes, it's been long enough for the neosporin to work. Within a week all the hot spots and scabs were gone, and his hair started growing back in naturally. There are however some steroids the vet can give to help with the itching, and benadryl also has been vet recommended to me for itching (obviously you'd want to be careful how much of that you gave to a small dog like yours though, an Akita is significantly larger so 1 pill didn't bother them!). And it's not a good thing for a dog to be on steroids for a long period of time. What is important is you need to find the underlying reason for the scratching to make sure it doesn't reoccur. If it is fleas, or a food allergy, or bacteria, or some type of mange or whatever. Take your dog to the vet and have skin scrapings done of the hot spots to make sure there's no parasites or bacteria there. If you are certain your dog doesn't have fleas (you can search for black specks in the fur as a sign of fleas, even if you dont see any living fleas), then I would suspect some sort of food allergy. Has he always had this problem, or have you changed his food recently?

if it is allergies, you can get chloraphenerimine at the drug store, it is 4mg and comes with about 100 tablets, good to keep on hand. i would go to the vet to make sure and possibly get a skin scrape to rule out anything else. my previous shihtzu used to get this more so in the warmer months, first we used prednisone,(steroid), then swithch to the other, shaved the hair around the hot spots, and used allergroom or hystacalm shampoo a couple times a week. didn't take that long, couple of weeks and all healed up. after that we knew what to do, the neosporin is good like the others said.

Allergies are a huge thing with Bichons. If your dog has it bad enough, and the scratching has been ongoing, the skin might just be raw and irritated. Go to the vet first, then consider a product I use for my Bichon called Bitter Apple. It's a chew deterrent that keeps them from biting themselves and chewing on our belongings.

I am new to this site and im trying to figure out how to responed to just one person.Can you do that? I have bathed my puppy and had him to the groomer, and i look all over him and find maybe only 1 flea.. he has a appt. with the vet but after my husband said ring worm i just wondered what it looked like..Thanks for the replys

If your dog has one flea that you found, it's possible he has a lot more that you just aren't finding. Treat for fleas first, then see if the hot spots clear up.