Treating Patchy Flaky Itchy Dog Skin on Pomeranian

by Tawanda Foster
(Tampa Fl)

My Pom has been itching for months. The vet twice shrugged their shoulders and said possible allergies because you really can't see through her coat. Although, you can see the red patchy perianal area. Which that part did get better with the wipes that were given to her. But, now her entire body is worse. Also, we are babysitting a PitBull which is now itching and scratching horribly. She was not doing that before she came to our house.\\hgy

Vet Suggestion Dog Skin Allergy Itch

Hi Tawanda,

Allergies are certainly a possible cause of your Pomeranian’s itching, but it doesn’t sound as if she has had a full dermatological work-up to rule out other potential conditions. Based on the fact that another dog in the house now has similar symptoms, I am most concerned about diseases that can be transmitted between dogs.

If your Pom was my patient, I would first perform a complete physical exam paying close attention to any evidence of fleas and then would want to run a skin scraping to look for mites, skin cytology to rule out infection, and a fungal culture for ringworm. If all the tests came back negative, I would put both dogs in the house on a broad spectrum parasiticide like Revolution. Some of the parasites that cause symptoms like you describe can be very hard to pick up on diagnostic tests, so I’ll often simply go ahead and treat for them and monitor how the patient responds.

Good luck,


Jennifer Coates, DVM