Shih Tzu With Scabby Bumps That Keep Coming Back
by Gordon
(Kaneohe, Hawaii, USA)
Reader Question
Hi we have a 6 year old female black and white pure breed Shih Tzu that has a rash that neither I nor the vet seems to be able to figure out. The rash causes bumps that scab over and flake off dead skin in her fur. They are all over her body, but more where she has fur than on her belly. They also seem to be more prevalent along her spine than in other places. She is also shedding a lot more than normal and she itches like crazy. It also makes her more tired than usual and she doesn’t like to play as much.
We’ve taken her to the vet a number of times and they gave her some antibiotics and a special shampoo, which helped a little and now doesn’t see to do any good at all. The vet also did a skin culture for fungus and it was negative. I have researched this on the Internet and based on what I read I have looked at her fur, the dead skin and scabs under his microscope to see if she had any parasites, but wasn’t able to find anything that looked like a parasite despite looking at different samples under the microscope over a period of a week.
This started about a year and a half ago and while it never goes away sometimes it is worse than at other times, it’s really bad right now she probably has 60-80 of the bumps in various stages on her body.
Some other information about her that might help:
She is not spayed, she has never been bred, she eat Hill’s Science Diet Small bites puppy chow, we give her Pro Pet Adult Daily vitamin supplement, and Milk Bone dog treats. I just recently stopped giving her Jerky Treats from Costco after reading that they might be causing problems in dogs, but it’s too soon to tell if that might be the cause. Once in a while we give her a small piece of chicken, a tortilla chip, a piece of bread, bits of apple, carrot and other veggies.
She gets a bath now about every week because of the rash, but she was getting a bath every two weeks, we use baby shampoo, (which is what she has been using since she was a puppy) on her after the medicated shampoo wasn’t helping. After a bath she gets brushed and blow dried. She is groomed regularly.
We use Advantage on her for ticks and fleas, but as she has never had any where
we live we only give it to her every other month and recently we stopped giving it to her period in case that is causing the problem. She also takes Interceptor for heart worms which are a real problem in Hawaii.
She has almost zero interaction with other dogs as she doesn’t like them and is afraid of them, but there are a lot of dogs in our complex and she gets walks where they get walked.
We live in Hawaii, but she was born in California and we moved here when she was 2. We live in a Condo, so she doesn’t have a yard to speak of, just a small Lanai, (that’s what they call a patio in Hawaii), it originally had grass in it, but the grass died and we put down some of that fake turf from the Home Depot. I thought maybe she was having an allergic reaction to it, so I pulled it up and planted grass again at the end of January. I’m not sure if living in Hawaii might have anything to do with it but I thought I would mention it since it is a tropical island and it has a lot of new plants, potential diseases and it is a lot more humid than our home in central California was.
She gets taken on walks around the complex, but none lately as we have been having almost constant rain. We rarely take her to the beach, the last time was about 3 months ago and she doesn’t get in the ocean.
Right now we are just monitoring her and putting general antibiotic cream on her rash every night, seems to help some, but it not going away and our vet hasn’t been any help to date.
Prior to this she has never had any kind of skin issues, except that she get red ears and we clean her ears nightly and have drops from teh vet if they need it.
I can post pictures if that would help.
We’ve taken her to the vet a number of times and they gave her some antibiotics and a special shampoo, which helped a little and now doesn’t see to do any good at all. The vet also did a skin culture for fungus and it was negative. I have researched this on the Internet and based on what I read I have looked at her fur, the dead skin and scabs under his microscope to see if she had any parasites, but wasn’t able to find anything that looked like a parasite despite looking at different samples under the microscope over a period of a week.
This started about a year and a half ago and while it never goes away sometimes it is worse than at other times, it’s really bad right now she probably has 60-80 of the bumps in various stages on her body.
Some other information about her that might help:
She is not spayed, she has never been bred, she eat Hill’s Science Diet Small bites puppy chow, we give her Pro Pet Adult Daily vitamin supplement, and Milk Bone dog treats. I just recently stopped giving her Jerky Treats from Costco after reading that they might be causing problems in dogs, but it’s too soon to tell if that might be the cause. Once in a while we give her a small piece of chicken, a tortilla chip, a piece of bread, bits of apple, carrot and other veggies.
She gets a bath now about every week because of the rash, but she was getting a bath every two weeks, we use baby shampoo, (which is what she has been using since she was a puppy) on her after the medicated shampoo wasn’t helping. After a bath she gets brushed and blow dried. She is groomed regularly.
We use Advantage on her for ticks and fleas, but as she has never had any where
She has almost zero interaction with other dogs as she doesn’t like them and is afraid of them, but there are a lot of dogs in our complex and she gets walks where they get walked.
We live in Hawaii, but she was born in California and we moved here when she was 2. We live in a Condo, so she doesn’t have a yard to speak of, just a small Lanai, (that’s what they call a patio in Hawaii), it originally had grass in it, but the grass died and we put down some of that fake turf from the Home Depot. I thought maybe she was having an allergic reaction to it, so I pulled it up and planted grass again at the end of January. I’m not sure if living in Hawaii might have anything to do with it but I thought I would mention it since it is a tropical island and it has a lot of new plants, potential diseases and it is a lot more humid than our home in central California was.
She gets taken on walks around the complex, but none lately as we have been having almost constant rain. We rarely take her to the beach, the last time was about 3 months ago and she doesn’t get in the ocean.
Right now we are just monitoring her and putting general antibiotic cream on her rash every night, seems to help some, but it not going away and our vet hasn’t been any help to date.
Prior to this she has never had any kind of skin issues, except that she get red ears and we clean her ears nightly and have drops from teh vet if they need it.
I can post pictures if that would help.
Answer from Our Team
Recurring scabby bumps along the back with shedding and itch fit a bacterial skin infection triggered by an underlying problem, most often allergy. Fleas or flea allergy are still possible even where fleas seem rare, especially since flea control was stopped.
Ask your vet for skin cytology and a bacterial culture, since repeat infections may be resistant, and restart a vet-recommended flea preventive. A strict elimination diet and referral to a dermatologist are good next steps. Tiredness alongside the rash is worth mentioning to your vet too.
See skin rashes in dogs.
This is general information, not a diagnosis. Please follow your own vet's advice.
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