Dog has chronic skin sores, vet can't find cause. What should I do?

Question

My corgi has had a skin problem for the past two years and my vet can't figure out what's wrong. He has sores all over his body and they come and go. He gets on steroids and gets better but when they run out he immediately gets worse again. He has developed some respiratory problems and a lot of weight gain and lethargy. We have tried changing his food but that hasn't helped. What can we do? Pet's info: Dog | Pembroke Welsh Corgi | Male | neutered | 7 years and 8 months old | 45 lbs

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

Poor Duncan! Chronic skin issues like this can be very frustrating. It would help to know what kind of testing has been done, if any, to help determine what might be causing this - blood work, allergy testing, bacterial and fungal skin cultures, a skin scrape to rule out mange, etc. If none of these have been done yet, this would be a good place to start. If your regular vet is stumped and Duncan is still having problems whenever he isn't on steroids, you can request referral to a veterinary dermatologist for further work-up. He might benefit from allergy hyposensitization injections, a prescription hypoallergenic diet, or a daily medication such as Apoquel or Atopica depending on what the underlying problem is.

Dog has chronic skin sores, vet can't find cause. What should I do?

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