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Why does my puppy have worsening skin sores, hair loss, and pus spots?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | German Shepherd | Female | unspayed | 5 months and 3 days old | 40 lbs

I rescued a German Shepard puppy and at first she just appeared to have extremely bad flea bites. I give her a bath every 2 days in flea and tick shampoo. Her sores seemed to get better. She had lost fur around the bites and the fur had started to even grow back. But out of the blue huge pussy spots started to appear on her neck, back, chin, and tummy. The spots loose hair and get worse day by day. I've been putting a topical cream on them. Nothing helps. What could this be?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By David Elbeze, DVM, MRCVS

Veterinarian

Published on June 4th, 2017

This is probably due to a severe allergy, although it could also be fleas or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat her with a high quality flea treatment (e.g. advantage- never use flea shampoo, they are dangerous and irritate the skin), then get her to the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try discovering the cause of the allergy. Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair the skin lesions (steroids and antibiotics). simultaneously you should start her on a prescription hypoallergenic diet for at least 2 months. Hopefully you will see some results after all this, if not you and your vet should consider putting her on a long term allergy treatment (Atopica or Apoquel).

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    The huge pussy spots are likely to be due to a secondary skin infection caused by bacteria, and antibiotics are required to have them resolved. Mites may be involved as well, but allergy is unlikely given his age.

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