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My old Chihuahua has a loose tooth & skin scabs. What should I do?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Chihuahua | Male | neutered | 13 years and 3 months old | 3 lbs

13 year old Chihuahua 2-4 pounds loose tooth and dry skin scabs. Vets won't help because he's allergic to shots so he's only had one his whole life. how to help him and is aquaphor safe? what can I do about his tooth? and how to get him to stop chewing scabs?

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2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Kevin Sanada, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on August 15th, 2017

The tooth is likely loose due to severe dental disease. Old chihuahuas commonly have badly diseased teeth and lose many, if not all, of their teeth. Unfortunately, you are not able to do much about this at home. He needs the loose tooth removed by a veterinarian and probably needs some other teeth removed. They can also clean the remaining teeth and help protect them from getting diseased. It also sounds like there is a skin disease. This could be due to an allergy, fleas, mites or infection. It would also be good to have the vet diagnose the skin problem, so he can get the best treatment and finally not have those scabs anymore. Aquaphor is safe for the skin and good for wounds, but could be toxic if ingested, so be careful to not put it on areas of the body that he can lick. I understand that Charlee is allergic to shots (I assume you mean vaccines), but this would not preclude him from getting treatment for his teeth and skin. Any veterinarian should be able to help you with these problems and it's going to be the best thing you can do for him. Dental disease is a painful condition, so I'm sure he'd be much happier with those diseased teeth out and healthy skin.

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    Answered By Daniel Fonza, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Charlee is quite the old dog! He is very cute but it sounds like he is dealing with some pretty bad dental disease. There are many combinations of shots to administer to cats and dogs for anesthetic procedures. He may be more sensitive to the shots used before surgery but the doses can be adjusted so that they are safer. If he is allergic to the vaccinations, then you and your vet must come to a decision on never vaccinating or administering the vaccines every few years rather than every year. For the tooth that is loose, the best way to address this is to schedule a dental cleaning. During the cleaning, there may be multiple teeth that need to be removed. This is not uncommon in smaller dogs. Charlee may need to go on a course of antibiotics prior to the dental cleaning. I would also get the scabs examined by a vet to determine what these could be. The scabs may be secondary to allergies, skin infection or skin mites. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions / concerns. As for the aquaphor, use at your own risk. This is a human product and not labeled for use in animals. I would use a product called BioBalm over Aquaphor. This is a veterinary specific lotion and it works great!

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