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Why is my dog constantly itching, losing hair, and shaking her head?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Beagle | Female | unspayed | 6 years and 10 months old | 18 lbs

I have a seven year old lemon beagle who's constantly biting scratching and licking all over. Her skin is extremely red, she's lost a good bit of hair, has scaly skin that flakes off and bites and scratches herself until she bleeds. She's also constantly shaking her head and itching at her inner ears. We've tried changing her diet, adding supplements, and even a demodex spray treatment for the mites but nothing's worked. Is there anything we can do for her?

4 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Lauren Kennedy, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on September 11th, 2017

It sounds as if your dog has a skin infection, most commonly caused by an allergy or fleas. The allergy could be a due to a protein in Molly's food or an environmental allergy like to dust, pollens, grasses, etc. The allergy causes your dog to itch and chew at the skin which breaks down the skin barrier. This then leads to infection. Molly will need antibiotics to help clear up the infection and possibly an anti-itch medication like Apoquel, Atopica, or Cytopoint to give some relief while the infection clears up. A medicated shampoo may be beneficial as well. I would also recommend she be on a good flea control too. It also sounds like Molly has an ear infection as well. She will need to go to the vet to have an ear cytology performed so they can determine what exact type of infection she has, i.e. is it bacteria, fungal or ear mites causing the issue. Your vet will probably recommend some ear medication and possibly an ear cleaner. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck!

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Tomasz Wnuk

    Veterinarian

    Published on August 11th, 2020

    Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Hair loss and excessive skin itching is usually related to allergies, infections (bacterial, ringworm) or skin parasites. Please, take Manii to your local vets for an appointment. Full clinical examination and potentially skin scrapes examination should allow making the definite diagnosis and starting adequate treatment.

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

    Veterinarian

    Published on July 5th, 2018

    This is probably due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment, then ask 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 to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

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    Answered By David Elbeze, DVM, MRCVS

    Veterinarian

    Published on April 13th, 2017

    Scratching can be caused by various reasons such as fleas, mites ,fungal infection, bacterial infection and allergies. the first 4 needs to be ruled out before we start treating for allergies. in order to do that first de-flea her with a high quality flea treatment such as advantage spot on, if it doesn't help - take her to the vet in order to check for/treat the other possibilities. If everything is ruled out, then an allergy treatment can be started. Usually an hypoallergenic food is a good way to start together with anti histamines. if it doesn't help - the best solution is a medication called Apoquel which treats allergies with great success and without side effects.

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    3Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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