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What's causing my senior dog's random scabby sores and skin issues?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Maltese | Female | spayed | 8 lbs

My Maltese has had random sores appear with scabs for the last year. Her vet said it was just age related. (She is 14) At first they would be quite small, but the last two sores were bigger. Her most recent and largest one yet being on her rib cage area. What might be causing this? Thank you so much!

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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

Veterinarian

Published on August 16th, 2018

Although a picture of the lesions would help to determine the underlying cause, this is probably due to an allergy, but it could also be due to an infection or mites. Old age itself is unlikely to cause anything like you described. 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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