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My dog has itchy skin and tiny brown specks. Is it mites or allergies?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Small (up to 22lb) | Male | neutered | 9 years old | 20 lbs

Woody was starting to itch pretty bad I decided to shave him down last night and as I was doing so I was getting little pin prick stings on my hands and my arms I couldnt see much. Tonight was the same but worse so I decided to bathe him again and he has little tiny light brownish things ALL OVER! I used a fine comb on him and he has almost sliver like brownish gray kinda things coming off of him all over his body, and I mean everywhere. Def not fleas I was wondering maybe mites???

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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

Veterinarian

Published on December 27th, 2018

Hi, and thanks for your question. This could be 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. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

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