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My dog is very itchy with red spots. Should I take her to the ER?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Large (61lb +) | Female | 4 years and 8 months old | 65 lbs

My dog has been really itchy the past few days so much so she losing sleep. I feel like I can't get her to calm down at all. I've given her a mositerizing bath and rubbed coconut oil on her. She's gotten 25mg of benadryl and 10mg melatonin. All reccomeneded by my vet since we can't get seen until next week. Should I just take her to the 24hr hospital? I'm starting to get worried. There are no signs of fleas, but he does have red dots on her stomach.

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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

Veterinarian

Published on March 28th, 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 (check up is required as soon as possible -not emergency- ) 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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