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My dog still itches after flea treatment. Is it dry skin or fleas?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Chihuahua | Male | neutered | 11 lbs

Hi, my dog recently came home from the kennel with fleas. I got nexgard from the vet and gave him that. I also gave him a bath in flea and tick shampoo. I put salt all over my carpet and vacuumed it, got all new bedding and sprayed a flea/tick home spray over my entire bedroom. He is still itching and I am not sure if that is because he still has fleas or if it is normal for them to itch some time after treatment. It seems that he has some dry skin

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Linda G, MS, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on October 3rd, 2019

Hello. It is very possible that Jackson can itch after being treated for the fleas. Just think how long a mosquito bite itches us after a bite. It is a bit of a delayed reaction to the bite itself & the saliva injected into the skin to allow the insect to feed. Of course, he could be itching for other reasons & other allergies. I always recommend putting itching dogs, especially those with dry skin, on a good Omega 3 fish oil. One of my favorites is Nordic Naturals ( https://www.nordicnaturals .com>petRet>nnpet_prodO3_liq ). If he continues to scratch, he may need to be on an allergy medication such as Apoquel or Cytopoint, but give him a few days to see if this is a delayed reaction. Start the fish oil, but this can take a few weeks to kick in. Thanks for using PetCoach.

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

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    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 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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