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Why is my dog licking excessively after flea treatment? Is it a reaction?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Small (up to 22lb) | Male | unneutered | 9 months and 1 day old | 5 lbs

Over the last 2 days, I have noticed my 8mth Maltese/Poodle licking himself excessively to the point of being completely wet from paws, tail, and underbelly. It looks as though he knocked over the water bowl and laid on it. Behavior started 2 days ago with no priors. I had administered dose of AdvantageII the day before the behavior for fleas as I had found 4. Could this be causing some type of reaction?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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

Veterinarian

Published on May 2nd, 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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