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My puppy has itchy skin patches and flakes. What can I do?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | American Pit Bull Terrier | Male | unneutered | 9 months and 20 days old

I’ve notice my puppy has little patches on his right leg and behind his ear he’s been scratching at them till he gets scars he is an inside dog with all his shot I switched his shampoo to head and shoulder dandruff because I’ve been seeing flakes and I put coconut oil on him to soothe and hopefully heal the scratching... what could be and what could I use? I don’t want to take him to the vet just yet.

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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

Veterinarian

Published on December 16th, 2019

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). The following products can be found online and can be tried as a first line approach: Douxo PS Calm shampoo, Essential 6 spot on by dermoscent, Krillex Krill oil chews. 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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