My dog's hair was pulled out near her tail. What's the best treatment?

A bald spot could be caused by allergies, skin infection, mites, ringworm, etc. You could bath him with a medicated dog shampoo and see if that helps. If not, have your vet examine him to determine the cause. He may need an antibiotic, anti-histamine, corticosteroid, or other medications to help treat the problem. You could also add Free Form Snip Tips to his diet and see if that helps to keep his skin and coat healthy.

I'm suspicious that this is due to trauma given the appearance and the fact that it just showed-up. This can happen when they get their tail caught under something (like a car tire). It doesn't look like something that needs to go to the vet right away, so it's OK to treat it and monitor it at home for now. If it doesn't get better in 2 weeks, or it starts to look worse, then I'd recommend taking her to the vet for an evaluation. Here are my recommendations for treatment: 1) Ice the area for 15 minutes twice a day. 2) Wash/spray the area with just cool, clean water (no soap or other antiseptics) for at least 2 minutes at a time. Do this at least twice a day. 3) Bandage the wound with gauze and apply an over-the-counter antibacterial cream (i.e Neosporin) to the wound. Keeping it covered and keeping Oakley from licking it will be the most difficult part of the treatment. You can help keep the bandage on by placing a good (really sticky) tape above and below the bandage. You can find sprays in the pet store, like bitter apple, that are meant to deter licking. This can be sprayed on the bandage (not the wound) to help keep Oakley from chewing it off. NOTE: Be careful not to bandage too tight or it can cut-off the circulation. If you notice that the end of the tail start to swell, then remove the bandage and leave it off until the swelling goes down. I hope that helps and Oakley gets better soon.

It can be normal for the hair to fall out at the tip of the tail where it was injured. The hair may not grow back in that area at all. As long as the wound is healing you do not need to worry about the hair loss. If the wound is open, bleeding or oozing then I would be concerned. If you dog is not bothering the tail injury I would leave it unwrapped. If it is not oozing or bleeding there is I need to keep it wrapped up. Hope this helps!

That lesion on Lily could be several things including fleas, allergies, skin mites, bacterial infection, ringworm (which humans can get) or endocrine disease. There are a couple things you can do at home and they can help but they may not address the underlying cause. You can try adding in an omega 3 fatty acid supplement for dogs, this can help improve the skin health. You may also try changing her diet to something like Royal Canin or Nutro as they are aimed at skin health. You can wash the lesion once a day (not her whole body, just the lesion). Also protect the area from trauma by having your pup wear an elizabethan collar at all times. If the lesion is not improving within a week or if it is getting worse, have her examined by the veterinarian. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

It could be an allergic reaction to an insect bite or a traumatic wound. Itchy bumps are almost always allergic in nature however. You can try topical soothing creams (sold at your local pet store) for allergic reactions, and cleaning it with chlorhexidine solution 3% or iodine diluted 50:50 with warm water. This will help some with the inflammation. If it still isn't better after 24-48 hrs then it is best to have your vet take a look at it and potentially give her stronger medications to treat it.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This is possibly due to allergies. It really comes down to figuring out what is causing his allergies so that they can be treated or the specific allergen avoided. A secondary infection is likely and also needs to be addressed. The hair is expected to grow back when the allergies and infections resolve. There are many things that can cause allergies though in most cases they can be broken down into 3 big categories: flea, food and environmental allergies. Allergies are usually worked up in a stepwise fashion starting with flea allergies as this is the easiest and cheapest to take care of. If not on a flea preventative, then it would be a good idea to get started on one. If already on one then it would be a good idea to change to something else (there are many new products out in the market). If not improved in 1-3 months then it is time to move on and check for food allergies by switching to a novel diet (new protein and new carbohydrate). If that does not seem to be the issue then you are left out having to check for environmental allergies which require blood and/or skin tests. Allergies can be very frustrating to deal with at first but so rewarding at the end when we are able to treat them effectively!

Unfortunately not much you can do back home. 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.