Itchy skin

Poor Toby after being vet free for about 5 months, looks like we may have to make another trip.

A month ago noticed he had one very small scab on his back, I didn't think to much about it at first. This weekend the left side of his back has quite a few of them, sometimes they can be just scabby (the hair comes out with the scab) other times they can be quite wet. He is also on a itch fest at the moment. Been bathing him in the solution the vet recommened the last time and also put some special doggy tea tree cream on it to sooth it. On night he ended up looking more like a dalamation with all these little spots of white cream on his brown fur. He also seems to have a dandruff like scurf on his coat with it.
His worming and flea treatment are all up to date. Other that than he has be a fine heathly little man for the last couple of month.
Oh well will let you know how it goes

Oh the poor little baby, I hope he will be ok

Has he had a skin scraping? Sounds like this could be rabbit mites. They are dreadfully itchy and leave a lot of dandruff and are themselves sometimes called 'walking dandruff' as the mites are visible to the eye and can look like moving bits of dandruff.

The vet should be able to eliminate this possibility pretty quickly as well, and then look into skin conditions etc. Poor little fellow!

Ok I might be thick here but Karlin you said Rabbit mites, does that mean they have to be around rabbits to catch them???

No skin scrapping as of yet, when he had a small patch last year vet said just to keep washing him in the shampoo he prescribed. Think i'm going to ask him to do one. Oh well more money. I'm hoping to get him insured but I assume I need his DOB and his previouse owners a bit slow in letting me have any paper work for him.

They are common on rabbits (hence the name) but also seen on dogs -- sometimes puppies get them. Jaspar had them when I got him. The correct name is Cheyletiella.

See: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1589&articleid=725

Sometimes vets in some areas don't seem to familiar with them and might not check for them. Your vet may feel this is more likely to be a skin condition but I'd sure want to at least check. Frontline spray kills them. They really cause the animal with them to scratch a lot.

Couldn't it also be ringworm?

http://www.nativeremedies.com/petalive/ring-ex-ringworm-natural-remedy.html


-laura

That's a good thought too. It does create scabs that come off with small chunks of hair.

Thanks for those suggestions, will print out that link Karlin and take it with me when we go to the vets, I will also mention ringworm. He doesn't seem too bad today itching is a lot better. But Im still taking him to the vets just in case.

Agree a skinscrape is the right way to go, you could also try adding a bit of Evening Orimrose Oil to his feed if his skin a bit on the dry side all over?

It also could be sebborhea.....that comes off with bits of fur too.

Our Charley had sebborhea and needed to be bathed with special shampoo.

Due to his other health problems, we never got "rid" of it but we were able to keep the "itchiness" down.

I hope it's something simple....that you can "cure" with a medicated shampoo.

Good luck.

Poor little Toby. Itching is terrible & can cause pain from scratching too. I hope the vet can sort this out fast.

Well we went to the vets and at the moment Toby has been put on a 2 week course of antibotics. The vet said (as everyone else has on here) its very difficult to diagnose a skin condition. He does think it might be seasonal as it has only been bad recently.

He did say that a skin biopsy might help but that would be able £200 and then a allergy test which is again another £200. So thats £400 which I haven't got especially when the car needs taxing next month. The vet said that these might even prove in conclusive. He said we could try steriods but he would advise against this as Toby has done so well getting his weight off and he doesn't want him to put anymore on.

So we are going to try antibotics for a few weeks and then return and see what happens, the vet did say that there were a couple of other things he would like to try before shelling out for the expensive stuff.

Hopefully this would have all been paid for if he was insured but I'm still unable to get Toby's papers from his previous owners to prove his age. The vet has him down as 8 and a half but we think he is about 9.