Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
Hello! I'm afraid that that depends what's causing the rash. If it's fleas, you'll need to use a veterinary-recommended flea treatment at the correct dose and frequency; if it's mites or flies, there may be a different anti-parasitic treatment required. If fungal or bacterial infection is present, for example, then this will obviously need to be treated and if an allergy is likely to be involved, then steps may be started to work out what the dog is allergic to. And so on.
Depending on how much - if at all - the dog is itching, appropriate anti-itch treatments may be recommended because scratching can make a lesion much worse. Not all skin problems itch and this can be a vital price of information for your vet when it comes to diagnosis.
Skin problems can be frustrating: they tend to recurr and tend to take a certain amount of time and effort to diagnose, but it's absolutely worth visiting your vet because many of them are chronic i.e. may continue eg throughout the pets' life - so getting a diagnosis, which will enable you to know what it to do when it flares up, or even to avoid the flare, is extremely important. Furthermore, a very few are more sinister and they need to be caught and diagnosed.
Looking forward to hearing how you get on.
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