need some help

[Snakewise84]

ok is a bit odd  but  i have some type of insect in my shed that is biting my cat and dog and no not fleas it bites around their chin and ears. the first time i seen it was on my dog and now its my cat  at the time theey had this happen was when i put the  in the shed at night. i have been cleaning out my shed lately and i have not been bitten. any one shed so light on this please. i'll post a pic in a few mins. thanks

 

[Mace699]

Looks like a allergic reaction to a flea bite or potentially mange both of which can be easily treated. i would take him to the vet and get a sample taken to make sure its not anything more serious. although you may not have seen any fleas its not to say they are nto there. they could be in the grass or have died. and one bite is enough to cause that reaction if a dog or cat is allergic. mallaseb is a great lotion which i would reccomend you give them a bath in.

 

[Serpentess]

The likelyhood of both your dog and cat being allergic to fleas is low. I would still agree Mace in saying that you should go to the vet and get them to run a sample to see what sort of anomaly pops up that may have caused this. If there is nothing to determine from the sample I might suggest that you check for sharp edges, etc that your pets may have rubbed up against/walked into in your shed. I can not think of a bug that would produce such a awful looking bite off the top of my head other than a spider.

 

[Mace699]

very true the likelyhood is very low that bot animals would be severeley allergic to the common flea. Can i ask though how long has it taken for the patch to get that large as i can see a bit of a scab has formed? if it was over a few days i would rule out mange and fleas. are there any other items like fibreglass insulation in the shed or other fine fibrous materials that could be causing the irritation?

 

[Kelly86]

it could be anything, ringworm looks a bit like that and is contagious to humans aswell... might be best to take them to your vet so they can tell you what it is and treat it before it gets any worse.

 

[Em1986]

Deffinately take them to the vet asap and have a skin scraping done of the area. The vet will get a scalpel and scrape the surface of the skin and put the sample on a slide and look at it under a microscope. It looks quite worrying and i agree with the others about it being highly unlikely to be an insect or allergy to fleas and these things can be contagious. It is always better to be safe than sorry and the vet tests shouldn't be too much if it's a skin scraping they do.
Good luck and i hope it's not serious.

 

[vampstorso]

yeah that looks pretty bad if that's one "bite" and came up quick...I'd go to the vet. even just in case of infection

 

[Snakewise84]

my dog is 3 years old and kept out side where fleas live in the grass and it nly happened to him when kept in the shed over night time and cat is about a year old and on got it when i kept him i the shed when he was desexed andwhen i was not home. and its has happen to they with about 4 months apart and i used rock salt water on him three times a day for three days. he is eatting and drinking fine.

and it showed up in two days with bothe of the due to scratching
so on gose the cone for him.

i meant the salt water on my dog not cat yet

 

[Kelly86]

whats the dog look like? it could be mites aswell if they are itchy. malaseb is really good. its a medicated shampoo and cost about $25-$30 a bottle.

 

[Kitah]

To be honest, there are so many things that can cause lesions similar to the ones in your photo. Its pretty much impossible to definitively diagnose it based on a single photo on the internet, so I would strongly suggest you take either your dog or your cat (or both) to your local veterinarian and seek their assistance. They can do tape tests, skin scrapes and other diagnostics to help establish what the underlying cause is, before it potentially gets any worse.

It does not look like a typical flea related issue by the way- they typically occur more towards the caudo-dorsal back, around the tail base. And it is very unlikely that two of your animals would have suddenly developed a flea allergy at the same time.

 

[Serpentess]

Firstly, I'd get your animals to a vet for a proper examination. No one can properly diagnose this sort of injury without close examination and samples. This could end up being something much worse than it appears, especially if it is causing them to itch.

I'd also suggest something better than salt-water applications as a home-remedy. I personally apply paw-paw ointment for grazes & cuts to help prevent infection. For itches so bad that they cause lesions I have used a soothing baby nappy rash cream in the past. I have not tried this on a dog or cat, this treatment was on a mouse who grew a "hotspot" right around his neck due to a high protein diet. He wasn't in my care when this started but as the people who had him wanted to just stick him in the freezer because of it I took him home and immediately started searching for a solution. He scratched it almost to the point where it looked as though his head was going to fall off. Twice daily application of the cream (along with a low protein diet and sterile living conditions) worked wonders and just a few months later he had even grown all his hair back.

 

[Jen]

I'd say vet too, but also bepanthan is excellent for animals, we used it on pretty much every thing that was wrong with the mice at the vivarium where I worked - it was cull or cream basically.

 

[splat868]

Snakewise,

I know this is probably a dumb question, but on the right side of the rash area, what is the round thing?
is it just part of the rash?

I'm certain you and everyone that has replied would recognise it if it was, but just in case, and without being able to see it clearly in the photo becase of the hair, its not a tick is it?

Have you seen any of the bugs at all?

 

[Snakewise84]

i checked for ticks there are none or i would have them to only thing i can think of is a cockie or little spiders thats all there is or toads

can see any mites or worms. all that happened with my dog was a salt water clean three times a day and stop itching and cleared up and hair grow back. no other sign.

and it took three days for dog to heal he is fine

and i do have that shapoo too

 

[eitak]

Its hard to compare due to your cat having hair and my dog having short. But my dog got mites and it just started as hair thinning but then she scratched it so bad it went lumpy n scabby. I took her to the vet they did a skin scrapping and it was mites (apparently staffys are prone to it when going through puberty) anyway she had to have injections and it went away.
If it's mites you won't see them-they are microscopic and a vet will have to do a skin scrapping to confirm.
Hers also appeared under her chin on her neck and in front of her ears ontop of her head.

 

[Tildy]

Could they both have cut themselves on something in the shed that got infected? My cat used to get abcesses all the time from fighting and the skin would break open randomly and the hair around the broken area would fall out. With the little abcesses we didnt always notice till it broke then we used salt water 3 times a day to keep it clean while it healed.