Dog biting bas of tail, but no fleas.

Hi, I have an otherwise healthy chihuahua who has always been a foot chewer but has had no skin problems, until last week. He has always loved a good scratch at the base of his tail, but last week he became almost like an addict getting a fix. Within a day or so, he began itching and chewing frantically on his hip areas as well as the tail base, but there are no fleas that I can see. Two days ago, my husband gave him a bath with a gentle shampoo to clean him, look for fleas and hopefully soothe him some.

There were no fleas, he seemed to love being in the warm water (he's always been okay with bathing, but he really seemed to settle into this one. Yesterday the itch worsened and today he has thinning hair over the hip spots, the skin is bright red and there are scabs in the worst spots. There has been no change to his food or his environment that we are aware of. I was just laid off and we are in desperate financial straits, otherwise I would have had him to his doctor the first minute. Do you have any idea what it would be that would come up so quickly and how we should proceed to soothe him in the short term (like now) and work on treating the current outbreak and preventing future ones. I've done my research and know there are many skin conditions for dogs. I hope I have given you enough info, if not I can provide more. Thank you,

Cristy

Related Article: How to get rid of fleas!

Dr. Marie - thanks so much for your response. After hearing back from you, my husband and I pinned him down and went over every inch of him (except the sore spots) for fleas and, sure enough, there were a couple of the little beasts. My first stop tomorrow is to get Frontline for him and the rest of our critters...might as well try to get a handle on it before it warms up. Until then, can we still use hydrocortisone on the spots? I imagine I have to work to heal those even while we work on the fleas. It's just so hard to see him in so much agony.

Thanks,
Cristy