# Red rash on my labradors chest



## Kmk42019 (Mar 9, 2017)

My 2 year old yellow lab has a red patch of skin on her chest area. She's had it about since 7-8 months ago and my vet thinks it's just her rubbing it on the floor. I never see her do that though. It doesn't seem to bother her when I touch it although it feels a little cool to the touch. Our vet gave us gentaved spray but that didn't seem to help. She's been on a taste of the wild since she was a puppy and we recently switched her over about 1.5 months ago to wellness simple duck and oatmeal to see if it wound help. Her skin overall is a little pink everywhere else. Any ideas what it is?


----------



## Alisa♥ (Mar 9, 2017)

(Disclaimer before you read anything after this; I've never had a skin issue with my own pet, so this is pure speculation...) Is it possible that she is allergic to something that is coming into contact with her belly (floor or carpet cleaning products, laundry detergent used on her bedding)? I know that I'm super reactive to synthetic fragrance, and went through a few painful years before a dermatologist figured it out for me. It could really be any ingredient, so this might be tricky to troubleshoot. Does she lay out on a lawn that has been treated with any kind of lawn care chemicals?

Since a vet has seen her, I'm guessing it's not mites or anything along those lines. Plus, from what my co-worker has said about her pup who had them, they are uncomfortable if it's a pest that is causing the irritation. It sounds like your lab is not too bothered by the red area. Hmmm...


----------



## DaySleepers (Apr 9, 2011)

I thought contact or environmental allergy, too. But if it were me, I'd be going to a different vet for a second opinion. After 7-8 months of no change or improvement, it's not acceptable for a vet to just shrug and say "well, I tried", imo. Yours didn't suggest anything after the spray was ineffective?


----------



## Kmk42019 (Mar 9, 2017)

He just thinks it's her rubbing it on the flooring. It doesn't seem to be a good allergy to you though?


----------



## DaySleepers (Apr 9, 2011)

If it's yeast-related, it might have to do with diet? But I don't think anybody - even those with veterinary experience (which I am not one of) - can say for sure whether a rash is yeast or a different kind of allergy or infection from a photo online. If your vet isn't interested in trying to diagnose or treat this further than he already has, again, I'd go to another practice for a second opinion. Only a vet will be able to do something like a skin scraping or allergy test to know for sure.


----------



## Lillith (Feb 16, 2016)

If it was a contact allergy from her laying down on something, then wouldn't it be on the back of her legs, too?

I second the opinion of seeing another vet. I feel like the vet should at least be giving you other ideas seeing as it has lasted so long. Finding an allergy really is a trial and error process unless you want to get an allergy test, which is probably around $300. It could also very well be a food allergy that manifests in that rash.

But yeah, go see another vet and hopefully they have some other ideas for you.


----------



## animalcraker (Nov 9, 2006)

When I had a dachshund he had that exact same bald patch and my coworkers dachshund has the exact same patch as well. For both of our dogs the cause was rubbing on the carpet. We see this a lot on other low dogs as well. Typically even after the carpet is gone the hair doesn't grow back because the pores have been too damaged from the rubbing. Carpet is unbelievably damaging to most other surfaces including pet hair or our own skin. Just rub your arm back and forth against a carpet for a little bit and you'll start to feel that "burn" feeling, that's those synthetic carpet fibers creating and almost brill own pad effect and it doesn't take much friction to cause damage. With my dachsie he didn't need to actively rub his chest on the carpet to wear off the hair, just simply the act of getting up from a lying down position was enough to rub the hair off over time. Rubbing on cement or very hard compact dirt has the potential to cause the same effect. If you don't have any carpet, cement, or similar abrasive type surface in your house then obviously that can be ruled out as a cause. If you do have those kinds of surfaces around the house then you may want to consider observing how your pet lays down or gets up from those surfaces. 

Do you have carpet in your home? Is there ever times when you're not watching your pet; i.e. can your pet be going into another room or behind the furniture and rubbing? Is your pet itchy anywhere, perhaps itching the chest with their hind paw? Did your vet do any testing or did they just prescribe medication? If rubbing is 100% out of the realm of possibilities then some tests you may want to consider would be a skin scraping, skin cytology, and a skin culture. Being generally red all over may or may not be related to the hair loss. She could be allergic to something causing the redness or just simply easily excited causing her to turn red when shes excited. They do have blood test for environmental and food allergies, but those can be quite expensive, and in regards to the food allergy testing ALL of the derm specialist say the blood test for food allergies is useless and food trials are the only option for testing food allergies.


----------



## Tori87 (Jun 20, 2020)

animalcraker said:


> When I had a dachshund he had that exact same bald patch and my coworkers dachshund has the exact same patch as well. For both of our dogs the cause was rubbing on the carpet. We see this a lot on other low dogs as well. Typically even after the carpet is gone the hair doesn't grow back because the pores have been too damaged from the rubbing. Carpet is unbelievably damaging to most other surfaces including pet hair or our own skin. Just rub your arm back and forth against a carpet for a little bit and you'll start to feel that "burn" feeling, that's those synthetic carpet fibers creating and almost brill own pad effect and it doesn't take much friction to cause damage. With my dachsie he didn't need to actively rub his chest on the carpet to wear off the hair, just simply the act of getting up from a lying down position was enough to rub the hair off over time. Rubbing on cement or very hard compact dirt has the potential to cause the same effect. If you don't have any carpet, cement, or similar abrasive type surface in your house then obviously that can be ruled out as a cause. If you do have those kinds of surfaces around the house then you may want to consider observing how your pet lays down or gets up from those surfaces.
> 
> Do you have carpet in your home? Is there ever times when you're not watching your pet; i.e. can your pet be going into another room or behind the furniture and rubbing? Is your pet itchy anywhere, perhaps itching the chest with their hind paw? Did your vet do any testing or did they just prescribe medication? If rubbing is 100% out of the realm of possibilities then some tests you may want to consider would be a skin scraping, skin cytology, and a skin culture. Being generally red all over may or may not be related to the hair loss. She could be allergic to something causing the redness or just simply easily excited causing her to turn red when shes excited. They do have blood test for environmental and food allergies, but those can be quite expensive, and in regards to the food allergy testing ALL of the derm specialist say the blood test for food allergies is useless and food trials are the only option for testing food allergies.


My dog has same things what would help heal it bk up


----------



## Dianaleigh (Oct 9, 2021)

Kmk42019 said:


> My 2 year old yellow lab has a red patch of skin on her chest area. She's had it about since 7-8 months ago and my vet thinks it's just her rubbing it on the floor. I never see her do that though. It doesn't seem to bother her when I touch it although it feels a little cool to the touch. Our vet gave us gentaved spray but that didn't seem to help. She's been on a taste of the wild since she was a puppy and we recently switched her over about 1.5 months ago to wellness simple duck and oatmeal to see if it wound help. Her skin overall is a little pink everywhere else. Any ideas what it is?


Did you ever get an answer?? My yellow lab has an almost identical rash and the vet has no idea what it is

[/QUOTE]


----------



## DaySleepers (Apr 9, 2011)

I'm afraid the original poster hasn't been active here since the month this was posted, over four years ago. I'm closing this thread to further replies, but please start your own thread and out currently active members will be able to offer any suggestions they have!


----------

