Advice please-hair falling out and itching

[rav-ice]

Hi all, I I have a 13 year old rottie Cross American bulldog who has recently developed patched on his body which are very Itchy to him and basically his hair is falling out in little clumps. It's basically really dry skin where the hair is falling out. To the touch it makes his back leg go wiggly. Now I've taken him to the vet and they basically wanted to sedate him and take a skin graft of the areas, this was going to cost around £800. I personally think its a bacterial infection and asked for anti biotic for which he said "oh it might start clearing stuff up but then if we do that and then get a, skin graft after it might not give us an accurate account, in extreme case it could be cancer. I've cleaned it and used sudocreme which was helping it to clear up, but it keeps coming up in other places. I'm really at my wits end, for an old boy he's still doing really well for his age but this is just annoying him, can anyone shed any light please?

 

[JudyN]

My vets tend to be conservative: if a course of antibiotics might work, why go further? But I'm not a vet of course, so I can't say that that would be the best course of action for your dog. In your position, I'd be tempted to seek a second opinion.

I would also ask, if it is cancer, what the treatment options are and their benefit to the dog, given his age.

 

[merlina]

I think your vet is offering a skin-scrape? This doesn't usually cost that much in my neck of the woods. Agree with JudyN- get a second opinion.

 

[rav-ice]

Thank you both x