Dog: circular lesions on belly

[PoultryPower]

Hello,

Hoping you all can help me guess what’s wrong with my poor dog. These circular lesions have appeared on his belly. The one pictured is the worst. There’s about 3 more of various sizes. Some of them have healed on their own. At first I thought it was ringworm for sure, but now I’m second guessing that since it’s only on his belly and they’re not really scabby.

I’m going to purchase him a medicated shampoo and begin treatment with that.

He doesn’t have any fleas and wasn’t itchy until recently. He lives in doors and only goes outside when I accompany him so I don’t think it’s something like black fly.

A couple months ago I used Vets Best flea and tick spray on him and he had a terrible reaction to it. The top layer of skin peeled off of his belly. I thought these lesions were just remaining marks from this awful occurrence but new ones keep appearing.

Overall he’s in great spirits and health. I feel so bad for him, hoping to find some answers. We’ll be making a vet trip if this medicated bath doesn’t show rapid results.

 

[Chelsa'sChicks]

From experience I would say ringworm or allergies. My dog got it once on his belly. I used Hydrocortisone 1% (because he's a small dog) for a bit and it cleared up. My other suggestion would be that he has an allergy to his food. I have a dog that has a terrible food allergy and has to be 100% grain free. Within 2 weeks his skin cleared up and no more yeast infections in BOTH ears. Poor boy.

Good Luck!

 

[AlleysChicks]

I’d say ringworm.

 

[BantamLover21]

Probably ringworm.

 

[lazy gardener]

Ring worm which is not a worm, but a fungal infection. I would try treating it topically with any of the many OTC fungal remedies on the market. If you want to make sure you get the right product, you could do a google search for "treatment of ring worm in dogs."

 

[Eggsoteric]

I agree, looks like ringworm. Use gloves to treat, ringworm is highly contagious and can be passed from dogs to other animals and to humans.

 

[PoultryPower]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will be buying antifungal cream today. The medicated bath is on its way as well.

I was really hoping it wasn’t ringworm. Reading this past post was giving me hope. I read online that it can take 3 weeks to make a dog non-contagious if treated aggressively. Hopefully this will be aggressive enough. I know it’s not a worm but I’d really rather not get it myself. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/what-to-do-for-ringworm-on-dogs-stomach.1114172/

I’m surprised that I haven’t caught it from him as I haven’t been careful touching him and he’s had marks for a while now. Can ringworm patches heal on their own? He’s had spots clear up and new ones appear.

Again thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it.

 

[PoultryPower]

I’m adding this info in case anyone stumbles upon this forum looking for answers like I did with the forum posted in my other reply.

I have treated my dog since Tuesday with the antifungal shampoo called Malaseb, Veterinary Formula Clincial Care antiseptic and antifungal spray, and OTC antifungal cream. It took about 2 days for me to start seeing real results. It is now Sunday and he is almost completely healed.

I know it’s not ringworm because it can’t be cured this quickly. It was most likely pyroderma caused by the reaction he had to the flea spray. It’s very common after something like that occurs. What really clued me in was that pyroderma usually presents itself on the trunk of the dog and in areas with little fur, like his belly. Additionally the healed epidermal collarettes (the round lesion in the picture) turn a dark color after they’ve healed. Lastly, I figured there was no way that he could have had ringworm this long without me catching it.

So to conclude, if you’ve found these sores on your dog and they started appearing on their belly, then it might be pyroderma. Ringworm usually starts in well furred areas of the body since it’s a fungus of the hair and causes fur breakage. Pyroderma is caused by a multiplication of the usually healthy bacteria that is always present on a dog’s body. It’s able to rapidly grow when their skin remains moist for an extended period of time (like when they have a weeping wound). There’s other reasons a dog may have pyroderma, such as if they’ve just had mange or mites and in some instances the pyroderma can be a staph infection. This last one is contagious to humans so be careful when handling and treating your dog.

There’s a lot of good information on pyroderma that can be found with a simple google search. My explanation only scratches the surface. Just putting all this out there so others know that these wounds are not always a result of ringworm.

Attached is a picture I took of what used to be the lesion, as you can see it has healed and turned black.