11 Month old GSD with Skin Problems

Hi
I have a 11 month old GSD who has started with a really itchy red rash all over his body and his hair is falling out in clumps to the point where i groom him every day and i still have to hoover the carpets twice a day.
I took him to the vets today and he has told me that it could be either a parasite, food allergy or mange.
He gave me a hole load of medication for him tenkorex tablets, steirod tablets, advocate spot on to be used every two weeks, malaseb shampoo to be used twice a week and also a hypoallergnic food.
It seems to me that he is teating all of the problems that it could be rather than tring to find out what the real problem is. He only had a quick look at the rash and didnt take a skin scrape and said give him this, this and this.
I am worried about giving my dog all of these medications when we dont know what the real problem is.
Does this sound like alot of medication to anyone else?
Many thanks
Leanne

It could possibly be an allergy,parasite or mange?
But Personally I would of like him to try and find out what it is...and not just treat all of them at once!
I think the only way to find out if it is mange is to take hair samples and a skin scraping and look at it under the microscope...which I think he should of done if he felt it might be mange.
Its is also quite important to find out what type it is as I think they are treated in diffrent ways and some are more serious tham other types.
I would wait for some other people on here to respond, as it is just my opin...but I dont think my vet would of treated all three at once with out doing some test or trying to find out what the problem was aswell.
Keep us posted and hope you get abit more advise.
All the best!

My old gsd had an allergy to my cat,it affected her skin in a similar way to yours.
Hope you find a solution to his problem sooner rather than later.
all the best Elaine x

I assume your vet is worried about bacterial infection where the skin`s broken as this can be really hard to treat. The steroid will soothe the inflammation, the advocate will treat fleas, and also (I think) mange. The malaseb will also help stop secondary infection.
Changing to a hyper-allergenic food would be my first approach with skin irritations, which are notoriously difficult to diagnose - the rest seem faIirly standard treatments to me - why not discuss it with your vet if you`re worried?

I agree with Claire on this. Although it does seem like a lot of medication, it is all for a purpose and your vet will want to rule out the most common probelms before embarking on a long haul trying to find out if your dog is allergic to anything. Are you insured?

hiya i know it isnt the same but my cat is allergic to Everything and i mean EVerything you can think of from houseflys to all plants...to carrotts!

can you ask your vet to send of some blood for a test to see what if anything he could be allergic too?

as if my cat eats carrots-which were in his whikas food he stratches till he bleeds & pulls all of his hair out he needs medication for life & steriod injections!

so id say go back to the vet & say you want a blood test to test for allergies!

taht way you could rule it out if it comes back clean, or if it doesnt at least you can work on the list of things he is allerigc to!

good luck!

He should do test before treating, if he suspects mange steroids will encourage the mites to multply, plus not all hypoallergenic foods are suitable for all dogs. My GSD is allergic to Turkey, Chicken, White Fish, Lamb, Sheep, Beef, Venison so that rules out over 95% of hypoallergenic diets, he is also allergic to dust mites.
I would exspect a min of skin scrapings and blood tests for mites, if nothing shows up more bloods for allergy testing and then an exclusion diet.