What dog skin conditions are transmittable to other pets and people?

Fortunately, very few. There are some, and we call them zoonotic diseases, meaning it's passed from pet to human or human to pet, and everybody's heard of ringworm, which is a fungus that can be transmitted. Not a parasite, not a worm, a fungus. There is a mite called scabies that is transmissible from dogs to pets. It causes extreme itching. Hookworms can be transmitted from pets to people and can cause some skin issues on people. They talk about skin infections and some of these MRSA and that type of thing, but the studies haven't shown that to be nearly as big an issue. Mostly we worry about immunocompromised people. For people who are on chemotherapy or medications for cancer, we do worry a little bit about that, but those are the main things we worry about.

Two things come to mind in every situation that every veterinarian has to be aware of because of the public health concern, especially when you have children around. The first one we're always going to give consideration to is ringworm. A ringworm is not a worm. The name is misleading, but a fungus actually causes it. Kids can pick up ringworm from another classmate at school. A lot of times, we'll commonly see ringworm in cats than in dogs. So if you find a kitten on the side of the road, you bring them home, and after a couple of days, you start getting little red rings on your skin; we start looking into ringworm. Usually, you'll see areas of hair loss on the kitten.

It could show up on the face or anywhere on the body, but a fungus causes it. Unfortunately, they can be a bit of a nuisance to manage or eliminate. That's the more common type of skin condition that can be transmitted. The other one is called Sarcoptic Mange. We don't see a lot of it, and fortunately, it's very easy to treat, unlike ringworm, which could be a real nuisance. Sarcoptic Mange is highly contagious. It's caused by tiny little mites or insects that live in the skin, but it can primarily spread from our pets, our dogs. We don't really see it so much in cats. Our dogs may get it, transmit it to us, and likewise, we can spread it to another family member. You need that close contact for it to be transmitted because it is a mite in the skin, but it is easy to treat. That's the good news. Those will always be the first two considerations: ringworm or Sarcoptic Mange.