Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 10/9/2009

Question
hi, my dog mollie is a bichon frise , she is 14 weeks old.. when i got her she had ear mites so my vet put stronghold on her and gave me some to put on her 3 weeks later.. anyway when she went for her first walks she was lieing down in the grass and rolling around in it as puppys do... since then she has been scratching and biteing herself in a bad way... i noticed she had what looked like 4 bites behind her ear and a bite under her legs, i took her too the vet and he said all it could be is a reaction to flea bites and he gave me steroids for her and told me to go back in 2 weeks... is it possible for fleas to bite a puppy with stronghold on and is it also true that she is too young for any other allergy... thank you emma.

Answer
It could be flea bites or sarcoptic mange. The flea medicines are not repellants and do not prevent fleas, they just slowly kill the ones that get on the skin.  Yes, young pups are not really subject to allergens other than from their food.  It is common for young animals to get food hypersensitivities at a very young age.