Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 7/1/2006

Question
My 3-year old male chihuahua has many insect bites/bumps on his front legs and on his head. Some of the bumps are red but others have a dark brown speck on them. I tried picking them off, but they seem to be scabs, and not an insect, but I'm not sure. I found an insect on him that was very small (the diameter of mechanical pencil lead), black, and round. I put Revolution on him regularly, so why is he getting these insect bites? What is this small, black, round insect? I couldn't find anything similar on the internet. I have red bites on me too.


Answer
Revolution is not a fast kill insecticide, so whatever bugs are on the dog will have to be on the dog for a long time, biting and sucking blood.  Try switching to Frontline TopSpot.  It works very quickly.

There may be a secondary bacterial infection causing these sores and scabs.