I think my dog has poison oak

Question
Hi... I think my dog has poison oak on his head. I walk him in a hilly field that has some poison oak. Farley, my dog, is a huge ball retriever, so he chases after the ball into bushes and what-not when it goes bouncing down the hill. I had thought that dogs were impervious to poison oak because of their fur but... a few days ago, I noticed a funny patch of fur on his head. As I started cleaning it out, the fur just came off altogether. The bald patch is about the size of a fifty-cent coin. Initially, it was just a random, slightly red spot. I cleaned it up and everything seemed fine. I figured he'd bumped his head on the coffee-table corner or perhaps caught another dog's tooth when wrestling at the park or something (at 10 months, he's still full of quite a lot of energy and sometimes bumps into things when playing).

It's been about 3, maybe 4 days, and the patch has gotten scabbed over, then scratched off (by Farley), and is now pretty red, irritated and inflamed. I keep cleaning it out with hydrogen peroxide and it scabs up, but inevitably, at some point during the day, Farley scratches it. It's on the very top of his head, just to the right of his crown. The spot now looks quite like a rash... and is somewhat bloody when he's scratched it (just like if you'd peeled off a fresh scab). He seems to scratch it just once a day. Is it possible for a dog to get poison oak? How can I help him feel better and help the rash / inflamed bald spot to calm down? I started using Neosporine on it today, but it just looks so... angry. Should I put a liquid bandage on it?

How do you treat poison oak or poison ivy on a dog?

Thank you!

Susan

Answer
From your description, it does not sound like poison oak. Since it is limited to one area on the head, it is more likely something like a hot spot. You should let your vet look at it to make sure of what it is.  Peroxide sometimes burns skin because it heats up whenit bubbles, so be careful about doing it too much.  Your vet may want to do a skin fungus culture to check for ringworm or even do a skin scraping to check for mange.