If you are going down the route of changing the food I would come away from dry food and feed a wet gluten free food instead. One of my dogs can be very itchy and scratchy with hot spots and dermatitis. Stopping all kibble even hypoallergenic kibble and feeding a wet glutenfree diet instead is the only thing that helped dramatically. My dog is allergic to dust and storage mites which are inevitable in dry food. Apoquel also didn't really work for him.
So sorry for you all, humans and dog. We have a dog who is very itchy and we have tried many remedies. We have found the following has worked for Snowie: Raw meaty bones and meat from beef, venison, sheep and ostrich. No chicken or duck altho he scavenges a lot and picks up chicken bones almost every day on our walks. It is very difficult to restrict his diet as our streets are littered with discarded food (bread, etc) but on the whole he eats unprocessed food. Salmon oil capsules - omega 3s are very good for skin and coat. Daily dip in the pond (no chlorine) to wash off allergens. Frequent washing of his bedding. And putting his bed and blankets in the sun every day to get rid of any potential fleas/mites. Frequent brushing particularly around backside area - to get rid of flea eggs. When he's particularly itchy I shampoo him with Head n Shoulders (I use it for my own itchy scalp). Pyroderm is also a good dog shampoo. Malaseb was always out of stock when we tried to buy it - I believe it is the best. Keep him cool. He gets itchy when he's hot. He has two cooling gel mats for the night that he moves on and off through the night and access to the balcony at night if he's particularly hot. When Snowie had injured his skin, we found calendula cream very healing and soothing. Also milking cream (chlorohexidine in a lanolin base). He loved having it rubbed in. Although he also loved to lick it off! We do a few other things that I'm not sure help - give him vit c, spirulina, turmeric, coconut oil and apple cider vinegar almost every day - small amounts. Vet said can do no harm. We deworm him every 3-4 months. But we do not use any flea/tick meds as he is epileptic and is prone to seizures. He had two seizures after taking Bravecto. So we just need to be careful and vigilant. Thankfully it appears we have no fleas in our area, and ticks only briefly in spring. However... the itching continues. So he is on a very low dose of prednisone (since 6 months ago) - 125mg (1/4 tablet) every other morning, and sometimes every morning if he's particularly itchy. We keep trying to wean him off it but if he gets itchy we dose him more frequently. A note on cortisone: you can't stop it abruptly, needs to be weaned off gradually with vet's guidance. Hopefully Snowie can come off the cortisone soon given the frightening side effects, but at this stage his quality of life is more important and our vet said the low dose is extremely low. With all the above, Snowie is now lesion-free with some pink on an elbow from scratching and nibbling. Coat is magnificent. Skin is usually fine (one small thickened area on stomach due to licking, probably will remain there), sometimes stomach is red in the evenings. Scratches a few times a day, mostly in evenings before bed. Licks a few times a day. Vast improvement from non-stop licking and scratching. Have you considered an anaesthetic gel on her wounds while she has the cone on? At least to give her relief - can you imagine how she must be desperate to scratch those areas? Also a cortisone cream at the same time to stop the itching? I know this is very controversial but I have been reading a lot about the oral flea/tick tablets possibly causing horrific skin problems. Are you using any? I am really sorry for you. Perhaps some of what we do for Snowie can be of use to you? His raw diet costs the same as a high-quality kibble. The salmon oil capsules are pricey but I do take advantage of specials - just bought 3 for the price of 2 the other day. We haven't done any allergy tests - two vets have told us they're very expensive, not always conclusive, and even if they are, it is very difficult to remove all allergens short of living in a bubble.
Hi again, I wanted to say thanks for your help and the very detailed reply. There's a lot to go on there but I will try it and see how we go. I especially like the idea of the Head and Shoulders instead of the Malaseb, thats quite a saving in cost if that does work and it's money I can spend elsewhere on her. Mollie has been making good progress since I last posted and her wounds are getting visibily better each day. I made a mistake though of buying her a comfy collar and replaced the cone. Sadly she managed to bend enough to nibble the wound on her hind and opened it all back up again. We're now on the white fish and veg kibble and I've started on the daily salmon oil at the weekend. In addition she's taking two steroid tablets a day and 2 antihistamines a day (these are all ongoing). Shes coming to the end of the Apoquel tablets (I won't be paying for these again) and the antibiotics which have had questionable results as well. I think it's a long road ahead, and I don't think we are any nearer the best course to making Mollie feel any better, but I do think the help I've received here have at least given me many ideas to try. I'm sure we'll get there in the end and I'm damned if I'm paying the vet anymore unless it's the last resort. Thank you.
Is her skin problem in one area only as it appears on the photo, or is that just one of many hotspots? If it is one area, I am wondering if she has something IN/UNDER the skin and this is causing the problem?
Hi all. Sadly things aren't going very well. I took Mollie back to our vets last Friday for him to examine her. She'd finished the course of antibiotics and Apoquel at that point. Her skin swab results were back and it showed the wounds were infected but 'not with anything unusual'. I explained I wasn't willing to spend further money on guessing a cure, but the vet convinced me that the results showed that Tramadol would be just as effective as the expensive antibiotic and it would be much cheaper. We've been given a 6 week course of these and asked to check back in 2 weeks. Up until then Mollie had been making decent progress and save for one scratching incident looked relatively fine (though obviously covered in scars, bald patches and red marks). The vet thought the cardboard feeling down her flanks could be a calcium buildup caused by the long term steroids. On his advice, we've stopped the steroids. So from that point forward she was on a double dose of Tramadol and washes twice weekly with Malaseb. Mollie then had another go at herself: Her color has stopped most of the nibbling, however she is now able to scratch herself, which she has been doing with unfortunate results. This was this morning: I've totally lost faith in our vets. Today we have put a T-Shirt over the poor girl to try and stop the scratching.
No, we can't afford it at the moment. I have spent £460 already this month on her, and with 2 kids to feed and a mortgage to pay, there has to be a limit somewhere.
That looks very sore. Your poor girl, the itchiness must be so miserable for her. I have no answer other than that I would stop feeding dried food. Switching to wet food was the only thing that worked for my dog.
Poor Mollie...really I would get that dermatologist referral. Couple things I don't understand...tramadol is a strong opioid based painkiller. What was your vets rationale in prescribing? More as a sedative? The other thing, the swabs came back were infected. Have more swabs been taken to see if the antibiotics have resolved the infection? Have the steroids been titrated down, surely not stopped immediately? I agree with Heidrun and would stop all kibble and go to wet food or raw or at the very least a single source protein. It won't do any harm.
Unfortunately dogs are not cars or leaky taps they won't wait. She clearly in pain and it is your ethical duty as her owner to help her.
If you cannot afford a dermatologist it may be a good idea to ask for a referral to another vet. I cannot understand why Tramadol was given, probably as a sedative to calm down the itching (Tramadol in a human painkiller), however, the root problem needs to be addressed quickly and even yet another vet might help. Do take @heidrun's advice and try some good tinned food, even try Chappie which isn't expensive. Has she had a skin scrape to see if there are any mites lurking deep in the skin?
I'm really sorry. Her wounds look very painful and she must be incredibly itchy to do that to herself. Have you given her Bravecto or Nexguard or other oral anti-flea treatment? Though controversial, there are many people reporting skin lesions after giving their dogs these pills. If you are unable to afford the care she needs, could you rehome her to someone who can? I know that might be painful for you especially after all you've been through, but she can't be left like this, she must be in the most terrible discomfort. I am so sorry for you and I hope you manage to find a solution that works for you and Mollie.
We are helping her to the best of our ability - I spent £80 on the antibiotics for her just 5 days ago. We have changed her medication, her food, the oils she has as well as investing in various creams/lotions and anti histamines. I am also washing her as per the vets instructions. I am not a vet, I pay the vet to tell us what to do and I am following his 'expert' advice to the letter. He prescribed the current antibiotic (and sorry, I got this wrong earlier, it's actually Trimacare!) as he felt it would be as effective as the other drug she was on that was 4 times the price. Again, I didn't do years training to be a vet, so I go off of his advice. Believe me, we are doing everything possible to help her within our means. Regards the skin tests, we were advised that it will be about £900 for the tests and there was a very high chance the report won't actually identify what the issue is, more give a general report that would contain things we couldn't possibly avoid. My feelings are we have to give the current changes time to settle, I worry that we are forever changing this that and the other, so we've no idea what is working and what isn't. Just to answer a few other questions; she has been tested for mites and fleas and no, she's not taking anything orally for these. I'll look into the other suggestions, thank you very much for the advice
New to this forum however we experience a similar problem with Gadget the 11 year old lab we look after - but not on that scale...it must be so miserable for all of you. Here's a few things we tried that seemed to really help: Olive oil mixed with calendula oil....he gets a massage every other day - all over...calendula does not appear to be toxic for him and it is diluted with the olive oil anyway. There are other oils you could try to build in if Mollie reacts well (lavender - check which ones and what doses are suitable for example tea tree can be too toxic) but calendula and olive oil would be an easy one to start with...essential oils are a bit controversial for some vets - so do the research to reassure yourself - honestly with Gadget it's worked a treat and we can treat him at home. Regular dips in a clean river/water (2/3 times a week)- we're in the countryside so it's pretty easy Change of diet and regular brushing as other members have said already Also we invested in a usb dog clipper - as soon as the 'hot spot' appears we now shave around the area to let it breathe and apply a calendula based spray - the one in France is called securiderm - we got it from our vet. After the redness has quietened down we go back to massaging in the calendula oil mix. We also tried washing him with 'savon de soufre' - translates to sulphur soap?? Haven't done much with the soap but some owners here swear by it as really good for skin conditions (humans and dogs). As you're probably guessing we're a bit on the alternative side...the steroids don't abate the problem as you've already discovered, plus side effects and cost...all the above a relatively cheap homeopathic/kitchen remedies worth trying. The clipper is a godsend - if you can invest in one - they're not too expensive we bought ours off Amazon - and it's called Joyu - it's pretty quiet and does the job on Gadget's coat very easily. Good luck!
I use Johnsons skin calm shampoo which contains coal tar and sulphur. It seems to work very well and is really inexpensive and widely available here in the UK
