skin problems
Submitted by pschaap on July 2, 2010 - 5:35pmHello! My beautiful female 5-year-old bulldog has been having ongoing skin problems for several months now. Basically, she has small patches on her face where her hair is falling out. Underneath the skin looks a bit raw, although not terrible. It doesn't seem to give her discomfort. She has been on two fairly long courses of antibiotics. I have also tried giving her zyrtec for allergies. I thought she might have a food allergy as I was trying to switch her off low residue onto more regular food, so I switched her back to low residue. Everything I try seems to work for a short while, but then her face looks worse again. My vet wants to do a biopsy, but I feel that's a bit extreme. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
one thing it's probably not
I should add that it's probably not demodex both because of her age and because the vet took a skin scraping and, although bacteria showed up (which is when we did the antibiotics), demodex didn't.
my suggestion is
get going on some yogurt...antibotics kill healthy bacteria....also get her on some vit c 500mg once a day...i use cod liver capsules for my omega...low residue food robs the body of needed minerals....it could be a contact allergy some thing she is touching on laying her face on....also use a 1/2 teaspoon of pure honey once a day you can mix it in water...
if you dont like to feed raw go to a grain free food.....once she has not had herring sweet potatoe....something with bison.....stay away from chicken or lamb....
Judy what's wrong with lamb?
Just curious. I thought that was considered a good, hypoallergetic protein....
Great advise but stay away from Bison for a while
Someone on another board I belong said her bully was on Bison and got sick. There was just a recall on Bison becasue of E coli.
Judy gave you great information.
Jo Ann
Something Sort Of Similar
At 5 our Belle developed hives almost overnight, and two days later (after benedryl) they turned into nickel sized sores! At first our vet thought it might be demodex, but after 3 skin scrapings (and antiseptic dips 3 times a week along with an anti-fungal bath and antibiotic pill) the scrapings kept coming back Neg. We finally opted for the blood serum test and low and behold - ALLERGIES. She is allergic to grass, fleas, and DUST mites! So they started her on Temeral P (half benedryl, half prednisone) and it worked great for about 1 1/2 - 2 years. It was very bizzare and out of the blue. She'll be 8 in Sept, and now she's on cyclosporine instead and doing GREAT
Oh! As far as diet goes, we feed her the sweet potato & venison food formula (The vet suggested we switch her protein too just be safe and she said most food allergies are from chicken/poultry and said that switching to something less common like duck or venison would be better.) That formula is also grain free which is good for this breed's allergies/yeast issues
Best of Luck!
lamb vs allergies
chicken and lamb are normale ingredients that dogs are use to...if you have unknown allergies its good to go to a protein the dog has never tasted...and start from thier....so when ealing with allergies start with some thing the dog has never had....pork..bison...fish
Thanks for clarifying, Judy!
Very helpful.
skin problems
Thanks all; I have heard that about switching onto non-common foods to counteract food allergies. My one problem with that is that Hilda has a very touchy digestive system--the only food she seems to be able to tolerate without getting massive diarrhea is this low residue food. Thoughts on that?