My doggie is suffering. He is a half-toy-terrier, quarter pekingese, quarter toy poodle breed and he has contracted some sort of dermatitis.
We have taken him to the veternarian’s office and all our vet would do is prescribe him pills that are like doggie-sized versions of Benadryl, and give us a special medicated shampoo. Neither of these has worked on relieving his itchy skin problems.
We have given him adult Benadryl - two pills a day - and have bathed him three times a week with the shampoo. This is not working.
Just today while I was visiting my parents for Sunday dinner, I looked down at him when he was begging for food and noticed that he had bitten and rubbed at his flesh so much that it was bleeding - there was a two-inch-wide, four-inch-long strip where he had no fur, and hardly any skin either. He is bleeding all over the place, crying, and we are completely incapable of helping him.
Does anyone here - pet specialists or the type - have any idea what else we can do? My parents want to put him to sleep to put him out of his misery, and though I was objecting to that before, now that I have seen him tearing his own flesh from his body, I’m almost leaning toward that. But if there’s anything - really, anything at all - that we haven’t tried that has worked for someone, I’d rather try that first.
You might want to check into food allergies. He might be allergic to what he’s eating, that is one of the biggest causes of skin problems in dogs. I am not an expert, but my SO’s previous dog had food allergies bad, a change in diet (ask the vet) helped.
I’m rather disappointed nobody saw the poor dog gnawing at hisself. Come on…even seeing the dog once a day a person could see that it was going bald!
Anyway, keep a very close watch on the little tyke. Do not let him bite himself anywhere (really this applies to every dog – do not let them chew themselves much, my own do it out of some mental disorder and you have to keep smacking them to make them stop). You could try a cold wet washcloth compress against his damaged area, at least as temporary relief.
Don’t put him to sleep. It’s not a big problem. Take him to the vet, show him what occurred. Tell him the Benedryl stuff is not working, nor is baths. Ask about the food allergy. If you have used the pills for a week and there is no improvement, obviously it is not working. If your vet remains staunch in his decision, get a new vet.
And just FYI, if you switch his diet (try Lamb & Rice Science Diet – expensive, but nigh guarantees no allergic reactions, only farts), don’t completely change it. Give him say, 1/4 new, 3/4 old for a few days, then 1/2 new, 1/2 old for a few days, etc. so he won’t get an upset stomach.
nods Well, he’s my dog, but when I moved out I had to leave him behind with my parents … I only see him a couple times a week at most. My parents are fairly indifferent to what the dogs are doing and it really cheeses me off but… anyway, yeah, half of it was him biting it off and the other half was him rubbing up against the inside of a table leg, I pulled him away from that and had to clean bits of fur and flesh and blood off the table …
Since I work nights I’ve volunteered to take him to the vet tomorrow, I’ll ask him about the food allergies. His mother lives in the same house and she has dermatitis too, albeit much more mildly than her son, so I’m not sure on that, but I will most certainly ask … And relay the information to my parents. Maybe if they think it’s too much work they’ll let me keep him for a while …
Thanks, Boscibo and Toaster. I hope to get more suggestions before I have to take him in tomorrow, just in case the vet insists on prescribing pills I want to have a lot of ideas and questions for him.
Oh, now I remember, this is the thing I wanted to re-respond to. Heh…
My chihuahua (used to) have a simple dermatitis he inherited from one of his parents. It was on his chest, so he couldn’t itch it, thank cod. All that happened was he went slightly bald and he was a bit itchy though. Just applied cream (cream is good) for about two weeks daily, then it went away, never comes back. However if we had bred him his children would come out with dermititis too. Not a problem though.
The vet probably should do a skin scrape of the area and have it tested for mange or parasites. Neither is good, although usually both are easily treatable. If he had the bad mange (I forget the name of it), you’d know. He’d be losing fur everywhere, and bleeding everywhere, and…well, suffice to say it’s one of the very nasty things you don’t wanna see.
Has the mother been treated? If yes, remember what you did to her? Ask about that for the son. If not, once you get the son figured out (I’m 90% sure all you really need is some cream or antibiotic-type medicine, not a diet change), I would recommend getting her fixed too with the leftover medicine or something. No sense letting her suffer.
Take the advice above. Especially, if your vet won’t help you, get a new vet.
Something else you can try is Evening Primrose Oil. This can help with some skin problems. You will want to A) discuss this with your vet first and B) get the appropriate strength for your dog’s size.
Believe it or not, there are companies that make herbal remedies for dogs.
Here’s an article about it. As far as I can tell, this site isn’t trying to sell anything, it’s just providing information:
Oh, and have you talked to the vet about getting one of those cones so he can’t bite himself?
Since I moved to Florida, my poor Portie started gnawing at her paws, sometimes to the point of bleeding. You wouldn’t notice this in most PWDs, but mine is white, so the stains are very visible. She never did this in Colorado.
Turns out she’s allergic to Bahia, which is the groundcover at the dog park and her doggie day care. When I get back home from either of those places, she gets Benadryl spray on her paws right away. It does the trick, but she’ll still sometimes chew out of habit – I just give her a certain look, and she stops.
You might want to do a Google search on “barf dogs diet” – bones and raw food.
Toaster - the mother has been taking the same pills and medicated baths as the son, and though her symptoms are not completely gone, she does not seem to be suffering as badly as he is. She rarely bites at her affected areas, and mostly licks them or gives them the occasional brush against the couch as she walks by. She doesn’t cry constantly like he does, and she doesn’t rub against harsh, abrasive surfaces to take care of what itching she may have. I definitely have no interest in seeing any doggie suffering, she seems to be doing okay with it.
lesa - thanks for the link. I haven’t talked to the vet about the cone yet because I wasn’t aware the dog was harming himself by biting until just today. I will definitely ask about it when I take him in tomorrow.
elmwood - we tried Benadryl creme on the dogs and it seemed to work for a very very short time. Then the itch came back just as fierce. We’d have to be applying the creme about once every hour to keep him itch-free, and as he is in my parents’ care I don’t think they’d be willing to do that. They yell at him for whining If they would let me take him I wouldn’t mind applying the creme as often as possible, but I have to sleep sometime
I don’t think anything has really changed in their environment - we don’t take them to parks as they have a huge back yard to romp in and such - but I will ask about that sort of stuff too. Thanks.
It’s just so hard to sit here and worry about the doggie and know that even if I was there, there’d be nothing I could do to help him. Very sad stuff
Has the vet checked him for demodectic or sarcoptic mange? If not ask them to because my Jack Russel suffered from demodectic mange(i.e. constant itching and bleeding in places). She’s on a medicated dip right now and it’s clearing it up really nicely.
It could be allergies. Not just food allergies, like Boscibo said, but general allergies.
The Little Woman’s Sheltie had similar problems. Checked for mange. No. (That time. This dog…) Changed food. Not it. Did all the preliminary checks and adjustments. Nothing.
Went to the Doggie Allergist. He shaved her side and gave her a series of allergy tests. She was allergic to everything. We had to change her food, clean the carpets (which needed it anyway), get rid of our feather pillows, and go through a series of allergy injections.
The round of allergy shots de-sensitized her, her hair all grew back and we haven’t had trouble since. With allergies anyway.
-Rue.
Get your vet to do a skin scrape, as was suggested earlier. Also, check for fleas. Our Newfs are allergic to fleas, so their reaction is very similar to your dog’s behavior- scratching themselves bloody and bald.
Also, you can try several medicated shampoos (buy the small bottles to test) and maybe an oatmeal conditioner, which worked very well for our dogs. Tar shampoos are supposed to help with iching.
My Boston Terror had a similar problem. Here’s my checklist on what to do, most of which has been covered already.
Have a GOOD vet check for mange and/or allergies. Especially flea allergies. Sometimes the solution is as simple as Advantage or Top Spot (monthly flea treatment). It worked for my cat, but not the dog. Cat was licking the fur off her belly, until I started treating her for fleas. Got rid of the fleas and the fur grew back.
Do not go overboard on the Benadryl, especially if it’s not working. I would check with the vet about side effects, etc.
Try a colloidal oatmeal shampoo. I found one in the local pet store that works great, smells good and is NOT tar shampoo, which seem too strong to me. Nature’s Miracle are recommended products, although I don’t know if they have an oatmeal shampoo.
Consider chemicals on the grass where the dog goes out. Mine lived near a golf course, which I walked her on every night. As soon as we moved away from the golf course, she stopped getting the “itchy/crusties.” I’m convinced that whatever nasty chemicals the golf course people were spraying around, the dog was allergic to.
Another suggestion I was given, which I never had to try: add a teaspon (or half it it’s a small dog) of olive or vegetable oil to the dog’s food. For some reason that helps dogs with dry, itchy skin. Doggie vitamin E should also help retain oils in the skin.
While I highly recommend any herbal supplements, you should be able to find a vet who can recommend them. I know of a vet in town who practices acupuncture on dogs. It cures damn near everything, the dogs don’t seem to mind, and hey! Whatever works, right? You might ask around for vets who practice alternative treatments. I’d try an aloe lotion or straight aloe off the plant – lots of skin healing properties and it won’t hurt the dog if he/she licks it off.
We use several, depending on the weather and time of year- the best is DermCaps ES, expensive but work wonders for dry skin, try one of the online vet catalogs for the best prices, like KV Vet or New England Serum.
I also give the dogs vitamin E capsules (1000 unit size) and fish oil capsules, both from Costco and pretty cheap. The oils really help with the dry, itchy skin, as long as it’s not an allergy.
I took the dog squad to the Vet’s last Tuesday for their shots. My old dog (12) Rusty has a bit of dermatitis, and the vet recommended “essential fatty acids”. Flax seed oil and fish oil, taken together. They do sell these at Petsmart and Petco, but He prescribed over the counter adult capsules (1000mg) of each, which are much less expensive at the discount pharmacy. Rusty is a big old dog, and weighs in at 95lbs, so check on the dosage for your little guy.
My friend had a Pomeranian that was nearly bald from chewing at himself and someone suggested using tea tree oil on the dry spots. They healed right up and his fur grew back.
Recently when my dogs had a go round with fleas, Buck continued to chew on himself till he was losing fur even after all the fleas were gone. I used tea tree oil on him with very good results as well. I also added about a tablespoon of olive oil a day to his regular dog food to help with the dry spots.
