Skin problem.

I took Dayton to the vet today. He is 7 mths. old and weighs 47lbs. I took him because of skin problems. He has scabs under his armpits and has hair loss on his side and underneath him. The vet did a skin scrape and found nothing, she wasn't sure what the problem was. She gave me shampoo (Maximum ChlorhexiDerm, 4% Chlorhexidine). I am feeding him Nutro Max and she referred a Purina kibble or O'l Roy,lol. My main concern here is his skin problem. Please share any info. Thanks

 

oatmeal based shampoo might help, I have had decent results with it.

 

Yea I tried that and Medicated Selsum and Blue but it didn't help. Thanks for your response.

 

is he a blue? i had the same skin problems at that age and earlier but it went away later. he also had bumps on his belly that turned red but that went away as he got older too. pits (or in my case, amstaffs) seem to have sensitive skin as babies.

 

agreed.... give a good shampoo, change bedding and feed a quality kibble.

 

he sleeps in a crate on a pan. No he's not blue, he is seal and white. No fleas neither. Is Nutro Max not a good kibble? I didn't mean ol roy, it was dads, my bad. He stays clean and stays inside unless I walk him. All I can think of is that it's the carpet. This has been going on for quite some time. Thanks for the inputs.

 

My dogs got something similar to that after we went to their field. Our best guess is that there was some kind of critter in the stream they were playing in, and they got scabby from that. We used some sort of cream from the vet and were also told to always give a quick rinse (esp. in places like armpits where its dark and warm...perfect place for bugs to grow) after doing things like that.

Nutro isn't the worst, but it's not good either. Also, on another board I'm on a woman posted about her dogs who just had a BAD reaction to Nutro lamb and rice...her Boxer died and her little dog just barely made it...

I feed Canidae...you can usually find it at feed stores and it hardly costs more than Nutro, but is much higher quality. It's my personal choice, esp. when changing from a lower quality food to a high quality one as it IS a decent quality but it won't hurt the pocketbook too much.

 

So what's so bad about Nutro Max??? I have upgraded from purina puppy to diamond puppy to diamond adult to Nutro natural lamb and rice to just Nutro max.

 

i have sensitive skin too,,they gave me a new shampoo,,have your dog checked by another vet

 

Your vet is an idiot. Purina KIBBLE, or Ol Roy? didn't find anything on a skin scrape means diet is huge. Not only that but since you just rescued this dog, any reasonable person would tell you to get him on a good diet. Please, seek a new vet, either he/she is a moron, or didn't care, too busy, move on! A big per peeve of mine, because all of us NONvets, know that diet is major.

Anyways, I have to also guess this is allergy related. Scabs in the arm pits may mean the dog is itching them open (as my dog used to) hair loss in areas where the dog is laying may mean the surface is irritating the allergy (if that's the problem) but if the skin/coat is poor in general hair loss starts in these places. I highly suggest that when you go visit your NEW vet that you ask for a total body function blood test. This will tell you if the dog has any problems with organ function, really, anything at all. You want to know now, it's good to know since you just got the dog and it may show that he has somthing that is linked to this skin issue. I also suggest the oatmeal bath (sooths) but of course only once a week. I personally like Nutro, you do want to avoid wheats and corn, by-products etc. The list of ingredients will be in order according to what the highest percentage is. Lamb and rice is awesome, lamb is the most easiest meat for canines to digest, rice is also very easy to digest and lamb has great oil for skin and coat. If the dog has allergies diet will be key. Some dogs have such severe allergies they require a prescription diet. I actually cooked for my dog. Good luck! Oops, I just missread something, I thought you adopted the dog because you felt compassion due to the skin problems... either way!

 

My dog recently had some similar rash under his "armpits" and all over his belly. Kinda looked like heat rash. Does it have a funny smell? I thought it was an allergy and also changed food and bedding, switched to a medicated oatmeal shampoo. It cleared up a little but eventually worsened. Please take him to another vet that has more experience with APBTs. It turns out that my dog had staph dermatitis. Also check for small round bald, flaky patches, these could possibly ringworm. I would get him rechecked ASAP as it could also be a mange. My doc prescribed Cephalexin and a shampoo called Malaseb. Let us know what comes about. Good luck. Dont fool around and wait when it comes to skin problems.

 

Yea, the vet didn't kow what the he!! she was talking about. First she thought the dog was 3 or 4 yrs old. After she did the skin scrape she came back and said there was no mainge. Then she said she was going to go read. She came back and recommended that we pretty much experiment with either steroids or shampoo. I went with the shampoo. I feel like I got ripped. This is his first 40lb bag of nutro. He sleeps on just a pan in his crate. And I just moved into a new house, he has the same problems still. Thanks for sharing your comments.

 

Where did you get the dog from?

 

When I went through the allergy gauntlet with my pitbull, I got a diary and recorded everything daily. What she ate, did, slept etc.

It helped us to narrow down her allergies to corn and Tide laundry detergent. Using the diary, we were also able to determine that she was sensative to chicken too. (Chicken's eat corn)

I put her on Timberwolf dog food, (avoid the SW Chicken formula - it has blue corn) and started using Dreft and Cheer Free detergent. No more allergies, rashes, itching, puss filled bumps etc.

We also found that the bumps that we called "bully bumps" and the smelly itchy ears that our older male Petey has always had went away after 4 months on Timberwolf. All but one of his fatty tumors disappeared too and that one went from the size of a quarter down to the size of a pencil eraser.

I'd find a new vet and in the meantime - keep a record of her progress. It helped us to solve the issues we had with our girl.

 

Hoyden, I had no idea that fatty tumors are related to diet. Is the Timberwolf feed the only one that will help with them? I have a Jack Russell with quite a few all over her body. She has a really large one on the side of her windpipe sort of. My vet said it was just a fatty lipoma and it wasn't interfering with her eating or anything to just leave it alone.

 

the following link has a good chart that can be used as a reference, if need be. Too big to post.


http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1638&articleid=424

 

Honestly, I don't know if fatty tumors are related to diet.

My personal observations have been that by feeding Petey a diet that has no corn or chicken in it, his health has improved and his bully bumps and fatty tumors went away.

My vet is looking into it. When I brought Petey in and showed him the improvement he was very interested and is doing some inquiries into it. He actully pops in here to read but is to chicken to register. (Hi Doctor Broderick! Yes, I called you a chicken! )

On that note, a woman I know who has several pitbulls (6) and feeds only raw or a barf diet has NEVER had fatty tumors, bully bumps, allergies or skin irritations after she got them. And her dogs ALL came from the shelter - so there is no telling what their background is.