Help with Buddy..... in Dr. Christopher Lee DVM CVLS Forum

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Help with Buddy.....

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Glenda 12	Help with Buddy.....		Lead	[-]
Posts: 301 04/08/10 09:00 PM	Tags : None Dr. Lee, I've posted this on the canine health forum too, but in case you don't see, I'd really appreciate your opinion here.... Okay, tonight was not a good night. I ordered the Zymox shampoo & rinse when I got home from work; Bud was doing not bad with scratching. Jay said he was not bad during the day either..... I'm scratching his bum and notice that his tail stubby is totally swollen and red, nothing else around it is out of the ordinary. I clean it up and put some burrows solution on it to help soothe it. We head out for I'm not sure it was even an hour to grab some stuff and we come in and he has totally chewed the side of his upper hip area, it is raw, red and futher down same thing. Right now I am so upset I am ready to cry because he is so uncomfortable and itching. I broke and gave him some prednisone, because whatever is causing this reaction needs to be stopped before he gets an infection so bad, he gets very ill. That is my greatess fear right now...... We'll watch him overnight and if nothing is changed by morning, back to the vet and I'm requesting a blood panel be done, because something is up and I'm not letting him suffer because we're not getting any answers!!! Please anyone have any suggestions................ Glenda,Buddy,Tae,TJ & Smokey precious furangels Reiko (2004-11-18),Tecah (2006-02-02) & Mouzer (2004-08-24) "Paw prints and nose smudges on glass doors and windows break up glare and soften the light in a room"
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Dr Lee		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 57 04/09/10 10:35 AM	Sorry for the delay. I am on the west coast. I am assuming that Buddy is suffering from allergies? I assume this is why he has been prescribed the shampoo and prednisone? If a pet is having an allergic reaction, is red/swollen/painful, then prednisone can give a lot of relief. I know that there is a lot of concern with the safe use of steroids. Where prednisone can cause problems is if there is underlying disease, or if the use is chronically used at a high dosage. Here is link for the options for allergy treatment: Allergies. As far as workup: 1) Physical examination can help establish if further tests such as skin scraping (looking for mites) or cytology (looking for bacteria or fungus) are necessary or not. It can also help establish if antibiotics are needed and whether or not a short course of higher dose steroids is needed for relief or not. 2) Blood tests can help look for other underlying causes of skin diseases other than allergies. Note: the blood allergy tests are generally not recommended. They appear to be fairly inaccurate. 3) Referral to a veterinary dermatologist is the best method to establish "what a pet" is allergic to. They can do this through skin tests. Sometimes a food trial will be done before this step. FYI: The use of steroids can interfere with skin testing. Short term options for relief (while trying to get your pet to the vet): cold baths, benadryl (ask your vet for dosing and if appropriate), over the counter hydrocortisone cream or spray. Long term options besides steroids: if the pet is food allergic: special diets. If not: then hyposensitization injections prescribed by a veterinary dermatologist. Atopica (modified microemulsified cyclosporine) - see link. I hope this helps. This is 8am my time, so if you have more questions, please shoot me a quick email! Thanks and I hope this helped.
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Glenda 12		#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 301 04/09/10 08:41 PM	Thank you very much for your reply. I was in total panic last night, but I think we might have found our allergen....BEEF. That is the only thing that has been different over the last 2 weeks. Buddy has suffered allergies since he was 3, on and off of pred; he has has environmental allergy testing, usual allergens dust mites, mold, black birch (which we don't have in Manitoba??). On February 1st we decided to try the raw diet after attempts to have blood testing for allergies done and failing. So we started on beef...we thought from before he may be allergic to chicken so stayed away. But we will be trying that in the future. He's been doing well on the raw, still itching (oh he was also diagnosed w/hypo thyroidism under control with meds, last test Feb 12 he was at 30 so we're on the way); last few weeks he started getting scabs again, no hot spots but little scabs, losing hair. Thinking it may be a yeast infection again off to the vet we go. She found a smidgen of yeast but lost of bacteria. The regimen of Baytril started on Monday. Started see improvement in itching and the scabs; I was not able to get bison or elk marrow bones, so grabbed a pack of beef ones on Tuesday. All the dogs get treats after supper.... so all had beef bones and Buddy went bonkers. He was so raw last night and his poor stubby OMG. I gave him 20 mg of pred and will continue for 3 days, then do the step down again... he slept like a log last night and he's been a bit itchy today but not bad at all. We were so happy to have him off the pred for almost 5 weeks....but I guess in the big picture to get him comfortable and on the road to recovery, 20 mg is not too bad. He used to be on 50 back when. I did talk to the vet this morning and she said to continue just what we were thinking the step down and the Baytril should be starting to work now as well. Once I get the Zymox, he'll have a good scrub and rinse and we'll see how he does on that. We tried the Atopica about 4 yrs ago, didn't touch him at all and he was on it for 6 mths. When we had the environmental tests done they suggested hypsensitization but decided against it. Thank you for listening and I will certainly keep you updated on his progress. Glenda,Buddy,Tae,TJ & Smokey precious furangels Reiko (2004-11-18),Tecah (2006-02-02) & Mouzer (2004-08-24) "Paw prints and nose smudges on glass doors and windows break up glare and soften the light in a room"
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mommytoNash		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 10004 04/09/10 09:27 PM Administrator	It sounds like you have a plan, and I am glad to hear that Buddy is doing better. A few more days, and I will hope he'll be even that much better. Do keep us updated. Cindy and Nash Nash was born 9/2/1998, and is my sweet 1/2 breed Cocker Spaniel/English Springer Spaniel. He was dx'd with diabetes in November 2007 and is currently on 9 units of Novelin N twice a day. Nash went blind approximately 6 mnths after dx, has glaucoma and gets eye drops 5x day
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pug.petswithdiabetes		#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2894 04/09/10 10:03 PM	When you have Buddy on the pred, do you give samE or milk thistle to help prevent liver damage from steroids?
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Glenda 12		#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 301 04/10/10 05:56 PM	No I don't Joan, is that something that maybe I should be looking at? Glenda,Buddy,Tae,TJ & Smokey precious furangels Reiko (2004-11-18),Tecah (2006-02-02) & Mouzer (2004-08-24) "Paw prints and nose smudges on glass doors and windows break up glare and soften the light in a room"
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My Gully	help wit Buddy	#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 84 04/16/10 07:19 AM	I think I have had almost everything that could happen with the skin in t.he past few years so if you don't mind I will comment. 1st. have Buddy's thyroid checked. Tut my scottie suffered several years with fungus infections- terribly itchy skin with open ulsers from scratching when he got wet. He finally was properly diagnosed as having a thyroid condition only a few months before he died. 2. Get him on a non allergenic dog food. We settled on Eukanuba for both Gulliver and Tut. It is made with duck and potatoe (I think). Anyway NOT beef- Gulliver gets all his symptoms with beef too. He can not even have a bone. 3. Atopica is for the immune system. If you can get away with not using it then good (its very expensive). But it can make your dog feel so much better if you need it. 4. Wash with a good antifungal/ antipuritic (antibacterial) shampoo. The shampoo has to be used correctly. Maleseb is left on for ten minutes and rinsed off thoroughly. For Tut I had to use it for 7 days every days and then once a week. It is imperative to get the dog dry after. It has been a lifesaver for Gulliver. He smelled like old wet socks because of the daily wash I have to give him for his fistula. When I changed to the proper shampoo he smells clean and the fistula's are staying away. 5. I also wanted to say that fungal skin also smells. It doesn't always smell like old damp socks but it smells. An old wives tale- If it is a wet skin problem, keep it dry. If it is a dry skin problem, keep it wet (iow use an oil or other lubricant) 6. Never forget that parasites like mange both demodetic and sarcoptic could be culprits. sarcoptic is really itchy and also both can hide down into the follicle. One scraping may not show the parasite. I had danes that only showed their infection when I found a pimple like pustule that I looked at myself-. 7. Other parasites that can cause huge problems are fleas and lice. Yes dogs can get lice. They are not common but they can get lice. Using Advance or Frontline can help with parasites. Keep strong, it can get pretty upsetting when you do not know why. I hope you will get on top of this soon, best wishes, Kathy ps forgive the spelling- I hope I have most of this right My Gully
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Glenda 12		#7	[url]	[-]
Posts: 301 04/19/10 06:34 PM	Hi Kathy, thank you for the message...hope that Gully is doing well. I just read your post and wanted to reply to you. Quick reply.... Buddy tested positive for hypothyroidism has been on thyro-tab for over a year (what a difference in weight and energy); doing well... On March 1st of this year we switched to raw in order to get some answers for his allergies, as we are having a difficult time getting anyone in Canada to do a blood panel for allergies. The place we had contacted in Washington was doing a trial on animal testing, didn't receive further funding and the program went kaput. Elimination it is....however I think we found our allergen BEEF!!! A few weeks back I was not able to get bison/elk marrow bone, so bought beef and he was also on the raw beef....major reaction we had hot spots, raw itching skin and scabs and bad breath....got to the point where we had to do a round of prednisone (.20 mg) 4 days then start weaning him off and a 2 week stint of Baytril for the bacterial infection he had on his skin. All I can say is I'm grateful it wasn't yeast again!! Even his poor little tail stubby was raw and swollen out of sorts. Today is the last day of Baytril and he has 2 days of .5 pred ea day and he's done. We've also switched him to bison, elk no beef at all and he seems to be doing very well again. We're trying to introduce duck and lhama in the next few weeks. I also picked up some milk thistle to give him as Joan suggested. So we're back on the straight and arrow...I've ordered Zymox shampoo & rinse waiting for that to come from the US...can't find anything here in Canada. I have more details on the board Trying RAW for Buddy and Possibly another Yeast Infection... Glenda,Buddy,Tae,TJ & Smokey precious furangels Reiko (2004-11-18),Tecah (2006-02-02) & Mouzer (2004-08-24) "Paw prints and nose smudges on glass doors and windows break up glare and soften the light in a room"
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