Dash is sick - update #27

[SleepyMom]

Thanks for asking, he seems to feel fine but he's not looking much better. Actually the pads on his back legs look sore. He loves the new food and he is switching over nicely, no problems there. We are going to the vet later this week and hopefully they will give us an idea. DH thinks we need to give the new food a few more days, he just started on it Saturday and still has a bit of the old mixed in... I hate to be doing a ton of things all at once because then I wonder if we will know what the main cause is, but eliminating things one at a time is slow going and I want him to get over this.

I will update this post as he progresses.

 

[imsorry]

 

[Muffy]

I just want to suggest Abady dog food for Dash. It is the best dog food and my Shar Pei is doing great on it. He tends to have skin allergies too. Hugs for Dash..

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Poor Dash! My sister's dog used to be extremely sensitive to carpet shampoo. He would get terrible skin rashes when they would shampoo their carpets. Have you had your carpets shampooed or put any product down on them?

It's hard to play pet detective and figure out what could be causing a problem like this! And it's not as if once you figure it out it will totally clear up the next day. Be patient and I know that you'll figure it out eventually!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Bumping this back up--how is Dash doing?

 

[LindaG4458]

Another food alternative - Solid Gold. My cocker had food allergies and did very well on it, as did several related cockers with similar problems. It's a little expensive but it was worth it for her not to itch constantly.

 

[SleepyMom]

Just a quick update on Dash...

We went back to the vet and they did another skin scraping and nothing was found. I asked about a couple different things that others have mentioned and she feels that he is still pretty young for most of them, she still feels that this is a food allergy. His leg is not healing up at all, I tried the bitter apple after putting on the cream and he did not like that one bit. Now one eye has an area around it that is really losing the hair even more.

So, for now we are only feeding him the Natural Balance food, it is the allergy recipe with duck and potato. No more rawhide chews or any other treats for the next 2 months. She is also giving him Prednisone for a couple weeks to help clear this up.

Dash is really going to miss his chew bones

My DH is worried the prednisone will make him a little more wired than usual, does anybody know if this is true? The vet never said anything about it, but the last thing Dash needs is to get revved up even more We call him Turbo Dash as it is!

Thanks again everyone for your well wishes for Dash, he needs them right now.

 

[HERSEY]

I don't know how Dash will do on it but it made my son jittery. We had a Jack
(Sammy Sosa) he would run up the walls I feel your pain. I really hope Dash starts to turn around healthwise soon.

 

[SleepyMom]

I don't know how Dash will do on it but it made my son jittery. We had a Jack
(Sammy Sosa) he would run up the walls I feel your pain. I really hope Dash starts to turn around healthwise soon.

DH said he felt like he had taken a dose of caffiene while on it, that is why he wonders how it will affect Dash. As for the Turbo part, it is actually funny to watch... that little guy can really move, just make sure you stay out of his way. You never want to be on a couch when he starts because that is what he uses for his turnaround

 

[Snowysmom]

My dog had been on prednisone for skin problems and it never made her wired. It did make her drink water like crazy and want to eat alot. I hope Dash feels better soon!

 

[DisneyStar006]

I don't have any advice to offer, I just wanted to say I hope Dash gets better soon, he's such a cutie!

 

[Jockaroo]

I hope the medicine will help get Dash back to his normal, fuzzy, itch-free state. I think the medication is a steroid. These are OK for limited use, but consult with your vet before long-term use since steroids can increase the chances of developing cancer. This is very true with terrier breeds. My itchy male Scottie has gotten steroid shots twice when he was at his worst, but the vet doesn't want him to get them anymore. He is 10 years old and has some abnormal liver enzyme values. I don't want to scare you, but just let you know that this medicine is not a long-term fix. Hopefully the food switch with the meds will get things under control. All my best to Dash.

 

[carrie_106]

Is he scratching alot? My vet said that mange mites are on the rampage right now and that it is alot of the same symptoms you described. You might want to have them do a skin scraping to find out, because if it is mites, you can treat them.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I'm glad you're trying the NB food - food allergies often take 6-8 weeks on a new food to see a change so don't get discouraged. It's SO HARD to not give any other treats during that period I know - I had to do it with my Shih Tzu =( But, if you can find the root of the issue then you can make the adjustments and go back to safe treats on a regular basis.

Pred is a steroid and is not recommended for longterm use for anyone, really. I take it often for asthma and know other Crohnnie's that take it longterm. Great drug but I hate it =) I'm sure your vet is going to do a short term spurt of it and take him off of it which is good.

Sorry another scraping didn't find an answer =(

 

[Dan Murphy]

Our Doc is taking prednisone, in conjunction with his chemo. He seems fine on it. Sure hope Dash does well.

 

[SleepyMom]

He is on the Prednisone for a week straight, then every other day for about 10 days. This was the third skin scraping and every time it shows nothing is there, so I am taking that as good news. I don't see him doing a lot of scratching, just what I would think is a normal amount for a dog, mostly he chews on his back leg and then the other areas where he is losing the hair he can't really reach. So I think that is just falling out on it's own, like around his eyes and on top of his head.

The vet did say he would be very thirsty and eat more while on this medication, so he gets it in the morning so I can make sure he gets outside whenever he needs to. Don't want to be up every 30 minutes in the night if I don't have to.

The vet also said he could lose a pound or two guess DH's nickname for him is right on at the moment

 

[Pea-n-Me]

One of my dogs developed a skin rash similar to what you are describing, however it was only on a very small area along the bottom of her mouth. Scrapings revealed Demodectic Mange (the skin must be deeply pierced with a razor, then squeezed very hard to get a good sample). She was an extremely sensitive dog, and we think it came out as a result of the stress of being in a kennel when we went away.

Anyway, our vet had recommended the standard treatment of a toxic dip, but I wasn't too confident about it because my research revealed it was a disease that was known to be extremely difficult to treat - it often spread over the whole body. So not wanting to fool around with it, I took her to a veterinary dermatologist at Angell Memorial Hospital in Boston, a teaching hospital of Tufts Veterinary School. He put her on a medicine meant for cows, it was basically an antiparasitic similar to heartworm medicine, only stronger. I was very glad I found him because within a few weeks it cleared up, and my own vet even started using it in place of the dip in his practice.

I hope you have success with the food change, but if you don't, you might want to see a veterinary dermatologist. Good luck.

 

[SleepyMom]

Pea-n-Me I think the vet was looking for the same thing your dog had, only they called it the demodex mite. She did two scrapings this last visit, one on his leg and one on the top of his head and she explained to me first how she was doing it. It sounds just like what you described, he wasn't happy while she did it and was bleeding afterwards on both spots.

I will have to check around and see if we have a vet dermatologist here, thanks for the tip.

 

[HERSEY]

I was just thinking about Dash. How is he doing?