Our dog, Susie, is a 6 year old Australian Shephard, fifty pounds, skinny.
In March she got sick. Has scabs all over her body and itches like
hell.Lost lots of hair. Stinks yeasty. Scratching herself and doing in
general a lot of damage to herself and to our state of mind. 5 different
vets had a look at her, did tests and nobody has an idea what could be
ailing her. No one had ever seen anything like it.
For the last two months she has raw food only (beef, turkey) She eats
lots of cooked vegetables, like beans, cauliflower, kale, broccoli. No
treats, no sweets, no table scraps. She likes yoghourt, so do I
Not one thing we do seems to help. We try to keep her from scratching.
Can anybody give us a hint as to what way to go. She is very loving and
affectionate.

Becca & Case Dekker

Case Dekker wrote:

Our dog, Susie, is a 6 year old Australian Shephard, fifty pounds, skinny.
In March she got sick. Has scabs all over her body and itches like
hell.Lost lots of hair. Stinks yeasty. Scratching herself and doing in
general a lot of damage to herself and to our state of mind. 5 different
vets had a look at her, did tests and nobody has an idea what could be
ailing her. No one had ever seen anything like it.
For the last two months she has raw food only (beef, turkey) She eats
lots of cooked vegetables, like beans, cauliflower, kale, broccoli. No
treats, no sweets, no table scraps. She likes yoghourt, so do I
Not one thing we do seems to help. We try to keep her from scratching.
Can anybody give us a hint as to what way to go. She is very loving and
affectionate.


Did they test her thyroid levels?
The one dog I know that had symptoms like yours had low
thyroid hormone levels. She improved a lot with supplements.

Of course that was probably the first thing the vets checked;
that's what mine did.

Amy Dahl

Thank you very much for your fast answer. I dont know if Susie's thyroid
levels were checked. Have appointment with vet tomorrow and we find out.

Thank you.

Case Dekker

Amy Dahl wrote:


Case Dekker wrote:


Our dog, Susie, is a 6 year old Australian Shephard, fifty pounds, skinny.
In March she got sick. Has scabs all over her body and itches like
hell.Lost lots of hair. Stinks yeasty. Scratching herself and doing in
general a lot of damage to herself and to our state of mind. 5 different
vets had a look at her, did tests and nobody has an idea what could be
ailing her. No one had ever seen anything like it.
For the last two months she has raw food only (beef, turkey) She eats
lots of cooked vegetables, like beans, cauliflower, kale, broccoli. No
treats, no sweets, no table scraps. She likes yoghourt, so do I
Not one thing we do seems to help. We try to keep her from scratching.
Can anybody give us a hint as to what way to go. She is very loving and
affectionate.



Did they test her thyroid levels?
The one dog I know that had symptoms like yours had low
thyroid hormone levels. She improved a lot with supplements.

Of course that was probably the first thing the vets checked;
that's what mine did.

Amy Dahl

"Case Dekker" wrote in message
...
Thank you very much for your fast answer. I dont know if Susie's thyroid
levels were checked. Have appointment with vet tomorrow and we find out.


.......You said they did a lot of tests. What tests did they do? Fungal
culture? Skin scraping? Skin biopsy? If they're going to do a thyroid
test they should do more than a T4 and T3 as these can be affected by other
illnesses. Ask them about a 6 panel thyroid.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

buglady wrote:

If they're going to do a thyroid
test they should do more than a T4 and T3 as these can be affected by other
illnesses. Ask them about a 6 panel thyroid.

Wouldn't you do the inexpensive, simple test first, and follow up
only if the first test showed a problem? I don't know if the 6 panel
is the same one we do on breeding dogs, but that one
had to be sent to MSU and had a long turnaround time.

Amy Dahl

"Amy Dahl" wrote in message
...
Wouldn't you do the inexpensive, simple test first, and follow up
only if the first test showed a problem?

...........nope, I wouldn't, not with a dog showing symptoms that could be
attributed to a thyroid problem. Just running a T4/T3 isn't accurate
anyway, so in this case I'd want to know, one way or another, if it is the
thyroid. I posted a lot of thyroid stuff not too long ago, in response to
Suja I think, that outlined the thinking on thyroid tests.

buglady
take out the dog before replying

On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 11:59:37 GMT, Amy Dahl
wrote:



buglady wrote:

If they're going to do a thyroid
test they should do more than a T4 and T3 as these can be affected by other
illnesses. Ask them about a 6 panel thyroid.

Wouldn't you do the inexpensive, simple test first, and follow up
only if the first test showed a problem? I don't know if the 6 panel
is the same one we do on breeding dogs, but that one
had to be sent to MSU and had a long turnaround time.

Depends on the breed, IMO. My primary breed has low normal thyroid
levels, so a T4 is not useful, though unfortunately I haven't
convinced my vet of that.

I've had a couple of dogs with skin problems lately, though not quite
as severe as the OP describes. My vet did skin scrapings before a
thyroid test, which I think is appropriate.

Mustang Sally