I have an extremely itchy 6y.o. female English Cocker Spaniel x English Springer Spaniel! She has always been a mild scratcher, but now she scratches until she bleeds and is covered in scabs and hair loss. It looks similar to mange (I can supply photos), but she has been treated several times and it made no difference. My thoughts are that it is a behaviour problem that has turned into an obsession, as I noticed it had become a major issue when we had another dog. We had got the other dog from 5 weeks, and all was good, until she grew up and became really dominant over the Cocker. They had a bad fight one day and we decided to have the other dog put down (as she was the aggressive one, the Cocker is very submissive and used to lay down), but this didn't help with the scratching. In fact, it has steadily gotten worse since. She is currently on Cortisone tablets, but this has made no noticeable difference. She has had every flea/tick treatment, shampoo and special diet (she is currently on a fish based dry biscuit) under the sun, but one thing is that she is a very offensive smelling dog. She could be bathed, and the next day she stinks again. Is this a sign of bacterial or yeast infection? She has been treated for yeast in her ears a few times (because we didn't know what else to try at the time), that's where the smell is the worst, but her ears and eyes are both cleaned regularly, and there is never any debris or anything coming out of them. The skin inside her ears is dry, but pink and healthy looking. We have also tried a course of antibiotics, prednisone and antihistimines, oatmeal wash, calomine lotion, various creams and ointments for dry skin etc. I have been told to try MooGoo, which is an udder cream for dairy cows, but I haven't tried that as yet. Please help me out here, I am at a loss as to what to do, any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

On 3/12/2012 12:15 AM, bullyhc wrote:
I have an extremely itchy 6y.o. female English Cocker Spaniel x English
Springer Spaniel! She has always been a mild scratcher, but now she
scratches until she bleeds and is covered in scabs and hair loss. It
looks similar to mange
................sounds like you've tried a lot of stuff.

..........Yes, stink might be from yeast. Steroids make yeast issues
worse, so it seems you're going in ever diminishing circles.

.........BUT, one thing I didn't see was any blood work results. When
was the last time you ran a complete blood panel, CBC and chem? Have
you ever had a 6 panel thyroid done on this dog? Depending on other
symptoms could be Cushings, etc. Hard to know anything w/o basic
bloodwork. I'd be concerned about liver values too if dog has been on
'roids for a while.

...........although pred will stop itching, it does so by stomping on the
immune system so it cannot reply to an insult. Take the dog off
pred/prednisolone, and the problem returns and often is worse.

.............There's so many things to address here, that I think your
best bet is to sign up for the Yahoo Group K9Nutrition, so you can at
least understand the role nutrition has in these issues. Lots of dogs
have had the same problem as yours.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/K9Nutrition/



.............If this were my dog, I'd get bloodwork done, get the dog off
kibble, load her up with probiotics for a couple of months (continual
rounds of antibiotics wipes gut clean, then bad guys move in), give
L-glutamine to heal gut (probiotics does that too - the more permeable
and damaged the gut is, the more stuff can cross the mucosal barrier,
where no matter what it is, will be seen as alien by the body),
EFAs.........and a bunch of other stuff.

These problems need to be addressed both on the inside and out.
Sometimes you just have to wait some of it out and try to make the dog
comfortable while she heals. And absolutely NO vaccinations while dog
is healing. If you've been allowing yearly vax, then that sets the body
back again, as her immune system cannot deal with it.

best of luck to you and your pup
buglady
take out the dog before replying

And if it was my dog, I'd have it seen by a vet dermatologist (allergist
of the animal world) and/or a vet internal medicine specialist (the
detectives of diagnosis, as well as internal medicine areas such as
infectious diseases and endocrinology....).

If you can't get the dog onto a raw or homemade grain-free diet, at
least get it on a grain-free kibble.

Jo Wolf
Martinez, Georgia, USA

On Mar 12, 9:09*am, buglady wrote:
On 3/12/2012 12:15 AM, bullyhc wrote: I have an extremely itchy 6y.o. female English Cocker Spaniel x English
Springer Spaniel! She has always been a mild scratcher, but now she
scratches until she bleeds and is covered in scabs and hair loss. It
looks similar to mange

...............sounds like you've tried a lot of stuff.

.........Yes, stink might be from yeast. *Steroids make yeast issues
worse, so it seems you're going in ever diminishing circles.

........BUT, one thing I didn't see was any blood work results. *When
was the last time you ran a complete blood panel, CBC and chem? *Have
you ever had a 6 panel thyroid done on this dog? Depending on other
symptoms could be Cushings, etc. *Hard to know anything w/o basic
bloodwork. *I'd be concerned about liver values too if dog has been on
'roids for a while.

..........although pred will stop itching, it does so by stomping on the
immune system so it cannot reply to an insult. *Take the dog off
pred/prednisolone, and the problem returns and often is worse.

............There's so many things to address here, that I think your
best bet is to sign up for the Yahoo Group K9Nutrition, so you can at
least understand the role nutrition has in these issues. *Lots of dogs
have had the same problem as yours.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/K9Nutrition/

............If this were my dog, I'd get bloodwork done, get the dog off
kibble, load her up with probiotics for a couple of months (continual
rounds of antibiotics wipes gut clean, then bad guys move in), give
L-glutamine to heal gut (probiotics does that too - the more permeable
and damaged the gut is, the more stuff *can cross the mucosal barrier,
where no matter what it is, will be seen as alien by the body),
EFAs.........and a bunch of other stuff.

These problems need to be addressed both on the inside and out.
Sometimes you just have to wait some of it out and try to make the dog
comfortable while she heals. *And absolutely NO vaccinations while dog
is healing. *If you've been allowing yearly vax, then that sets the body
back again, as her immune system cannot deal with it.

best of luck to you and your *pup
buglady
take out the dog before replying

Very good advice! I would have said exactly the same thing.
Cyndi

On Mar 12, 5:49*pm, (Jo Wolf) wrote:
And if it was my dog, I'd have it seen by a vet dermatologist (allergist
of the animal world) and/or a vet internal medicine specialist (the
detectives of diagnosis, as well as internal medicine areas such as
infectious diseases and endocrinology....).

I pity any dogs that you control.