Tomorrow we get to take three of them to the vet. I'm a little worried about the biggest one.

[Stinky The Clown]

This one:



She has had a sudden and massive outbreak of hot spots. She has been scratching herself all weekend, to the point of having gone through her skin in three spots, one the size of a half dollar. In addition, there are at least ten more spots that have been scratched to the point of redness. Her coat has flakes just below the surface, like dandruff. I am sure this will be a case where steroids are the only solution. I hate giving them to her, but they're all that have worked in the past. The poor dog is very uncomfortable. I feel terrible for her and worry this might be hard to treat, even symptomatically.

Sparkly's (not so) little Shih-Tzu is going in for a weight check. (Ever hopeful, we are! )

Our younger cat (15 year old Murray) is going in to have a cough checked.

Its always something.

[elleng]

1. SURE IS!

BEST to y'all!!!

[TorchTheWitch]

2. hoping things work out

Poor itchy poochie! I know, steroids suck. But if it's the only thing that helps I guess ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

That is one BIG stick! What a prize!

[irisblue]

3. saw pic first

and wondered...why are they worried about a dog that can carry a tree back home? then i read the post. good thing we animal lovers repay vets student loans (sorta). please update us. and what do you you feed your big one?

[livetohike]

4. Hope all goes well at the vet visit

Could your Shepherd have fleas and be allergic to them? We had a Shepherd/Lab mix who really suffered with flea allergies and steroids were the only relief .

We've been seeing ticks here in Northern PA for a month now. It's going to be a bad year.

[JanMichael]

5. What are you feeding the Shepherd?

We switched Scout (Jack Russell mutt mix) to Solid Gold Hund 'n Flocken years ago..... it took about 6 months, but she hasn't had a hot spot since. Occasionally we give her an anti histamine for the "itchies."

[Stinky The Clown]

7. She gets Costco's lamb and rice mixture

It is pretty highly rated.

[JanMichael]

21. I have read that is good food too

I bet it isn't that different than the stuff we feed too--I think the suggestions for hot oil treatments are very interesting!

[avebury]

6. Poor itchy pooch. My largest dog has had hot spots

from time to time and it was off to the vet for a steroid shot. I would then give her a daily dose of benedril and that would then keep it at bay. It was the first time that I could use my health care benefit account for one of my babies.

Of course now we can't use it for over the counter meds unless we have a prescription from the doctor.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. The GSD now has a big shaved spot on her right hind leg and has a slew of moose sized pills to take.

She's getting antibiotics and steroids. As usual, no known cause. C'est le guerre . . . . .

The Shih-Tzu continues to be way overweight. Another new strategy and - finally - a measuring cup for her chow.

The cat may have feline asthma. He's getting pills too . . . . a bronchial dilator that, if it helps, will be a maintenance med for him. He's 15 and still a lively guy who acts much as he did when he was just a few years old.

[Texasgal]

9. Oh MYYY!

Poor stinky family!!!

I hope all your babies are on the mend soon!

[TorchTheWitch]

10. when it rains, it pours, huh?

That's a lot of things to be dealing with all at the same time. It'll get better though.

[wildeyed]

11. My BC had hot spots when I adopted him.

Antibiotics and topical ointments didn't help much. We switch to a super premium dog food with few additives and it cleared up so I guess it was food allergies.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. We've been over this with the vet many times. She also has GSDs.

Hers have "allergies" too, one of them worse than ours. She said the tests to find the cause can be very costly and *still* not determine a precise cause. She treats her own dogs symptomatically and we've been doing that with ours.

Fortunately, ours gets hot spots only infrequently. Her last steroids were over two years ago. Usually antihistamines keep her itching in check.

We actually think hers is an environmental allergy. The scratching virtually disappears in warm weather. We think it has to do with the heat (not the AC). Or dryness, even though we have a humidifier because of the piano.

We've tried her on various foods, all to no positive effect. It just doesn't matter what she eats. She *does* have a sensitive stomach, but a few pukes and a day of drizzlepoops and she's okay again. But no impact on her allergies.

And so we go on . . . . .

[wildeyed]

13. Do dogs get psoriasis?

I have a mild case and it definitely gets better in the warmer weather..... Poor pup, hope she feels better.

[TorchTheWitch]

14. have you tried adding some oil to her diet?

If it's dry air adding about a tablespoon of light olive oil per day to her food can really help. GSD's have a thick undercoat of fur they shed out in the spring, don't they? If so, dogs with double coats need more oil in their diet to supply the skin with enough oil for all that fur.

An oil "bath" would really help tremendously but it's time consuming and messy. Olive oil is really cheap if you buy it by the gallon drum though. I had to give my first Akita an oil bath every 3 weeks or so because of his sebaceous addenitis. For your pooch just doing it once or maybe twice during the cold months would likely do wonders. Oil baths were the only thing that helped for the sebaceous addenitis and he even grew most of his hair back. He never did grow any back on the end of his tail though because by the time I learned about the oil baths the hair folicals there were probably totally dead.

If you're interested, all you do is coat the dog all over with olive oil right down to the skin. I used the light olive oil because it was much less stinky - the regular olive oil really made him smell like a rancid pizza. Let it soak in for an hour or two, and then give them a good shampoo. You don't want to do too good of a shampoo though because you want them to benefit from the oil. Any residue oil soaks in completely in a couple of days anyway. It's sort of the same concept of how we use skin lotions for dry skin. The most difficult part was keeping him from licking while we waited the couple of hours to let the oil soak in. In the winter months when I had to do the whole routine indoors he lay on the floor of the bathroom and I sat on the potty and read to him out loud from whatever book I was reading. Kept him distracted and me from dying of boredom while keeping an eye on him to make sure he wasn't licking.

Something to consider if it's a dry skin problem.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. Thanks!

See the post below. Another Oil Advocate.

[Irishonly]

15. Hot spots are terrible

We take our two GSDs to a groomer. They get hot oil treatments once a month and it has helped. When our female gets them it is steroids and antibiotics because she will scratch until they get infected. I don't know if this would help you but since they have been getting the treatments we haven't had a problem. We found it less expensive to do this instead of a couple of vet trips for hot spots a year.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. Is it normal for groomers to do this?

I've never heard of it before. You're now the second one in this thread to suggest this as an option.

Thanks!

[Irishonly]

18. It's a few dollars more

My groomer charges an extra $10.00 per dog. IMO, it is worth the extra money. No more unhappy dogs and it also really helps with the dander. I would ask you groomer the next time your babies go in. Our vet has told us how wonderful their coats are.

[TorchTheWitch]

19. that's great if a groomer does this!

With my first Akita's sebaceous addenitis nobody heard of oil treatments for that at that time, but I found out about it from a Yahoo group for dogs with SA, and I that point I would have tried anything. He liked the baths so I did them myself every 3 weeks. It's messy and time consuming though. It was the ONLY thing that worked, and he even grew most of his hair back. The vet just couldn't believe it was the same dog and was so thrilled that I found something that worked he nearly had tears in his eyes. I ended up giving him a bunch of print-outs from the intertubes about the treatment for him since by then he had another doggie patient with SA and like my doggie, none of the conventional treatments at that time were working.

If the oil treatments work for controlling SA they'd do wonders for a dog with just dry skin, and you probably wouldn't have to do the treatments as often.

It's lovely to know that groomers will do oil treatments now. It's a bit of a messy project to do yourself especially if you have a big dog. I can also see it being a real pain if your dog isn't keen on baths either. Mine really enjoyed it though, so for us it became a bit of a bonding time. He'd get all excited when he saw me get out the drum of olive oil and go run and jump in the tub... "oooo, grease me up, Mommy!"

[Irishonly]

20. My big guy isn't thrilled with baths but the groomer says he's an angel for the treatments

His skin is so dry and he gets so itchy they say they can see relief in his face. Every once in a while she throws in a massage. He is so relaxed when I get him home that he just snuggles and cuddles. A lot of the time he is busy, busy, busy.

[TorchTheWitch]

22. that I believe

You sure could see the relief and enjoyment on my doggie's face. He loved it. When I did his back he'd throw his head backward like a seal with his mouth open and his tongue flopping out the side... "ahhhaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

By the time the whole project was overwith and cleaned up he was pooped out and we'd both end up snoring spralled out on the floor in front of the tv.