pyoderma

[shepgirl]

Sorry, forgot to mention he had skin scrapings done, biopsies, goes on antibiotics with every flare up and has just recently been put on prednisone to see if it would help clear the flare ups. Seems nothing is working, he even has anti irch meds so he won't chew at the sores, and he does get medicated baths every second day . I know the vet said it was a life long thing but she was hoping he would get less flare ups, she is willing to try everything. As for skin specialist, we don't have any out here, the closest is 10 hr drive and we would have to leave him for I don't know how long and they can't guarantee it will be successful. He's been abused, that much we do know by his condition when found, so we hate to put him through more trauma.
Thanks for the info that was posted I appreciate it.

[Queen of Poop]

My RB dog Sami got severe pyoderma in 3 of her feet. Once we took beef out of her diet it cleared up and didn't come back. At 8 years of age she became allergic to all beef products. Perhaps your doggie has an allergy.

[Freedom]

You can do the food trials yourself, if you think perhaps it is a food allergy. I would NOT suggest starting with the "low allergen" prescription food, not for a case this severe. Ask your vet if he thinks it will help! The most common food alleries are to grains, and to proteins. The prescription food choices are venison, duck, quail, rabbit, all proteins which are chemically quite different from those found in traditional dog foods (chicken, turkey, fish, beef and lamb). As for the grains, the prescription foods are all grain free, as far as I know. But there is one commercially available food, Nature Variety Raw Instinct, which is grain free. Their web site has a dealer locator, so you can look to see if there is someone nearby who stocks it.

Here is the link:
http://www.naturesvariety.com/

It didn't work for my cat, however I DID see an improvement. So I learned he is allergic to grains and . . . something else. That is when I went to the dermatologist for the testing. She didn't do any testing! Reviewed what had been done by the vet (the scrapings, antibiotics etc.) and said the next thing to try is a prescription food to remove possible protein allergies. Only after you exhaust all that do they do the allergen tests (this method saves the owner money in the long run, as most pet allergies ARE to foods. So why do the allergy tests for $300 or so, when you can do the food trials first. There are no reliable allergen tests for proteins.)

Just a thought. Throwing out ideas for you to consider.

[Catlady711]

Sorry, forgot to mention he had skin scrapings done, biopsies, goes on antibiotics with every flare up and has just recently been put on prednisone to see if it would help clear the flare ups. Seems nothing is working, he even has anti irch meds so he won't chew at the sores, and he does get medicated baths every second day . I know the vet said it was a life long thing but she was hoping he would get less flare ups, she is willing to try everything. As for skin specialist, we don't have any out here, the closest is 10 hr drive and we would have to leave him for I don't know how long and they can't guarantee it will be successful. He's been abused, that much we do know by his condition when found, so we hate to put him through more trauma.
Thanks for the info that was posted I appreciate it.

If your vet did all that then it's probably time to see a dermatologist or allergy specalist. I know it seems like you'd be causing more trauma in the short term but if they can pinpoint what meds/foods will help control the flare ups then in the long term it could make the dog more comfortable. With this type of thing there are no guarantees unfortunately. Good luck.

[SemaviLady]

Don't know if this will help.

I had one Anatolian girl that had a brief case of pyoderma in one toe on one foot. We went to our vet who is both a large and small animal practitioner. The treatment we used for her included 10 day of antibiotics (I think it was Keflex, been a long time) and we also used Epsom salt soaks on her foot to help 'draw out' the infection in her foot. (cellular reaction to hypertonic solution). Her case was not severe or chronic, she had only one oversized fat and tender toe. It cleared up very quickly before the week was done. I used gallon sized ziplock bag to hold her soak around her foot. Made her sit by me while I did other work.

People drove from miles around with their stock trailers just to have this vet look at a calf or horse, while his lobby was often full of small pets (cats and dogs). Cool vet, retired now.

Anyway, the use of epsom salts with large animal cases of pyoderma is very common, but for some reason, small pets doctors (unless they are large animal practitioners too) don't usually offer epsom salts as part of the solution.

Example: A friend of mine in Australia had an aged Anatolian Shepherd male that developed a case of pyoderma. The vet she originally saw was a 'pet vet' in town, who gave all kinds of 'modern day' treatments to heal her dog including prednisone which can actually increase immune compromise. The problem got worse over two weeks (no improvement) and the dog lost one toenail before the gal gave up and went to her horse vet.

The horse vet suggested using epsom salt soaks. The dog had no puss within the first week and was back to normal before the second week was over.

Your mileage will probably differ. Both of these working dogs were not prone to allergy and other immune compromise. The Australian dog was on a raw diet, mine got raw once a week at least. They were primarily outdoor dogs who had healthy exposure to dirt and livestock (sheep, chicken and horse). I didn't see epsom salts mentioned so I thought I would.

Good luck!