LeahO
New member
So, Ben is a little 5 month old chub who has no family history of disease or infestation. He grew up on a farm and lived outside with him mom, dad and siblings until he was about 10 weeks old. He hid behind the couch for a few days, but he's generally a happy guy now. He was on Solid Gold kibble, but we switched him to Nutri-Source large breed puppy kibble (obscure, but recommended and spendy).
The Itch began within the first week of getting him.
The vet decided that it must be fleas even though there was no evidence. I rejected the Frontline, but opted for the oral dose of anti-flea meds to make sure, dewormed him and got the vaccines I dubbed worthy. They also found he had candida in his ears (bilaterally) to we got some Otomax (combination antimicrobial) with ear cleaner. We gave him daily baths of chlorhexidine shampoo followed by EpiSoothe Cream rinse for a week or so (but I felt like we were just making him more miserable and started to give him a break after a while, which I don't regret).
Fecal Analysis - negative
Skin scraping x 2 - negative
Skin Culture (looking tinea) - negative
(looking forward to a cbc/chem screen on his recent blood work)
Distribution pattern is over his entire body, but mostly on the underside (not so much his head or bottom) with no redness, bumps or lesions. He'd just gnaw on himself until there was no hair at all and, obviously, this would eventually turn to a folliculitis caused by staph/strep. No doubt if I chewed on myself all day my normal skin flora would be happy to infect as well. If there was someone over and we weren't paying attention to him, he'd rip out chunks of hair leaving him with bald spots on his legs.
Vet says to continue shampoo, convinced it might be fleas or a elusive mange infestation. I kept thinking that although I'm a people doctor, I don't know anything about dogs, so when he said that puppies don't usually have food allergies, I believed him. Despite my feelings about the overuse of antibiotics, we had to stop The Itch!! We gave him Simplicef which screwed up his GI and gut flora leaving him with diarrhea, which the vet addressed with a second antibiotic with a side effect of constipation (metronidazole) concurrently. Threatening us with prednesone (NO WAY!) for our 4 month old boy, he gave us topical steroidal spray to suppress inflammatory reactions going on at sights he had cleared. I switched his food to some other trendy natural brand I can't remember.
Re-e-e-e-e-ediculous. By this time, poop is goo, he's totally dried out and I'm starting to think that I could treat my dog myself better than the vet, (despite that he seems like a pleasant guy and all, coming highly recommended from multiple people).
So, I stop the madness with the antibiotics and chemical shampooing. I bought salmon oil, gourmet sardines (in water), no-grain canned food, a second crate for the bedroom to decrease his stress (worked) and a humidifier in case the forced air was too much for him. I started giving him hypoallergenic human grade nutritional products such as l-glutamine to feed his distressed enterocytes in his intestines, a small dose of multivitamin, occasional vitamin D and dog probiotics, (vet prescribed for me). Took away all cow bones and bully sticks & replaced his treats with salmon oil covered kibble (the kind he was on before).
Nothing was making him feel better and there is definitely an anxiety component (he'll start itching suddenly if a new person comes over or when he wants us to wake up in the morning - I know they'll be naysayers, but it really does look like it to me and others). Might be half habit at this point although I recognize he really does itch. He was the shyest boy of the litter & gets anxious when alone.
The latest and last thing we've tried with this vet is to take a punch biopsy, as I mentioned in another thread, which, to my horror, turned out to be 4 punch biopsies AND unnecessarily large in some areas. The one under his armpit really gets me because he's not itching there and what a terrible place to take a biopsy - I'm fighting the infection daily. I feel like the techs wanted practice or something because some of the stitches were pretty shotty (as in I do better and I've only been doing surgeries for a few years).
The vet gave him weekly lyme dips to make sure it wasn't ringworm. We put him on Purina HA, a hypoallergenic all-vegetable blend (which I wasn't comfortable with after a week because it came out completely undigested & dogs are carnivores).
I bet they'll find some eosinophils (indicating allergy) or nothing at all on the biopsy. If I hear "sarcoptic mange" one more time though I'm going to scream. It will be very uncomfortable if I'm in a public place, so I'm making an effort not to call the vet from Starbucks or something.
What now? Now I'm exploring raw food and reading through this awesome forum. I don't know if I can feed him too much & I hope I get the calcium/phosphorous ratio for a growing pup. After a month and a half of The Itch he looked smaller than another Newf his age & that worries me. I'm basically feeding him at least 3 patties a day of the Instinct Rabbit Formula raw blended until I can follow up on the advice to go to a farmer around here with Natural Balance Sweet potato & fish kibble always available, (per advice from the Newfoundland Rescue). I noticed that he got puppy gas with chicken.
Now he has a cone on, so he struggles to reach at least his back feet to chew on and still can scratch his sides. He has scanty fur there now - again, no redness or swelling.
Thoughts?
LeahO
The Itch began within the first week of getting him.
The vet decided that it must be fleas even though there was no evidence. I rejected the Frontline, but opted for the oral dose of anti-flea meds to make sure, dewormed him and got the vaccines I dubbed worthy. They also found he had candida in his ears (bilaterally) to we got some Otomax (combination antimicrobial) with ear cleaner. We gave him daily baths of chlorhexidine shampoo followed by EpiSoothe Cream rinse for a week or so (but I felt like we were just making him more miserable and started to give him a break after a while, which I don't regret).
Fecal Analysis - negative
Skin scraping x 2 - negative
Skin Culture (looking tinea) - negative
(looking forward to a cbc/chem screen on his recent blood work)
Distribution pattern is over his entire body, but mostly on the underside (not so much his head or bottom) with no redness, bumps or lesions. He'd just gnaw on himself until there was no hair at all and, obviously, this would eventually turn to a folliculitis caused by staph/strep. No doubt if I chewed on myself all day my normal skin flora would be happy to infect as well. If there was someone over and we weren't paying attention to him, he'd rip out chunks of hair leaving him with bald spots on his legs.
Vet says to continue shampoo, convinced it might be fleas or a elusive mange infestation. I kept thinking that although I'm a people doctor, I don't know anything about dogs, so when he said that puppies don't usually have food allergies, I believed him. Despite my feelings about the overuse of antibiotics, we had to stop The Itch!! We gave him Simplicef which screwed up his GI and gut flora leaving him with diarrhea, which the vet addressed with a second antibiotic with a side effect of constipation (metronidazole) concurrently. Threatening us with prednesone (NO WAY!) for our 4 month old boy, he gave us topical steroidal spray to suppress inflammatory reactions going on at sights he had cleared. I switched his food to some other trendy natural brand I can't remember.
Re-e-e-e-e-ediculous. By this time, poop is goo, he's totally dried out and I'm starting to think that I could treat my dog myself better than the vet, (despite that he seems like a pleasant guy and all, coming highly recommended from multiple people).
So, I stop the madness with the antibiotics and chemical shampooing. I bought salmon oil, gourmet sardines (in water), no-grain canned food, a second crate for the bedroom to decrease his stress (worked) and a humidifier in case the forced air was too much for him. I started giving him hypoallergenic human grade nutritional products such as l-glutamine to feed his distressed enterocytes in his intestines, a small dose of multivitamin, occasional vitamin D and dog probiotics, (vet prescribed for me). Took away all cow bones and bully sticks & replaced his treats with salmon oil covered kibble (the kind he was on before).
Nothing was making him feel better and there is definitely an anxiety component (he'll start itching suddenly if a new person comes over or when he wants us to wake up in the morning - I know they'll be naysayers, but it really does look like it to me and others). Might be half habit at this point although I recognize he really does itch. He was the shyest boy of the litter & gets anxious when alone.
The latest and last thing we've tried with this vet is to take a punch biopsy, as I mentioned in another thread, which, to my horror, turned out to be 4 punch biopsies AND unnecessarily large in some areas. The one under his armpit really gets me because he's not itching there and what a terrible place to take a biopsy - I'm fighting the infection daily. I feel like the techs wanted practice or something because some of the stitches were pretty shotty (as in I do better and I've only been doing surgeries for a few years).
The vet gave him weekly lyme dips to make sure it wasn't ringworm. We put him on Purina HA, a hypoallergenic all-vegetable blend (which I wasn't comfortable with after a week because it came out completely undigested & dogs are carnivores).
I bet they'll find some eosinophils (indicating allergy) or nothing at all on the biopsy. If I hear "sarcoptic mange" one more time though I'm going to scream. It will be very uncomfortable if I'm in a public place, so I'm making an effort not to call the vet from Starbucks or something.
What now? Now I'm exploring raw food and reading through this awesome forum. I don't know if I can feed him too much & I hope I get the calcium/phosphorous ratio for a growing pup. After a month and a half of The Itch he looked smaller than another Newf his age & that worries me. I'm basically feeding him at least 3 patties a day of the Instinct Rabbit Formula raw blended until I can follow up on the advice to go to a farmer around here with Natural Balance Sweet potato & fish kibble always available, (per advice from the Newfoundland Rescue). I noticed that he got puppy gas with chicken.
Now he has a cone on, so he struggles to reach at least his back feet to chew on and still can scratch his sides. He has scanty fur there now - again, no redness or swelling.
Thoughts?
LeahO
