Cohen's Skin/Allergy Issues - PLEASE HELP!!!

[DCGator23]

Hi Everyone -

I am a new member to this forum, and this is my very first post. We can wait to read everyone's responses, so my partner and I can finally narrow down our 7 month French Bulldog skin issues.

It all started in late May when we saw Cohen scratching his skin more frequently then normal. Feeling this coat/body we notice that bumps were starting to develop under his coat on certain part of his body. We originally thought that it could be a poultry allergy because after doing some prior research we read that French Bulldogs can suffer more from a poultry allergy. We then proceeded to switch his food from Merrick Grain Free Puppy Recipe to Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets Sweet Potato & Venison Formula Dry Dog Food. But after a few weeks his skin and coat started to get worse, as well as him smelling very musky.

We took him to our veterinarian and he diagnosed him in having a staph infection. He prescribed Cohen a two week/twice a day Amoxicillin antibiotic regiment, with Resicort spray after every bath. After, conducting more research on staph infections and skin issues in French Bulldogs. We started to add a Povidone Iodine regiment with his baths on top of his normal anti-bacteria/anti-fungal shampoo.

Once the two week antibiotic and bath regiment ended his skin did not improve at all. We call the veterinarian to discuss his problem, and he prescribed another two week round of Amoxicillin. He also mentioned giving Cohen some fish oil to help his coat and immune system. We still continued his baths with Resicort and Povidone Iodine. This event recently happened about the middle of July.

As of today his skin and smell has not gotten better, and we don't know what else to do. We have made another appointment to see the veterinarian next week to discuss the next steps in his treatment. We hope that this post will help us find some light at the end of the tunnel, and help our baby be skin issue free.

We have attached some pictures of what his skin looks like. One of the pictures you can see some of his skin is flaking off. We also attached a picture of our baby boy.

Thank you for reading my post and taking the time to reply.

Oscar, Elliot and Cohen

 

[MaplesMommy]

Ugh, poor little guy

Skin issues are most commonly diet/sugar related or caused by a weak immune system. A weak immune system in turn is caused by poor diet and/or genetics.

We see many dogs with skin problems at my work. Most of them clear up once put on a fresh diet with some supplements. If you are open to try something like this out, I can definitely give you some more details.
If not, I would at least try to find a low carbohydrate kibble. (Such as Orijen or Acana),add a good quality fish oil, coconut oil (use externally on the skin and internally as well) and a probiotic. Especially after all the antibiotics he has been on.
If he doesnt have any open sores,you can also make an ACV/green tea spray. 1/2 cup ACV (with 'the mother') + 1/2 cup brewed green tea + 1 cup of water. But this will only help with the symptoms, you need to find out the cause and fix that.

 

[Cbrugs]

Sorry to hear you are going through this. I have dealt with allergies for over a year now with Jax. It took A LOT of food trials to find one that works for Jax (and sometimes I made things worse with certain foods). I steer clear of all potatoes as they are starchy and can contribute to yeast.

After several visits to the regular vet, I had finally decided to take Jax to a dermatologist and have an allergy test and found out he is allergic to pretty much everything outside (grass, trees, shrubs, weeds, etc.)

Jax is not itch free but he is definitely better than what he was. He is on bi-weekly allergy shots, daily Apoquel, weekly baths with medicated shampoo (I have 3 different ones in the rotation), coconut oil 3 times a week, kefir every other day and I just started giving him Nuvet Plus which is a supplement and supposed to help with the immune system.

While I know it can be frustrating, I think the best thing to do would try to figure out what is causing the issue then you will know how to better deal with it.

Hang in there!

 

[DCGator23]

[MENTION=377]MaplesMommy[/MENTION]

Thank you for taking the time and replying to my post. We would be definitely interested in learning more about fresh diets and supplements to give him.

~Oscar

 

[DCGator23]

[MENTION=188]Cbrugs[/MENTION]

Thank you for the reply. It is definitely frustrating going through all these trails and money. But we want him to get better, and will do anything to help/fix the issue. We have vet appointment next week to discuss the next steps in his treatment. I will keep everyone posted.

~Oscar

 

[2bullymama]

What a cutie pie!! Staph infection is usually a result of a weaken immune system, our boy Cheli is going through a bout of it now too.... he was stung/bit by something and after the hives went away, a few days later he had several markings which I believed was staph -- took him to vet and sure enough, he had it. We are on antibiotics, but nothing was said about all the bathing. I give Cheli plain greek yogurt and avoid grains.... it has kept him in great shape till that damn bug bit.

Keep in mind too much bathing strips the fur of natural oils and can cause dry skin.

 

[MaplesMommy]

The reason there are so many success stories about dogs being put on raw is most often attributed to taking away the sugar.
We all know what sugar does to our bodies. It is the same,and even worse for our dogs,that evolved on a high protein, moderate fat and very little carb -diet.
Sugar has been and always will be a big inflammation trigger. It also feeds yeast. Everybody,including dogs have a certain amount of yeast on/in our bodies. However if you consume too much sugar,it often comes to a yeast overgrowth and thats when the itching,scratching and licking starts. And with that come possible infections because bacteria gets into the open wounds. Your dogs body is by then already battling the yeast and inflammation in his body, so his immune system is super busy already and it lets bacteria 'slip' through and there comes your bacterial infection.

Of course there are different types of kibble. There is HORRIBLE kibble, where over 50% of a bag is sugar and the ingredients are from very poor quality, no nutritional value etc.
Then there is good quality kibble, where they only use about 20-30% carbs and the ingredients are sourced in Canada/US and are from good quality.
However they all have 1 thing in common : Starch. They need it,otherwise the bag of kibble would just be dust.
So in order to cut all the sugar out of the diet, youd have to eliminate all sugary/starchy ingredients.
Thats where the raw meat comes in.
80% muscle meat, 10% organ, 10% bone. Thats it! Now you can ,and I highly recommend adding vegetables and some herbs. But even though vegetables are super healthy, even they can have quite a bit of sugar. Natural sugar, which is of course much much better, but still sugar in the end. So stay away from carrots, strawberries,bananas etc. Instead use Kale, Swiss Chard, Broccoli, a couple blueberries, etc etc.
Put it in a mixer to break down the cellulose as dogs cant properly do this because they are lacking a digestive enzyme to do so.
I put mine in a mason jar and keep it in the fridge for 3 days. And just add 1 tablespoon to each meal.
As for the meat, it would probably be easiest to go with a commercial raw diet such as Primal or Natures Variety. Most of them also contain some vegetables already,in which case you wouldnt have to add any yourself.
As for supplements: Definitely start adding Omega 3 Fish Oil to his diet. Omega 3 is anti inflammatory and great for the skin. Edit : Oops, you said you are already doing this. Make sure though, its only Omega 3 and not Omega 6 as this is PRO inflammatory. Also make sure its from good quality and comes in a dark,glass bottle.
And as I mentioned before : Kefir and the ACV spray will help to fight off yeast.
You can also rub coconut oil on him as this is anti-fungal and antibacterial.

There are a ton of great facebook pages out there, with a lot of helpful info. Planet Paws Pet Essentials & Dogs Naturally Magazine for example. I dont know if you have facebook, but if you do, definitely check them out

 

[DCGator23]

[MENTION=2]2bullymama[/MENTION]

Thank you so much for replying and the complement. I hope Cheli gets better as well.

 

[DCGator23]

[MENTION=377]MaplesMommy[/MENTION]

Thank you so much for all your information. We are going to try the Kefir with Cohen, and see how he likes it. Will keep you updated.

 

[Squishy Walnuts]

Welcome!! Good luck with his skin issues!

 

[Jakeyjake]

Welcome to you and your pup!
Has your vet done a skin scraping? I went through the same thing with Stella and my vet did a skin scraping cytology and she had to be on the one and only antibiotic that would clear the infection up. Good luck!

 

[Mavis]

DCGator23, good luck.

 

[Nek Mos]

My pup Chikoo is going through early stages of allergy detection. She's been eating Royal Canin puppy kibble, but having read that it's got some less than desirable ingredients and noticing certain relatively mild allergy related symptoms (paw licking/biting, quite a bit of shedding, a problematic right ear, and an occasional unpleasant odors in her muzzle area), I took her to the dermatologist.

After a scrape test of various parts Chikoo didn't have any bacterial or mold problems, so vet said it was either food or contact allergies and we'd start be addressing possible food allergies. Her food was changed to Royal Canin Anallergenic (still not a fan of the ingredients) with the purpose, in essence, to reset her diet and immune system and see if symptoms clear up. So currently Chikoo is on this prescription hypoallergenic food with strict instructions not to be feeding her anything else such as snacks or anything.

The next step would be, if symptoms clear up, then it indeed means it's a food allergy and now we can gradually introduce Chikoo to new more nourishing foods (I want to try Taste of the Wild).
However, if the symptoms don't clear up, then it's more likely to be a contact allergy and then we'll have to do an (expensive) allergy test.

Hopefully it's a food thing cause that seems more controllable than a contact allergy. I'm about a week into her new diet and so far Chikoo is scratching less but still shedding lots.

It's gonna take you a lot of trial and error and patience but you'll be able to pin down the problem.

 

[MaplesMommy]

[MENTION=1428]Nek Mos[/MENTION]
A lot of people tell us they think their dog has an allergy. Upon asking what they are feeding its usually very high carb/sugar diets and instead of an allergy, they are dealing with yeast.Not only are the ingredients in RC absolutely horrible, but its also super high in carbohydrates.
By what you are describing it sounds like you are dealing with a yeast problem.
If this is the case, you are not going to get it under control, if the dog continues to eat a high carb diet.

Btw : Beware of Royal Canin Anallergenic Dog Foods with Feather Meal Scary stuff!!!