TOTALLY GEEKED!

That looks exactly like our previous dog. Hers was due to allergies. We changed her food sooooo many times. She would be ok on the new food for about 6 months and then she would become allergic to it putting us right back where we started.

The vet told us that she apparently had a weakend immune system and that there really wasn't much they could do other than treat the symptoms. Before we had her put down (totally unrelated reason), she was almost completely bald on her stomach, arm pits, face and ears.

Her ears look like my dog's ears. Vet said mix half white vinegar half water and spray it in her ears, a lot, not just a spritz. She won't like it and will shake it and run around but it kills the fungus.

NJN, I did just change our 3 dogs' protein recently because of excessive itching.  2 out of 3 are greatly improved, and I think little Megan is a bit better.  However, none of our babies have a rash as seen in your pictures.

I feed Flint River Ranch, because I believe it is an excellent food made using human consumption standards.  Pricing is not bad considering the quality, plus free shipping to your door and excellent customer service.  Just a suggestion.  They also have a Pet Gallery where they encourage you to post pictures of your fur babies. 

Right now I have ours on the Lamb, Millet, and Rice Kibble Dog Food, but there are several protein/carb combinations available.  I had good luck with Salmon Potato kibble in the past, and I might try that one next to see if I can get 3 out of 3 greatly improved.

http://www.flintriver.com/

 

Maybe changing her food would help.

Good luck, NJN.

Jupie has never had a rash, so, I'm afraid I'm not much help.

The first treatment she was on was an ointment. Helped temporarily. Then a powder. Helped temporarily. Then an antibiotic and a steroid (Prednisone). Again, helped temporarily. We've been told to wash her more, wash her less. Wash her with a dozen different products. Nothing has really worked. Last night we started her on a high end food. Gluten free, grain free, all kinds of free things. The dog food rep was at the store and said if this works to call her. She gave us her cell phone number. She said she wanted to come out and get before and after pictures for her website if it worked. I told DH I hope free food comes with it if it does!

At this point we're willing to try anything. And we don't feed our dogs cheap food either! We buy them Purina in the green bag. I think it's the adult formula. Our lab has a really sensitive stomach and that's all he can eat. Anyway, we're phasing them in. The lady told us to mix it in with the Purina for so many days. We're supposed to be increasing it over a period of two weeks until they are only eating the new food. Apparently, Purina has tons of fillers in it so their stomachs need time to adjust to the richer food.

I hope you can find some relief for the dog, NJN. It is so frustrating when one of our pets gets sick and the vet can't help and the pet can't tell us what is wrong.... I sympathize with you and hope there is something that will help out soon.

The dog got worse. It got to a point where she was Crimson Red. It literally looked like raw bloody meat. We THOUGHT she was bleeding but she wasn't. It was just THAT red. I got so desperate I emailed Texas A&M vet department and asked for help. They suggested we have OUR vet call THEIR doggie dermatologist and give us a referral. Then we have to make an appointment and drive her down to A&M. The whole process takes about four months and is highly expensive. With DH unemployed we can't really afford that. So we opted for a different idea.

Yesterday we went and bought Dreft. For babies. She lays on a sheet on our bed and I wash it almost daily because of her hair falling out. We washed the sheet in Dreft. We also purchased a hypoallergenic shampoo and a hypoallergenic anti itch spray. Before we went to bed last night we used hypoallergenic lotion on her stomach. We still have her on the new high quality food. She has been getting a monthly heartworm medicine for awhile now. We also treated all the dogs for fleas, ticks, and mites even though there was no evidence of that. (Did this earlier in the week and didn't notice a difference.)

Using the Dreft and lotion only, just overnight the redness has gone down. She doesn't have as many bumps but still has some. She hasn't scratched once all day. I believe whatever is irritating her skin is causing her to scratch and cause the redness. We have been applying hypoallergenic lotion to her skin throughout the day. Just in 24 hours her skin seems to be looking a lot better. We think maybe the dyes and perfumes in the laundry soap is bothering her skin and drying it out. We did recently change laundry detergents and noticed it got worse when we did.

Our new plan is to wash her bedding and any towels we use at bath time in Dreft. Her things will be washed in hypoallergenic stuff. She will only be bathed in hypoallergenic stuff and we will treat the dry skin with hypoallergenic lotion. We've done tons and tons and tons of research pouring over charts and articles and pictures. Everything we've read and seen points to allergies. They say the most common are either environmental or food. So we're hoping the changes we have made will make a difference. Wish us luck!

What is the blanket made of? Didn't you cay wool? It could be that.

Our Spot gets places on his skin. And the vet said to give him Benadryl to keep him comfortable. And he sleeps a lot when we do that but it gives his skin a chance to heal.

Also, what are you washing him with? We had to use baby shampoo for one of our dogs. She just had really sensitive skin.

Thanks HM. We really do love her but with DH unemployed can't afford to take her to A&M right now for extensive testing. We read articles that said it's perfectly okay to give dogs Benadryl and Prednisone but that because dogs systems are different than ours Benadryl is way less effective in dogs than it is in humans. They also don't recommend long term steroid therapy on dogs.

Her blanket is made of flannel. Very soft and very old. The edges are ragged. Basically the only way she will sleep is if she is in the bed with us. She does not like closed doors. A closed door is only okay if she is on the people side of the closed door. If we are in our bedroom and not asleep we have to leave the door open so she can roam or she will scratch at the door. If we shut the door with her in the room she lays right down and goes to sleep.

It's a pain washing our sheets. She drags dirt and mud in there sometimes. And fur. We have two dogs that sleep with us and the fur gets everywhere. So to keep from washing the sheets constantly we found this old flannel sheet we had. It's really soft. I make the bed every day and at night we lay the sheet down on top of everything. In the morning the sheet comes off and I make the bed. The bed stays clean a lot longer this way.

Topical Benadryl didn't help. The pills helped a little bit. Hydrocortisone spray seems to help more than topical Benadryl. We've tried all kinds of soaps and shampoos. The new one we bought is hypoallergenic. All the articles we read suggested baby products. Hypoallergenic baby products. I think if things start clearing up we will switch to hypoallergenic baby products. The product we got we purchased at PetCo. It's on the expensive side. But we wanted to see if worked. We are just going to keep applying the lotion and washing her bedding and towels in Dreft. If this works it will be the cheapest cure of all the ones we've tried so far. Damn frustrating dogs!

We're hoping that this works!

My dog has constant dog eye sleepies. The house cleaner even cleaned his eyes this morning. Right now it is as if they weren't done. I now the dry air is an issue but any quick clean suggestions out there? I don't want to tough the sleepies myself. I use tissues but the sleepies are too dry.

Nobody Just Nobody wrote:

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WE HAVE BACTINE! I think to see what this stuff does first though...

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 That helps with the eyes?  I am dog dumb

I know what to do_sometimes wrote:

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Nobody Just Nobody wrote:

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WE HAVE BACTINE! I think to see what this stuff does first though...

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 That helps with the eyes?  I am dog dumb

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 No, not Bactine in the eyes!  But Lily has good advice.  A little tiny bit of Vaseline and some tear free shampoo sounds good.

Target has baby wipes but made for dogs. We use those on the sleepy eye gunk. Now that I think of it, regular baby wipes would probably work just as well.

NJN I hope this works for you! It sounds like you have it figured out. We do the same thing with the sheet on top of the bed. Our dog is white and the comforter is brown. It took me about a month to figure out to do it, and it works great. We use baby shampoo on the dog - it's super cheap and it does the trick. It's 1.97 for baby shampoo compared to 9.99 for dog shampoo.