First and foremost, you need to use that Hibiscrub all over her to calm all this down, and like I said before, believe me, it DOES work. That Atopica is the most expensive route to take, and Georgie had it for 3 months prior to me getting him but sadly it didn't work for him, and it doesn't look to me like it's working for your dog either
The steroids work instantly for Georgie, but sadly, he's not allowed to have them now coz his liver got enlarged through 7 years of having so many of the injections
It's ab's for him now or nothing, and my vet cannot treat it any other way now, she's done loads of bloods for just about everything,including thyroids which I thought it might perhaps be, but sadly it's his immune system. When it gets to the stage your poor dog is in, Hibiscrub is the only way I go, and then a course of ab's. My dog has been on and off ab's for a whole year now, and although the vet has said to me she doesn't quite know what the result will be with such long treatment of them, i.e. can he take it or not, we really don't have any choice in the matter, coz quite honestly I wouldn't have him pts and I wouldn't let him suffer so badly with it, so this is the only route left for us now.
When my dog's skin has flared up and he's not on ab's, I could leave him for half an hour, come back and he's chewed and gnawed half his leg away!! It's not only unfuriating for me, but it must be a nightmare for him to be constantly itching like that. His worst areas are his feet, his legs, his groin, and he loves chewing half way down his tail, sometimes he takes most of the fur off it and leaves me with a great big red saw to deal with! That's the time I get the Fuciderm out, and that ointment is absolutely brill, BUT, it's only for hot spots, you can't smother them all over in it! I also find Sudocreme is very very good, but I really don't like making it all moist and warm like that, but I do find it calms it down if his groin area has erupted or something when I can't use the Fuciderm on such a large area. Get a big tub of Sudocreme from the Chemist or Boots, the nurses at my vet hospital swear by it for skin like this. Sometimes, before I go to bed, I check him all over and smother him in Sudocreme, knowing that it will have sunk in and dried by the morning whilst he's sleeping.
Food is also a definite, and in your case, I really think what you should do is cut out just about everything she has except for a good hypo allergenic food, and introduce her treats back slowly and see what happens with her skin. If you want to give treats, my dog loves a raw carrot and he eats lbs of them in a week! Try her with those, it's something for her to nibble on and afterall it is a treat, just that it shouldn't affect her skin so much as something with who knows what in it!
I'm so very sorry for you. I had a gsd like Georgie once before, and her poor little face would be red raw sometimes too. She had steroids which didn't work for her, but 3 months of ab's always did, but then it would just come back again
There will come a time for me when the ab's stop working for him, or he cannot have them anymore like the steroids, and I will have to make the choice of letting him suffer in his old age or letting him go, but for the moment, he's only 8 and I CAN keep on top of it. I groom him and combe him every day, coz that also helps, stimulate the blood flow. Keeping them cool also helps, mine loves to go and lay outside on the cold grass and roll his little heart out, it must be lovely when your back is itching like his does!
Awww, bless her little cottons, try not to worry, I've seen worse, and it seems to be getting a lot more common, you just have to find the right way to keep on top of it, coz that's all you WILL be able to do by the looks of her, I don't think you'll ever be able to cure it like I can't with Georgie. Take care all the very best to you.xxx