Seborrhea

My dog has been diagnosed with seborrhea two yrs ago. She has been on antibiotics numerous times which helps but then it flares up again. Her hair is thin and itchy all the time then her skin gets red then black and an awful smell. We bath twice aweek right now with prescription shampoo duoxo and then a spray every other day to help her restore her skin. I don't like having to use antibiotics if I don't have to. We have changed her food numerous time. I think all the different antibiotics have affected her insides as now she has bouts of diarrhea. I have tried so many different things and I feel for my poor girl.
She is a five yr ol German shepherd. Any thoughts would be much appreciated

Your poor girl ... I feel for her and I feel for you because I think we are going through similar problems with our boy Ben, an Alaskan Malamute x wolf. If I explain what happened with us, it may help? It started about 3 years ago after Ben caught Sarcoptic mange from my daughter's cat who in turn had contracted mange when an in patient at the vet. We eventually cured this, but Ben was left with extremely irritable skin just as you describe with your shepherd. The groin area - his penis and surrounding area is now completely bald, bright pink and very, very sore and hot to the touch. All 4 armpits are bald are very itchy and he has caused haematomas with all the scratching to both his ears which are now floppy instead of erect!

We took him to the vet of course before all this got so bad, and he prescribed antibiotic shampoo baths weekly and to start with antibiotics. However, just like you found, these can upset the balance of the natural flora and fauna in the gut, causing intense diarrhoea, so we stopped the antibiotics after the first month and stuck with the baths. Ben has been diagnosed with folliculitis which is a condition that causes the immune system to react to the bacteria in the hair follicles, in turn causing inflammation and intense irritation. It sounds like this is what your dog has, rather than seborrhoea but I would guess the symptoms and the treatment would be similar.

It is a very intractable problem - we have to bath Ben weekly in this stuff which is a horrible job in the winter. He weighs 45 kilos, there is no way we can lift him into the bath and we don't have a walk in shower, so we have to cart buckets of hot water out onto our patio to wash him. It isn't really viable because the shampoo has to sit for 5 minutes before being rinsed off and the dog naturally does not want to stand in the cold for such a long time! We are going to have to try and find a groomer who will just wash and dry him weekly for us I think because it really isn't working what we are doing at the moment.

I do hope this helps you - it is a nightmare situation for us both! There is a product here in the UK available from vets called Apoquel which would according to the vet solve Ben's problem. It is very expensive, but that doesn't matter, what is of more concern to us is that it does have some quite unpleasant side-effects, but at the age of 11, I don't think we have much choice but to try it - that and find a groomer who will bath him weekly for us. Good luck with your shepherd!

Thanks for you input, you have had your share of issues yourself with your dog it is very unfortunate, it seems a lot of dogs have different skin issues. I have tried the apequeol started it last august it worked great the smell went the first day and the itching stopped but there is always a trade off. She got a very bad urinary tract infection and started having diarrhea which I think was maybe caused by the apaquel. So stopped that took two rounds of antibiotics to clear the urinary infection and am still dealing with the diarrhea off and on tried different foods and now I am going to be doing home cooked meals and see how that goes need to get some supplements to make sure she is getting a balanced diet too. So between the skin, diarrhea and her torn ccl that happened last October we have been busy. Hope the apoquel is good for your dog just keep an eye on him, good luck

Thanx!! You too x