Westie Skin Diseases

[Westie_Dachie]

Hi Everyone,

I have an 8yr old Westie “Roxy-Dee”, she has been healthy up until the last couple of years since moving to Perth from the country, she has come down with a few different bugs and in the last year since living in Guildford she has had problems with skin diseases. Which had happened occasionally but they weren’t bad.

Symptoms include (Which are very common skin problems with Westies, but I can’t pin point exactly what it could be)

Itchy skin, red tinge on feet from licking constantly, rubbing belly across floor, scabby hot spots that come up within hours and greasy smelly fur.

I have tried a hypo-allergenic diet, but I was using cortisone at the same time so it did clear up but as soon as we went off the cortisone it flared up again, I am now trying a boiled chicken mince and brown rice diet and giving her only that, and we will also be moving house in a few weeks time so I guess everything will happen at once and I won’t know what it is that is causing it.

But any remedies you guys have tried before or can you give me any insight into the disease and what it could be (So I can pin point a so called ‘cure’ if there is one) it has been many frustrating months trying to keep it under wraps, and I have the most miserable dog in the world…she looks great when she is bathed and clipped (I keep her fur short on her back so the hot spots can air out) but it only lasts a few days until it goes scabby and greasy again! :rolleyes:

In desperate need of help, have been to the Vets numerous amounts of time and had NO LUCK with them!

Thanks

Adelle

[dog geek]

Oddly enough, there is another dog lover with that type of problem, check out her thread for my advice there, I did lots of research before I tried this remedy and can probably find the links again if you would like to look at the info yourself. :rolleyes:

[Dogsfevr]

I dare say its whats in your garden.

What grass do you have.

What sort of floor surface do you have in the house??

What is the main difference your dog comes in contact with daily compared to where you lived before??

What was feed feed before moving here??

[westiemum]

Hi westie dachie,

Welcome to DOL. And I'm sorry to hear about your uncomfortable westie. In a nutshell, Settrlvr's right. If you can answer those questions that will help a lot. And I agree its probably in your garden - but in my experience that was like looking for a needle in a hay-stack - and if you did the allergy testing routine, you may find that its a list of things in the backyard a mile long that your dog is reacting to - so short of pulling up your whole backyard and starting again (and there's no guarantee that that will fix it anyway), you're back to square one anyway.

My girl westie has had similar problems - reddish skin but not severe on her tummy and reddish paws from the saliva of constant paw licking - but luckily no hot spots. So I decided to treat symptomatically. And this is basically what I did:

1. Switched to Evening Primrose Oil Shampoo (vet grade) from here and bathed (double wash) her twice a week until the itchies subsided and then back to once a week. If you decide to try this I strongly suggest you talk to the owners of the site - Lynda or Archie - to get the right shampoo, supplement etc - they are a wealth of information and sensible suggestions. I find their products very cost-effective if you buy them in the larger quantities - and about the same average prices as other similar products if you buy the smaller quantities.

2. Made sure her paws were always dry - got this advice from a great DOLer - sorry I've forgotten who it was. This made an enormous difference to her constant paw licking. So I blow dried her paws really well after baths, remembering to get into all the nooks and crannies, top and bottom. Also blow dried her paws after she had been out on damp grass anywhere (yes its a bit of a pain but well worth it I found). And this made a big difference to her too.

3. Took her off all commercial dog food to avoid any wheat/corn/grain fillers, artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and switched her to a barf diet which I've since modified to include much more prey/whole type food. Recently there was a great thread started by Amstaff Shane which discussed and gave a range of instructions on raw/prey diets - here

Anyway I hope that helps.

Cheers,

Westiemum :rolleyes:

Ed to correct link

BTW your doggies are just beautiful - more piccies please!! Here's one of my guys:

Edited June 3, 2008 by westiemum

[wylie]

Good on you Westiemum

I was actually going to suggest she PM you for a chat.

I know that you had fun even with your rescue and got him pretty cleared up before rehoming him.

[westiemum]

Hi wylie :rolleyes:

Thanks and good to hear from you.

Yes Eddie the foster westie's skin and coat completely cleared up and he went to the home of his dreams six weeks ago with a new Mum and Dad who are completely nuts about him. And they are keeping up his skin and coat care too with the EPO shampoo - they've become converts too!!

Cheers,

Westiemum

Good on you Westiemum

I was actually going to suggest she PM you for a chat.

I know that you had fun even with your rescue and got him pretty cleared up before rehoming him.

[Westie_Dachie]

Hi Guys,

Thank you SO much for all of the advice….I did search for some info on the site before posting (I used to be apart of a pro photography forum and that was the first thing I would tell new comers) BUT I must have been searching the wrong things as not much came up! BUT…before anything I will answer your questions though!

-I also think It may be a garden thing, we never had this problem in all the other houses we lived in, I don’t know what grass it is BUT it’s very ‘weedy’ grass, every time it rains every weed known to man comes up – so it could be that?

-In the house we are in now we have carpet in almost every room (Frustrating WHITE carpet at that!!!) so again…could be that?

-Food stayed the same everywhere we went…although I realise super market tin dog food, even though is the cheapest for me is not so good for them. So have been cooking her meals…after the hypo allergenic diet I was so broke from $4 per tin compared to 99c per tin!

I keep hearing of BARF though…I might look into this…

-I guess main difference in environment was we lived in a small town, air was fresh and clean and lots of bushland, moving to the city 2 yrs ago it is obviously smoggier….but in saying that, it’s really only been the last year so I have put it down to environment.

We have looked for particular plants out the back…but because we rent – we can’t do much? So this is why I am hoping when we move in a few weeks time…(To a place where we can do what we like – it’s a friends investment) everything subsides!

Westiemum – I will try everything you have said. I have her on Malasel? (I am at work haha I can’t remember the name but they are vet branded – and very popular) I used to have her on epi-soothe and really that always worked! I should go back to it…but this 10 minute application one, apparently works but first dose was like any other shampoo for her…and the scabs came back so quickly!

I used to think, being a westie, I should only bath her once every 3 mths or so to let the natural oils work on her body. But the last few weeks I have noticed people saying they wash their westie so often – maybe this is where I went wrong? I might get into a routine of washing her every week…I just thought this dried the skin out, making it worse for her?

But noted on the drying her feet – man it is hard to go near her feet though, she flips out and hates people touching them, I can’t even clip her nails, I have to get her sedated to have her nails clipped!!!

We have 5 Westies in the family, and unfortunately Roxy is the one with all the problems!!!

Anyway thank you thank you and thank you more all of you :rolleyes: it sounds promising which makes me feel better, I hate her feeling yucky and dirty all the time, I am sure it is annoying for her! I will keep you all updated and here are a few more photo’s of both of my rat bags

Adelle

[Westie_Dachie]

And Frankie the mini dach

[Monah]

Hi, nothing to add, love westies!! who doesn't? :rolleyes:

Just wanted to say, I have moved several times, and each time one or two pets, and ME, have come down with allergies we've never had before. I agree with the plants etc. grasses, they can even affect you indoors or if you never go near the plant itself. Hope you find a solution, we have to use several different solutions here I am in QLD and there is a tree here which was planted in schools, native, fast grower, well, they have since cut them ALL down as so many kids were having problems, we have found over 50 of them in our garden!! each one costs hundreds to cut down and take away None of us had ANY problems before, so I'm sure they are the culprit

[westiemum]

Hi again,

:rolleyes: your guys are gorgeous!!

Couple of other comments -

Malaseb I've found useful for yeast type infections only - you'll recognise the smell - it smells like white bread is the only way I can describe it. I found it effective to reduce the paw licking but only for a few days and then the licking came back - and its pretty heavy duty stuff which worried me for long-term use - so I swapped to the EPO shampoo instead, combined with good paw drying.

Sorry to hear your girl doesn't liek her paws being touched. Here's a discussion of how to get doggies used to nail dremelling here. I'm not suggesting you dremell her nails - but rather the technique suggested here to get doggies used to a dremell on their nails might be helpful in reducing her paw sensitivity - not sure but see what you think.

As to frequency of bathing - I used to worry about that too - but I don't now, now that my guys are so much better - I genuinely think it depends on the shampoo type and their diet.

WD I really think a change in diet will help - my guys get human grade food only - barf/raw/prey diets take a bit of research and time to get organised and used to it - but seeing how my guys have benefitted I now wouldn't feed them anything else - and the little more I spend on their food I more than save on vet fees. My boy hasn't been to the vet for 8 -10 months and my girl since early Feb. They only go once or twice a year now I have everything under control.

As to the carpet, the truth is I have no idea - maybe settrluvr can help?

Good luck and will be interested to hear how you get on.

Cheers,

Westiemum

Edited June 3, 2008 by westiemum

[westiefan]

Hi

I thought I would add my ideas as well as I have had a westie with skin problems as well.

Rolley (my westie) was getting scabs on his back and very greasy fur. We were told to take him off chicken, lamb and beef and put him on Science diet Z/D. Also we were told to wash him in malasab on a weekly/fortnightly basis.

His skin did clear up and we gradually introduced kangaroo and of course raw vegies into his diet and he has been doing really well and has not had a scabby skin since.

Good luck with it all

ps. your westie is gorgeous

[Dogsfevr]

Dogs can react to some carpets although more react to the carpet powders many place on the carpet before vacuming..

From what you have said its sounds like this home just aint for your boy & hopefully when you move things will improve

[Poppy's mum]

Hi

Sounds to me like it could be malassezia. A quick check by the vet will tell you. He does a sticky tape test and when he/she outs it under the microscope, they can see if it is or not.

My little Chelsea has it. It is under control with once or twice weekly washes wuth Malaseb (following the instructions like leaving it for 10 minutes etc.) Unfortunately, the EPO shampoo did not work for us.

She has had omega oil supplements (Megaderm) for 6 months but they did not seem to make a difference. She is on a chicken/rice/Natural Balance organic biscuit diet and that seems to make little or no difference.

There is a lot of info out there if this is what she has: eg http://www.balgownievet.com.au/7_medical_malassezia.htm

and somehwere I found an excellent Westie site with lots of pictures, so you might want to google a bit.

There is a bit of a smell associated with it but I never noticed it till the vet pointed it out.

Chelsea also has panalog ointment for when he gets a dry itchy nose or lips and I sometimes put this on her feet when she chews. For her ears, a dilute malaseb solution 1:30 is used.

I know my vet says there are other things she can be treated with but so far we are managing OK with what we are using.

Good luck! it would certainly be helpful to developing a treatment program to know if it is seasonal allergies or a fungal infection (such as malassezia which won't ever go away).

[westiemum]

Hi GM,

Good post - its really important to consider as many possibilities as possible as you're right... the EPO shampoos and supplements don't work for everyone. I was lucky they have worked brilliantly for me. Good to hear your Chelsea is doing better.

Cheers,

Westiemum

[Westie_Dachie]

Hi Guys

You all rock, thank you for all the advice, i will have to sit down and read everything properly when i get a chance ;)

I also have my worries about using this shampoo on Rox, if it needs to stay on for 10 minutes and you have to wear gloves it's obviously not that good for her skin, but ill try it for a good few weeks see where it gets us, and then go to the other stuff you guys have suggested if it just irritates her skin some more!

BUT we found out we are moving in aboiut 2 weeks time now so the quicker we get out of here the better, let's hope the new place doesn't have wierd plants to make her itchy. And by the way...i can't believe it costs so much to have some trees removed and you have so many - that is horrible i do feel for you!!!!!!!!!! There is nothing worse than having a miserable dog, but to have to pay lots of money to make it go away

Thanks again guys - i should have joined this forum a lot earlier!!!

Del

[Dogsfevr]

I would suggest if you dont now the grass type to take a sample to your local nursery & ask them what it is for referance

[Westie_Dachie]

Hey Everyone,

I just have to say that i think Roxy being on chicken mince and rice, also being shaved right back has really helped! It's only been the last 2 days (Sine writing this topic) that i have really noticed how much better she is looking!!! I think it was my mum who suggested to clip her right back so the sun can get to the scabs and clear it up....and the chicken and rice must be doing better for her because she is looking brighter!

I never realised just how bad tin dog food was? But i think i might start adding vegies (My dogs LOVE vegies) and cook it up for both the dogs (Vegies can be the filler) and then i might start doing some beef mince in a few weeks time too and introduce it all slowly....

I will wash her again this weekend and see how it all works out (Maybe using just the normal non allergic shampoo not the malaseb)

But still, all of your suggestions have helped also!!!!!!!!

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Roxy really appreciates it

Del

(Pictures - Roxy SHAKIN it! And one of Jock - my mum's westie and Roxy UN clipped haha)

[westiemum]

Hi WD,

What gorgeous westies!!! And so good to hear Roxies skin is clearing up - well done. Will you give us an update now and then?

Cheers,

Westiemum

PS Yep that canned stuff IMHO is evil!! :p :p But I know others don't think so... but then again a respected DOLer, (Which one? I can't remember! There are lots of them!!) once told me that feeding cans is like feeding your kids McDonalds every day!!