Mobile Hydrobathing Services And Dog Skin Issues

[Christina77]

Some time ago , about 8 moths we started using a Mobile Hydro-bath service for our ACD . Recently she has had skin issues that she's never had before .

One that looked like a hot spot and cleared quickly with treatment , now she has very itchy skin ( first time ever in her 11 years) and I noticed she has what appears to be a pale wart growing her hind leg ( thought it was a tick but it's not )

Now I'm in no way saying that the Hydrobathing is the cause but were trying to see if it could be a link and the service uses our water so I know it's not recycled water , the dog next door also uses it and he now has huge hot spots ( hasn't used the Hydro-bath for some time now once they were spotted)

Hubby wants me to stop the baths , easy for him as I'm the one then that has to wash her lol and thinks there's a cause for concern , so my question is if there is a cause for concern and to stop the Hydro baths or could it be something else ? Has anyone experienced anything like this ?

She's never had any skin issues , never had a flea and has regular Frontline Plus and Heartguard Plus.

No change in diet either , she's happy , getting old and has hip issues but has never had these problems before.

TYIA

Edited July 12, 2016 by Christina77

[BarbedWire]

It could be the soap. QV skin wash (soap free) has sorted out my itchy dog's problems.

[Dogsfevr]

Do you supply the shampoo,many wash in highly perfumed flea rinse although generally hot spots are more diet related ,stress related ,bites & often worse when dropping coat or staying to moist .

I should also say i have an old dog who at near 13 yrs is predisposed to getting a hot spot in an area he has arthritis ,the nerves are more reactive there so he will try to self soothe that leads to a hot spot ,also have seen very itchy dogs due to soreness

[Rascalmyshadow]

If your dog is not being rinsed properly it doesn't matter what shampoo is used it will cause skin problems.

I have only met one decent mobile dog groomer most of them have no idea what they are doing, personally I would stop using this service.

[karly101]

You've got a pretty easy test.. stop the bath service and see if the skin issues go away :)

A common culprit is not rinsing enough, of course he could also be reactive to the shampoo they use.

[Christina77]

Stopped the mobile wash for 3 weeks now . She's still a bit itchy and once again has blown her coat but no more hotspots .

She seems fine , I found a strange warty thing on her hind leg so another trip to the vet coming up . I guess at 11 she's going to get a few health issues .

[animalia]

It sounds like a Staph infection, I would let the mobiler know because it's something that they might be doing. It could be the shampoo they're using, it could have harsh soaps in the ingredients which strips the natural oils from her coat and the normal Staph bacteria flourishes. She might not be rinsing the shampoo out. It could be that she's not using the right Disinfectant in her hydro bath, so there's a large amount of normal dog Staph bacterial in her bath from all the dogs she's bathed, so when she washes a dog it puts a lot of bacteria on the dog, more than the coat can handle and hot spots appear. Dogs that are left half wet also get hot spots, especially double coated breeds as bacteria loves moisture. It could be an allergen around your house setting your dog off. Staphylococcus is a normal bacteria on the dog, it generally needs a weaken immune system or an allergy to flourish. Try an organic apple cider vinegar rinse or tea tree shampoo. What did your vet say?

I hope I made sense I quickly typed this out at work!

Edited August 23, 2016 by animalia