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When Michelle first started treating Max, a beautiful 10 year old Corgi, in May 2015, his skin was so sore and weepy all over that he needed sedating just to examine him properly. Less than 3 months later he was back at the clinic for vaccinations and he was a new dog!
Max had a long history of weepy, red, blistering skin on his feet, tummy, armpits, groin and ears. His mum Susanne said she struggled with his smell, he was so very itchy, and he often seemed depressed and unhappy when his skin flared up. Courses of antibiotics helped, but it wasn’t long before Max was back itching and sore again. In May 2015, Max was sedated and his skin and ears closely examined, including microscopic smear examinations and culture swabs. We found heavy growths of bacteria and yeast. He was started on appropriate antibiotic and antifungal medications and a referral to the Animal Dermatology Clinic in Auckland was organised, to further investigate his skin condition.
Over the next couple of months, the Specialist Veterinary Dermatologists at the Animal Dermatology Clinic continued to treat the overgrowth of bacteria and yeast on Max’s skin, and performed further testing to determine the underlying cause of Max’s skin problem. Once a strict food trial was done to rule out food allergy, Max had a series of skin tests to determine what he was allergic to. The test came back strongly to fleas, several storage mites and several species of trees/grasses. Recommendations for Max included strict flea control (Bravecto every 3 months without fail), very careful storage of his dry food due to the storage mite allergy (using smaller bags and storing food in an airtight container), and starting immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy involves injecting Max at home with increasing amounts of his allergens to try to desensitise his body to them. These are prepared specifically for each patient.
Max is now a much happier dog! Although he still gets occasional flare-ups of his skin, these are much easier to manage, he is no longer constantly living on antibiotics and is much less itchy. He now happily trots into the clinic and lies down on his back to let us examine his skin, a far cry from the dog that needed to be sedated to even touch him in May 2015! And we can’t smell him coming anymore!
Northland has a highly allergenic environment and many dogs (and people!) suffer with skin allergies. If you feel that your dog is suffering with their skin condition, please come in and talk to us, as we will be able to help, and may recommend a visit to the Animal Dermatology Clinic to investigate this further in some cases.
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