Brittany with skin problems.

[beyerja]

We are all out of ideas. Champ has had a skin condition for over a year. Constantly itching, losing his hair and the smell is awful. Two vets diagnosed "allergies" but neither one of the remedies were successful.

Champ is a 3 year old Brittany. This is our third Brittany. Neither of the other two ever experienced this problem.

Any ideas?????

JB

[Nik]

Hi, sorry to hear your pooch is suffering... and welcome.

The first thing everyone on this board will say to you is to check his diet. It seems that almost all allergies come from food, or a change of products used around the home, but since it's been a year I doubt you'll remember changing a soap powder or using something different in the garden that far back.
There's also grass, alot are allergic to grass.

There's plenty of friendly, helpful people here who will offer alot better advice

[beyerja]

Thanks for your reply.

We have addressed the diet issue. He is currently on a recommended brand with no corn. I cannot remember the name. Also, we do bathe him in a shampoo recommended by the vet. I can't think of a thing we haven't tried. This Friday we are taking him to a dermatologist to see what he thinks. Someone I know who has quite a bit of knowledge on dogs also ventured a guess that it could be something called dermodex.

Our other two Britannys were outdoor dogs. Because we got Champ as a puppy in the dead of winter (Minnesota) he started out indoors and became more of a house dog than the other two. A really funny thing is that in the summer when he is outside more he does almost anything to avoid the grass.

Aside from his quirks he is the smartest most loveable dog.

Champ is miserable and so are we.

JB

[tuttifrutti]

Hi! I have two brittanys and they are both outdoor dogs. Neither of them has a problem with their fur like that, but have you asked your vet about a possible yeast infection? A couple of weeks ago I found an English Springer that was balding, and smelled terrible. I didn't notice much itching, but I was also trying to generally stay away so as not to infect my dogs, and the only way back into teh house from where the springer was being kept was through the backyard, with my dogs. Anyway, it sounds a lot like what you are describing, and while I think it's something your vet probably would have diagnosed, I think you should ask anyway, just to rule it out.

[beyerja]

Hi Sarah,

That was suggested by the vet. That was why he was on one of the medications. There must be a cure out there somewhere.

JB

[honeybears]

for yeast infecttions try a probtioic, check out this site www.nzymes.com. They have a yeast kit. I have a dog that had yeast problems and it cleared it up.

As for diet. your dog could still be allergic to it if it has wheat or chicken which are big allergens.

[DeLaUK]

I would guess at both demodex or a fungal infection also, the other thing would be an underlying bacterial infection although I think you would have seen some additional signs with that.

I think your right to take him to a specialist, Im surprised your vets have let it continue this long,

There are tests that can be done for allergies (RAST by Spectrum labs is one that Ive had some experience with although it was a few years back), it can be a bit costly also but if you can afford it then its well worth it. One of my dogs was allergic to almost everything in almost every brand of food, including chicken, beef, fish as well as most of the grains, he ended up on Natures Recipe Duck and Potato....and one other type plus shots to desensitize him, he came off the shots after about 2 years and had lost a lot of the allergies. And he was itch free from the day we got the resutls back.

Good luck, I hope you get it all sorted.