Dog rash

Question
Hi Janna,

I have a 4 year old Jack Russel Beagle.  About 6 months ago we noticed hot spots under her armpits and a rash on her belly.  We thought it was the food so we switched her to a gluten free food (Nature's Logic). We treated her with Benedryl for the itching.  It did seem to help at first but now 6 months later she has that and a nasty rash around her neck that we have been trying to treat ourselves by benedryl 25 mg (she weighs 30 lb), bathing her with anti-itch, we put salve around the neck and put a cloth around it and put on the lamp shade color. Well, it seemed to help a little.  Then we thought maybe she had worms so we just dewormed her.  The rash and sores are worse than ever and we took her off all dry food and have been feeding her ground beef fried (lean), mixed with mixed veggies and pumpkin.  Yesterday I found this website that said she could have a yeast infection.

We went to the store and bought plain sugar free yogurt and started her on that. Still giving one 25 mg benedryl and it said to spray listerine on the rash to help with the itch. It appears to be working.  My vet said they would do 300 dollars worth of labwork. I read that it could come back false positive and would be a waste of money.

Do you have any suggestions? We just don't want her to suffer so much. We would like to get this resolved as soon as possible.  Thank you in advance. Ps. you helped wiht my 17 year old constipated cat and she is still alive and better than ever now. Thanks. Donna

Answer
Well you need to get her off of the beef right away and get her on a food like lamb and rice or venison and potato. If this is a food allergy, which is possible, then beef is the worst thing you can feed her. Beef is the number one food that dogs are allergic too. Plus the diet you are feeding her is too high in protein and very unbalanced. But that is also most likely not the cause of this problem.

It sounds more like a skin disease as opposed to a "rash." Yeast infections on the skin cannot be treated with yogurt internally. It does nothing for them on a dog. She needs some anti-fungal(and yeast) medicine to take internally and some cream for her skin. You can try and treat it with the vaginal cream that treats yeast infections in women. Not internally, but on her skin.

You really need to get her to the vets however. I don't know why he can't look at her skin and figure out what it is. Lab work won't tell him what's on her skin, his eyes and a skin scraping will! If that is the case then call another vet. Not all of then demand lab work.

But that is what she needs, a vet visit so you can get some grisofulvicin for her internally or whatever it is she needs. She might have demodex mange. She might have ringworm. There is no way to know without looking at her skin and doing a skin scraping and looking under the microscope at it.

Treating it at home is going to delay and worsen the condition. You can inadvertently make it worse but delaying the treatment or treating for the wrong thing.

So unfortunately she does need to see a vet soon.

I am glad your kitty is doing well. Thanks for letting me know. I hope your dog gets well soon too. Please get her on a decent diet like Science Diet lamb and rice or get some potato and venison.