Shihtzu

Question
Hi Jennifer - We have two male shihtzu's. One of them has a skin condition. The vet says that it is a mite and this is making him extremely itchy to the stage where he constantly has sores all over him. He also has a musty odour that is quite terrible. The vet has suggested Ivomec to be taken by him. WE have been continually giving him Ivomec and bathing him in Malaseb. This seems to ease the problem slightly but as soon as we take him off the Ivomec his skin just gets worse again. I don't know if you know of any alternative therapies we could use. Any help would be much appreciated as he is a very unhappy dog at the moment. (By the way this has been going on for the last 12 months.)

Answer
Was a skin scraping done to diagnose skin mites or is your vet just suspecting this as the problem?

With the odor and chronic irritation to his skin, it sounds like he should be on oral antibiotics (Cephalexin, Clavamox or Baytril) as well as an anti-fungals (Ketoconazole).  The bathing alone doesn't sound like it is cutting it.  I would recommend treatment of an antibiotic and ketoconazole for 60 days.

TO help the itching subside, I would try Benadryl--1 mg per pound three times daily.

As far as alternative treatments, Fish Oil is very good for skin problems and I would recommend starting him on that right away (we use 3V caps quite a bit) as well as Ester C 5-10 mg per pound twice a day.  Otherwise condsider starting him on Transfer Factor to boost his immune system  www.transferfactor.com www.4tf-pets.com/testimonials.

Since this problem has been going on for a while, I would also recommend targeting his diet and get him on a Fish and Potato based food...Verus and Flint River Ranch both make a good quality one.  He most likely has some food allergy as well as inhalant allergy compounded things. And at last, you may want to consider allergy testing or at least a trial of medication such at ATOPICA.  Or get a skin biopsy to get to the root of the problem.

Best wishes,
Dr. Fry
www.my4life.com/drfry