My dog Schatzie

Question
Schatzie is a one year old male and has been with us for two weeks. I am the mother of the house.  I have one 7 year old girl and one 17 year old young man.  Schatzie has adapted extremely well to our envirnoment.  He was trained when we received him.  Oh, my husband is here too.  Anyway, he follws me everywhere I go and is very attached to me.  He's quite juvenile behaving at times but usually nicely tempered.  

Question:  We run him daily, at least twice a day in our large yard.  We toss, he fetches but my husband is attempting to enslave me to wash his paws everytime he comes in the house, which is ridiculous.   We have hard wood floors through out this 13 room Colonial, 1921 home and frankly, I see no need to wash his paws so frequently.  There's no carpet and I have remove all area rugs except the one he lays on at the front door.  I'd rather tub bathe him and have done so twice.  Once the day he got here and yesterday.  Would that be a problem for him, bathing twice a month which is my plan.  I put him in my tub during the evening and he is remanded to the house  until the next day when it is time to go out.  How frequently is too much?  He surely does not mind the family affair.  Also, his papers said that he had a skin aliment, Pyoderma at approx. 4 months.  What is this and how did he catch it? Can it return?  What should we do to prevent it agian?

thanks Kim

Answer
Hi Kim
I do not ever bathe my Shepherds, no need to they are a NO maintenance breed of dog.  Unless they get into mud, i simply hose off with mild water under the belly and legs only.  I just see no need to bathe Shepherds and for what reason if u brush them daily as should be done????
If the feet are muddy they should be cleaned, but if just wet with snow, they will dry on their own.
The disease your dog has is born with it as I understand so I would venture to say this comes through the mother, but is genetic from maybe the sire also?  If u have a warranty, go back to the breeder on this as it does reoccor and can be serious and expensive to care for and treat.  puppies get things from the mother, bacterys, worms, paracites of sorts, etc.  Below is some treatement of this disease of several names also.:


Protocol for treatment
-check for parasites (demodex, ectoparasites)

Choose an antibiotic from above. I generally choose cephalexin. The adminstration of cephalexin every eight hours does not alter treatment success. I believe the fluoroquinolones should be reserved for difficult cases or cases that demonstrate resistence. I also believe that some fluoroquinolones and potentiated amoxicillins may fail due to inadequate plasma and tissue levels.
Choose an appropriate topical shampoo with or without a "rinse" or leave-on product. These include shampoos that contain, benzoyl peroxide, chlorhexidine, sulfur, ethyl lactate or tar.
Extend antibiotic therapy for at least three weeks (sometimes requiring six to eight weeks). Underdosaging as well as inappropriate short duration of treatment often results in treatment failure.
Strict flea control (the most common underlying factor in my practice is still flea-bite hypersensitivity).
If recurrence is a problem, consider the following:

-perform a food trial with a novel protein/novel carbohydrate for eight to 10 weeks.

-if appropriate, check blood chemistries and thyroid level.

-refer for consultation/management or intradermal skin testing for atopic dermatitis.

Generally, cephalexin is well tolerated, but mild to severe gastrointestinal side effects can occur. These include most commonly vomiting and/or diminished appetite. Occasionally, loose stools or frank diarrhea with or without hemorrhage can appear and warrant cessation of the medication. If vomiting or decreased appetite is mild, I advise administration of cephalexin with a full meal. This does not appear to alter the treatment success.

The addition of gastrointestinal protectants or anti-nausea/vomiting drugs can sometimes aid in the reduction and elimination of the undesirable side effects. I rarely advise preceding the administration of cephalexin with famotidine.

Resistance to cephalexin has been very minimal in veterinary medicine, although it appears to be an emerging problem. This resistance can be achieved by the bacterial production of cephalosporinases produced by resistant bacterial genes. The so-called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has plagued human medicine and appears to have surfaced in veterinary medicine although clear evidence is lacking as to the frequency.

I have personally isolated strains of S. intermedius from canine pyoderma and demonstrated resistence to first generation cephalosporins such as cephalexin.

In contradiction, several studies have shown little change in the resistence of S. intermedius isolates over many years at veterinary teaching hospitals in the United States.
If this were me, I would go back to the breeder and find who is carrying this to stop breeding that certain parent, find out if any others have this also.  

Kind Regards
Patt
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