# Skin Lesions



## Charles Saul (Dec 12, 2008)

Need help. We have a choc lab with lesions on his abdomen, back, neck, and legs. First appeared as several small pustules on his abdomen and then to dime size oozing lesions with hair loss. He is on flea prevention, Wilderness food and has received a round of Amoxicillin 15 days along with Prednisone 30 mg every other day. Lesions disappeared for about 10 days and returned. He then received Keflex 1 Gm twice a day for 10 days. Lesions disappeared for about a week and now they are back again as if nothing had been done. Scraping was done, no mange. Vet wants me to bring him in for a dip.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

Have you run a culture of the lesions to see what is growing there? I had something similar on one of my dogs and asked for the vet to run a culture. Turns out the antibiotic he wanted to put the dog on would not have killed the bug causing it.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Sarah Platts said:


> Have you run a culture of the lesions to see what is growing there? ....


Ditto from me.


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## Brian Anderson (Dec 2, 2010)

sounds nasty to me... if the antibiotics seemed to have a temporary effect it would lead me to believe that its bacterial in nature... I guess thats kinda self evident but at least its a place to start looking. 

dont take what I say as being anything other than opinion ... Im not a vet .. not even close ...


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## Jon Howard (Jun 26, 2012)

Secondary bacterial infection to primary aetiology.
Get skin biopsies and culture. Quit the pred it ain't helping.
I would highly suspect fungal.


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## Brian Anderson (Dec 2, 2010)

Charles Saul said:


> Need help. We have a choc lab with lesions on his abdomen, back, neck, and legs. First appeared as several small pustules on his abdomen and then to dime size oozing lesions with hair loss. He is on flea prevention, Wilderness food and has received a round of Amoxicillin 15 days along with Prednisone 30 mg every other day. Lesions disappeared for about 10 days and returned. He then received Keflex 1 Gm twice a day for 10 days. Lesions disappeared for about a week and now they are back again as if nothing had been done. Scraping was done, no mange. Vet wants me to bring him in for a dip.


Charles I have had this issue too .. but more scabs than lesions accompied by a funky ass smell ... my vet made me a concoction in house .. his diagnosis was fungal (as stated by another post).... I use it about three times a year on him and he is fine.. before we got it under control it got out of hand and he gnawed all of his hair off his backend and finally had to put a tube on him to shut that down .. but classic mal fashion he destroyed the tube... if you want I will check with my vet Mon and see what all he puts in it... it worked very quickly too

its a topical shampoo treatment .. not an oral or injectible solution


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## Charles Saul (Dec 12, 2008)

Brian,
Sounds good, I appreciate it.

Thanks,
Charles


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Flea prevention doesn't keep the fleas for biting the dog. They actually have to do that for a dog to have a reaction and for the flea to die.


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## Brian Anderson (Dec 2, 2010)

Bob Scott said:


> Flea prevention doesn't keep the fleas for biting the dog. They actually have to do that for a dog to have a reaction and for the flea to die.


Bob ... yes sir! The fleas Id imagine are also playing a part in this dogs issues too if I were guessing. My vet told me that the fungus accompanied by flea bites was the culprit and that the fungus actually originated most likely from the ground. I switched to comfortis and used the "shampoo" he made and it worked ... it had gotten so bad I really didnt think that was going to get it. His exact words to me were "Brian you are a trainer and I am a vet .. I wont tell you how to train him if you wont tell me how to fix him" .... LOL he has been our vet since 1981 and will soon be retiring and I am dreading that. He gives special preference to the PSDs and MWDs and a discount AND he is small and does most everything in house. I can call him and tell him what I need if its something I can treat here and he will fix it up for me and I go get it. Im pretty sure that wont be the case with whomever I have to settle on when he retires.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Bob Scott said:


> Flea prevention doesn't keep the fleas for biting the dog.



That is for SURE. You also don't have to see a flea for a dog (and particularly one who has developed flea allergy dermatitis) to be going mad from intermittent exposure, even with no major infestation (yet).

This was my first thought, since pruritis is more likely to be FAD-related than any other allergy. But I didn't clearly see the classic body geography in the O.P.

Maybe that was my own carelessness, because no itchiness was mentioned. _ "We have a choc lab with lesions on his abdomen, back, neck, and legs."_ Does "back" mean along the backbone, and does it include, maybe focus particularly on, the area at the base of the tail? 

And is there desperate scratching?


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

I was thinking ..... a careful white-sheet test may possibly give you a false negative for flea presence, but a positive is a positive.

I always think it's worth doing with an undiagnosed itchy dog.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Connie Sutherland said:


> I was thinking ..... a careful white-sheet test may possibly give you a false negative for flea presence, but a positive is a positive.
> 
> I always think it's worth doing with an undiagnosed itchy dog.




Ditto! That and the culture.


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## Charles Saul (Dec 12, 2008)

Sorry for not being more specific in my original post. I have never seen a flea on this dog and I do realize that doesn't mean anything. This dog never scratches!!!!? My original thought was pyoderma but the vet insists it's a flea allergy. The vet wants me to bring him in next week for some dip, I don't really believe a dip is going to solve the problem thus my original post. My thought was bacteria since it resolves for about 7-10 days then it's back, perhaps a longer course of antibiotics after a culture and sensitivity. After some research I wondered if he may have MRSA as we are both nurses and come in contact with bacteria on a daily basis. 
Any and all advice and suggestions is greatly appreciated.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

If a flea issue isn't addressed in the fleas on the dog, the fleas in the environment and the eggs in the environment then the cycle will continue. 
That could very well address the 7-10 day cycle.


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

I would insist on a culture test. Have the vet take samples from several of the sites and he needs to do this before doing any dips. My culture tests ran 90-125 bucks. I have a dog very sensitive to flea bites and ended up putting all my guys on comfortis which fixed that issue for me.

It could be a staph infection for which Amox and Keflex won't be effective. You might have a combination of bugs which is why you are getting some response with those antibiotics. The prednisone isn't doing anything but keeping the dog from scratching his hide to ribbons. If he's been on it any length of time you need to wean the dose down. Stopping it suddenly can cause other problems due to corticoid withdrawal and the time it takes the body to begin manufacturing its own again.

(Caveat: I am not a veterinarian) If you have any anti-fungal products in your medicine cabinet you can test treat some of the spots to see if it's a fungus or ringworm infestation. Any human product like Monistat 7, Tinactin, Lotrim that used to treat yeast infections, jock itch, athleate's foot, etc (Minconazole, Clotrimazole, Ketaconazole) you can apply to see if you get a reaction within 3-5 days. *If* it's fungal, the scaling should stop and some healting begin. If it's staph you won't see any positive reaction.

When we had to treat the cattle for ringworm, we would take the powder used to treat black spot on rose bushes, compound (mix) that into a petroleum jelly base and applied it with a toothbrush over a week or two period.


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## Catherine Gervin (Mar 12, 2012)

Brian Anderson said:


> Bob ... he has been our vet since 1981 and will soon be retiring and I am dreading that. He gives special preference to the PSDs and MWDs and a discount AND he is small and does most everything in house. I can call him and tell him what I need if its something I can treat here and he will fix it up for me and I go get it. Im pretty sure that wont be the case with whomever I have to settle on when he retires.


apropos of having a kick-ass vet who is retiring in the foreseeable future, we have finally found a GREAT vet, one who began as the son of a farm vet to become a farm vet himself before weaning off of large animals as he got older...this man is fantastic. he has that innate gift of matter-of-factly/respectfully ducking right into the side of the dog and the dog ceases to be nervous or on-edge or on the lookout for unpleasentries and just abides. it's a tremendous thing to see--totally James Herriot experience all the way around. he was the third vet i'd brought my dog to, the first one deciding that she was AFRAID of a six month old puppy because it was barking at her and refused the treat--said she Always muzzled GSDs because "they were all nervous and biters"--nope, we never went back to her again. the second one was so outraged that i hadn't already spayed my female at 9 months, did i want her to get pregnant and cancer!?! she shushed me when i told her the breeder had said to wait until 18months, told me i was being irresponsible and a negligent owner...good thing she didn't catch sight of our obese cat! 
our current vet is in his late 70s and gives a military discount after he overheard my husband and i talking about him having Drill the next weekend and he is so gentle and perfectly assertive with our dog that she just trusted and accepted him the first time they met. she doesn't take his biscuits, though...


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