# GSD pyoderma



## Noel Hare (Apr 25, 2009)

anybody have any experience with GSD pyoderma? chronic recurrent staph infections. I just got back from the Derm. Vet. and apparently it is a skin problem that can be managed but rarely resolves.


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## Cesar A. Flores Dueñas (Oct 1, 2009)

Proper antibiotic (hope your vet run a bacterial culture), Weekly medicated shampoo baths, Chicken and rice based raw food would be great, Omega fatty acids supplements.

Most of dermatologic problems on dogs are allergy related, thats why some of them are recurrent and you basically manage the problem all the life of your dog.

But a lot of them can be of easy management.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

One thing that's frustrating about staph infections in dogs is that they often need a pretty long course of antibiotics if they don't go away relatively easily. The course of antibiotics needs to be given all the way through to the end as well, as it's very tempting to back off when they seem like they're on the run. That's also why we have methicillin resistant Staph aureus (MRSA) you may have heard in the news. The other problem is Staph pseudintermedius is a normal flora in dogs, so there's some reason why it's gotten a hold and gone out of control. A complete derm work up also should include scrape, pluck, smear. So a series of skin scraping to rule out demodex or sarcoptic mange, plucking of the hair and viewing under a microscope (trichogram), and impression smears under the microscope. Running a fungal culture is also not a bad idea and is worse in some areas of the country (our state has got lots of it).


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## Nicole Stark (Jul 22, 2009)

I do but not with a GSD. For my dog it came down to a compromised immune system. Pyoderma, then chronic staff, then demodex, and a period of recovery, followed by lymphoma and death by 2 1/2 years of age. Obviously, that was a worst case scenario.

That was 15 years ago though. I'd approach it much differently now. I followed the vet recommendations to the letter but it got me no where. So I switched vets about 3 times in 2 years. In the end, I worked with what some would call a bit of a crack pot who worked out of his basement and offered to treat my dog for the cost of medicine. He got me about 6 months with her in reasonably good health before I lost her.

Anyway, not to be a Debbie Downer about this. I am commenting because I can relate to this situation pretty well. My recommendation is keep it simple and go with your gut in finding a good treatment approach. Switch vets, more than once if you feel the need to in order to get to the bottom of it.

I will add though, and much to our surprise, we found a solution. At the time many of the mushers up here were using a product called Zinpro. The feed store gave me the basement vet referral and a box of the Zinpro treats for my dog. After ruling everything out, we realized what the link was to her recovery - zinc. Minor supplementation, a slightly better diet, and NO vaccinations did the trick until she got sick for the last time.

Good luck.


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## Noel Hare (Apr 25, 2009)

thanks for the responses. The dog has had four courses of two different antibiotics for deep staph infections since he was 5 mon. old he is now 14 mon. It has been scraped and cultured as staph. I went to the Derm Vet as a referall from my regular Vet. After 300$ worth of shampoo and basically telling me everything I've learned from researching this myself. I'm at the point of deciding to get rid of Him or keep him and "manage" it. The monkey wrench is that he is a good dog, If he was a crapper he would be gone.


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## Noel Hare (Apr 25, 2009)

also, something that the Derm. vet said was that this type of pyoderma or chronic staph infection is found frequently in GSD's from European bloodlines. So much so that it is called "GSD pyoderma" and that it is an inheritable genetic disorder but has not been isolated similar to dysplasia. I've never encountered it before this.


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Does your dog have large outbreaks and where on his body does he mostly get the problem? I used to get a few skin problems with a previous gsd, don't recall exactly what it was other than a recurring bacterial infection according to the vet. Lengthy courses of antibiotics didn't help much, neither did steroids.... he used to get fiery nasty rashes which would pustule and weep mainly on his underbelly, insides of his thighs and groin area. I stumbled across a very basic but incredibly effective solution, zinc and castor oil cream or sudacreme, it was no longer a problem after that.


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## Noel Hare (Apr 25, 2009)

Pustules and lesions will form on his groin inner thighs and armpits. Also pressure points, elbows, hocks, and chin. Also I mentioned this in another post When we train, the prong will irritate his skin to the point where he will begin to form lesions and scabbing on his neck. This is a young dog, 14mon. I've done food trials, had him crated in an aluminum box thinking maybe plastic was an issue. Sounds very similar to what you describe. This is recurrent with a vengeance though, The pattern is a course of antibiotics and then maybe three weeks at most and then it recurs.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Noel Hare said:


> ... The dog has had four courses of two different antibiotics for deep staph infections



For how long, and was there a re-test at the end of the protocol?


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Well if it sounds similar it will not hurt, not yourself or your dog to give it a try if these preps are available in the USA, they're cheap as chips to buy off the shelf here. It's not ideal for topical application where the area is a large one ,can get kind of sticky for a bit. I always bathed the area with a mild disinfectant solution, dried off and applied the cream.... you knew within a couple of days it was controlling it. I had also tried hydro- cortizone cream which also worked fairly well but the potential side effects there are not good. 

Good luck


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## Noel Hare (Apr 25, 2009)

Connie Sutherland said:


> For how long, and was there a re-test at the end of the protocol?


I'm at work so I don't have the exact length of treatment with each course of antibiotics but the first three courses were with simplicef, average 10 days for each course. this last go round was cephalexin two weeks, no retest as the symptoms completely disappear (usually within three to five days) so there are no lesions to retest unless I'm misunderstanding "retest". The Derm vet yesterday did not do a scraping or any testing just a basic exam and went off the records from my vet which included the previous positive for staph intermidus


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