Hi, I'm Alfie.

A Westie in desperate need of help

Born at an awful puppy farm, I was rescued by my new parents 18 months ago. My first year was tough - I developed Westies Jaw from in-breeding and spent 12 months on steroids. However, all cleared up now - no lumps left on my jaw or head and I really started to enjoy life when out of the blue my skin started to deteriorate.

I noticed it about 3 months ago when my skin colour started to darken and to take on a new fousty smell. Then the itching started real bad. So I went for it big time and managed to make things a whole lot worse. Here's the latest...

1) I've bitten all the hair off my hind legs which are now covered in marks & scabs
2) I lick my front paws all the time and I've managed to remove some of the hair on the front whilst the back of my paws are red raw
3) I love to scratch the back of my front legs with my back legs - it makes them bleed and they are covered in scabs
4) I bite all around my genitals and scratch my belly. It makes my nipples very red and sometimes they bleed
5) I love to go into the lounge, lay flat on the carpet and drag myself along using my front paws. It really helps to scratch my belly.
6) Dad took me to the post office the other day and left me outside for a while. I got upset and barked a lot. When dad came out he noticed I was frothing at the mouth quite a bit which is new.
7) I've developed a dark red tinge to my beard now as well.

Now mum and dad have tried lots of things and they're really at "wits end" with me. My dad gets really frustrated when I scratch so he's now bought me a horrible plastic muzzle which I have to wear most of the time. It's not fair because the itching is still really bad and I can't bite myself any more. The hair is growing back but once I get this muzzle off I'm going to hide in a corner somewhere and bite my skin to bits - I've done it before and they didn't notice until it was too late...

Mum and Dad are lovely with me. We play a lot and have great fun and I'd love to stop this itching so we can live a normal life again. We go to the vet but they just want to throw more tablets down my throat.

Food is really boring in my life. Mum and Dad eat all this lovely smelling tasty stuff - but I just get to eat rotten old boiled chicken and rice. Lately they've been giving me a dog mixer instead of the rice. We live in a hard water area and I drink the tap water which has lots of lime in it. It didn't effect me for the first year so I guess it may be ok.

Mum checks me for fleas and ticks all the time. I don't get fleas but I have had quite a few of those ticks - damn nasty little critters. Mum pulls them out with tweasers and burns them.

I gotta go now. Dad doesn't know I'm using his laptop and my paws are starting to get sore with all this typing. I would like someone to help me so I can stop living this miserable existence and to help my mum and dad get over this huge frustration.

I just want to be a happy dog and have lots of fun.

Life's crap right now.

Please help

Alfie  

   
   

Golly it sound like torture to have an itch and not be able to scratch it because of wearing a muzzle!
The darkening skin and musty smell is a yeast infection and needs veterinary treatment.
Boiled chicken and rice isn't a balanced diet but the first priority is to seek veterinary treatment to make your poor dog more comfortable.

Have you checked for mange and Mites also.  Things can co-exist.

Could he have a flea allergy, they only have to have one land and depart to cause an issue.

Hey thanks

This is why we don't like going to the vet. Their advice was to put me on a diet of boiled chicken & rice and then see an allergist

Alfie

Well I did think Mange might be the issue especially with this awful smell. Vet says no mange...

Hey WestCoast,

Sounds like you can help me get off this awful diet. What can I eat now to make me feel better and hopefully help my skin?

Alfie

Did they take a skni scraping.  I'm sure that's the only way to tell mange.  Do you get foxes about, have read on hear fox mange is doing the rounds.

Could try anti histamine for the itching, you can get this from the vets.  And I'd change vets.

If you don't wan to change the food add some vegtables and other meats to it.

The smell is yeast infection - very common in pet bred Westies.

Look into feeding a raw diet.  If you don't want to go down that route then Wafcol Salmon and Potato complete may help.

Can you put anything on the skin or orally to clear the yeast infection?  As well as the diet.

I agree with westcoast I would suggest to Mum and Dad that they try feeding you raw. Just raw meaty bones, start with some raw chicken instead of cooked and have a good chw on those raw bones my 2 say they are scrumptious.  nothing else do it over a few days.Also how about going to see another vet just to make sure you have no mites, mange or other nasties that the first person has missed.
I hope you feel better soon.

Poor little man,these vile puppy farms have a lot to answer for. You could try adding some natural live yoghurt, just a teaspoon or two.

One of my girls was allergic to fleas and after two months prednisolone I bathed her in Polytar shampoo(its for people but my vet said it was ok to use) for about four weeks and the itching finally stopped and her coat grew back.

I also think you should see another vet,I know westies are prone to itching but that doesnt mean it should not be investigated thoroughly.

Kind Regards

Have you tried him on an exclusion diet?

My last dog would get terribly itchy if he ate chicken (in any form), he would also get terrible ear infections.
Within a few hours of eating chicken he would be shaking his head as if he had a flea in his ear and scratting like he was infested with fleas. Prior to identifying chicken as the casue, he would often chew himself bald along his back end :(
Constant chewing at the skin makes it wet, the perfect condition for infections, these can be treated with medicated shampoos or even topical creams in bad cases along with ABs. But they will keep on coming back untill the cause is removed.

Ideally the diet needs to start with a novel protein source, white fish & potato would have been preferable over chicken & rice (chicken & rice being common dog food ingredients so not novel, unless of course you were allready feeding something that didn't contain them).

Westies are notorious for having skin allergies.  It may also be something outside that he is allergic too aswell.

The only way you are going to find out for sure is the York skin test.  It could be yeast/bacterial/allergy/mites so blood testing and maybe a skin scrape will hopefully get you some answers.

I'd ask for a referral to a Dermatologist.  Its a shame to make him wear a muzzle to stop him too :(

Hey,

Thanks to you all for your kind help. I'm off walkies later and I'm gonna drag my dad down the butchers shop. That'll be the first thing we'll do... mainly cos I love bones and while I'm eating I'm not biting my skin.

I'm not going to the vet yet cos every time I go they stick things in me and I bite them - they don't taste very nice either.

Then I think we may have to try the skin test

This Westie is determined to look great and feel good again

Bye for now

Alfie

P.S. I'll be back with some progress reports...

He really does need the Vet and possibly steroids to calm his itching down and make him comfortable, then you can work on changing things.

> I'm not going to the vet yet

Bad decision.  Get to a skin expert.

Hi Alfie

Goodness me...poor you :(

First off I'd ask my Mum and Dad to get me a referral from my regular vet (the one that doesn't taste very nice!) to a classically trained Homeopathic Vet. All it takes is a letter from your vet to the Homeopathic vet and then your Mum can ring and make an appointment.

Something is seriously amiss in your immune system....and you are trying to eliminate this dis-ease through your least vital organ which is your skin. Suppressing this elimination process with further steroids, antibiotics or topical treatments is only likely to make matters worse and make it much more likely to recur.

You see any time a condition is suppressed by allopathic veterinary drugs like steroids it doesn't mean that the condition is cured. All it means is that the condition is likely to have moved deeper inside and your body is in a desperate process to eliminate it again.

As a first step I would ask my Mum and Dad to put me on a Raw Meaty Bones diet as you are in desperate need of essential life-giving nutrients which you're not going to be able to get from anything cooked.  Avoid all grains like the plague..!

Then I'd ask my Mum and Dad not to use ANY chemicals either in... on... or around me..... just while we get to the bottom of this thing.....you know the kind of thing that the "two legs" use all the time...?? Spot on flea controls...chemical wormers..... Shake and Vac (! Don't you just hate that..?? !)...detergents with optical brighteners in them...Sodium Laurel Sulfate...you get the drift..??  I find all those things really offensive to my delicate nose anyway...don't you...?? Don't let them give you any more vaccinations...you are not well and it says on the inserts that only HEALTHY animals should be vaccinated.

Your Mum and Dad could try Homeopathic Sulphur at 30c. A whole book could be written just on Sulphur alone and its beneficial effects in the realm of skin conditions....but I really think you need to see a fully qualified Homeopathic Vet.... so your Mum and Dad can discuss every single aspect of what has happened to you......

Just to give you a bit of hope that  you can get better from this.....

http://www.alternativevet.org/dog_cases.htm

Good Luck My Friend x

Whilst I'm all in favour of a homeopathic solution this is an approach which can take some time.

An itchy dog is a distressing sight for the owner and incredibly difficult for the dog so I'd recommend that you handle the immediate symptoms first.  Once you get back to a calm(er) skin you can then start working on the long term strategy as suggested by Freedom...

In the meantime get to the vet and book a York Test for allergies - it's incredibly useful to understand more accurately whether you are dealing with food issues or environmental ones.  The dog equivalent of hayfever is much easier to manage than some food problems.  You also need to deal with any secondary infections caused by scratching, and learn some distraction techniques to avoid the manic biting and scratching.  Frozen filled Kongs last ages, go for a walk around the block, sit near to people who can intervene, use a buster collar if absolutely necessary and just long enough to give any topical creams a chance to start working.  Ask your vet about Fuciderm for sore patches, Piriton to break the itch scratch itch cycle, and do some reasearch on Dermacton (it works for my dog).  Finally consider a daily wipe with very dilute Hibiscrub, this is invaluable if you are dealing with pollens as it washes them off the skin, it also helps to dry sores.  Small dogs can be walked through a footbath of the stuff for paws - use a cat litter tray.

I have an incredibly itchy dog and I've described my regime several time on CD now - see if you can do a search under my posts or come back and ask me again if you can't find anything.  My dog's problems are caused by pollen not food but I've also changed to raw feeding.  I think that anything which improves his overall health and wellbeing has to be a good thing.

Whilst I'm all in favour of a homeopathic solution this is an approach which can take some time.
That's my idea too!  Homeopathy is always my preference but in this case when the dog has been itching for too long, then he needs to be given instant relief if possible and then work out what the cause is. :)

Wash poor little thing in diluted Hibiscrub or Malasab shampoo either products will give some relief.  Quistel spray for in-between bathing will also give relief.

But in all honesty you need to find a better vet. New vet needs to do skin scrap test and allergy testing that includes food, outside and inside allergens.

As for diet, a natural diet in my opinion is best for westies. Many people here will help if the natural route you want to give it a try. If not then dry food wafcol, fish 4 dogs. Wet food berties (natures harvest), natures menu etc are ok foods.

I personally would do home cook temporary, a One meat protein, with vegetables. You have tried chicken and rice and it's not worked try turkey or fish. Change the rice to potatoes add other veg like carrots and peas. You can add vitamins eg: superdog Ultimate Nutrition (half a tablet for a westie).

You need to find a good vet that is also a homeopath vet or a vet that will work with a homeopath vet asap as your poor dog must be in a lot of pain.

Extremely good advice from dogs a babe.  Your dog must be so distressed wearing a muzzle almost all the time when he is so uncomfortable.  The stress in itself isn't doing him any good at all.

Hi we have dogs a jack russell and a patterdale terrier, our patterdale Raffa has ichy skin that when he itches he makes under his front legs bleed. He also crawls along the carpet or grass to itch his belly. I started to give him a piriton, not from the vet over the counter tablets from the chemist, i checked it out first on a forum and tried it out, he has  1 tablet every other day and the redness and sores and itching has   gone. I dont give him it now as i think he has an allergy in the summer months when the pollen is high. I have never changed his diet he eats bakers complete. I hope this helps. Leanne