Our Bichon Frise was back at the vets again last night after making a large sore on each of his ears which keep bleeding.  He always seems to do this after having a bath (which he absolutely hates) and we bath him about once a month in the shampoo which we got from the vets .(malaseb)  We have also tried epi-soothe shampoo from the vets, although it doesn't make much difference what we use, he still does it. 

When we take him to the vets they always prescribe a couple of weeks of steroids and I have heard that they are not good for the dog to keep having them.   He is 11 months old now and has had steroids at least 4 or 5 times since we have had him at 10 weeks old.  The first time he had them he was only 17 weeks old.  What are the long-term effects of steroids because the vet didn't seem too concerned when I asked him about them.  Will they shorten his life if he keeps having them or cause other problems as he gets older?  If anybody could answer these questions I would be very grateful as I am quite worried.

Has you vet done skin scrapes to determine the reason for the itching. My vet tried for 3 months with anti biotics and steroids without success. They then decided to do a skin scrape and bingo they found she had dermodicosis and ring worm. The steroids had just made things worse and compromised her immune system. Knowing what I do now I would insist on a skin scrape, at the onset.

No they have never suggested this, although we have only been with this vets since October last year.  One of the vets at the practice did say that he thought it might be an idea to put him under anaestetic and have a good look at his ears, although they did have a look at them when they castrated him because he has always had ear troubles since he was about 4 months old, so they cleaned them out for him although his ears look quite clean inside and the vet said this when we went in December.
Are skin scrapes expensive.  I have asked about the skin allergy testing at the other vets that I was at but they would never tell us how much they were and he isn't insured because he started scratching at 17 weeks and he was insured until 16 weeks with the kennels that we got him from, but because we took him to the vet at 17 weeks she diagnosed skin problems and said that we couldn't insure him against those now.  I was quite annoyed a few months later when I found out that the lady who grooms our dog who has a German Shepherd attends the same vets and she wasn't insured and her dog got a skin problem so the vet (another vet, the one who owns the practice) said go home and get him insured an come back next month and he is now on some tablets which would cost £160 a month if she wasn't insured.  We decided to change vets after this.

They did skin scrape and hair pluck. Cost £7.00 scrape and £12.51 for pluck and consultation fee of course. Seleen shampoo (£9.82) and Aludex Wash (16.66) was prescribed to get rid of the problem. Inconsiderate owners allowing their dogs to mix with others when they have skin problems are really annoying. My baby was not allowed to mix with others for weeks, she was not happy but I would not wish her condition on anybody.

oh no sorry if I put it badly, her german shepherd hasn't mixed with my dog, she has a grooming shop and doesn't take her dog to work with her, she was just telling me that her dog was insured after it was diagnosed with a skin problem although I don't think it was a bad skin problem.  Ours hasn't got a bad skin problem, its just his ears that he scratches and makes a mess off but hasn't got any sores anywhere else.  Sorry for the confusion.

Just realised I have posted this on the behaviour board instead of the health board, sorry everyone.  Think I was on active topics when I decided to post so that is how it happened.

Steroids depress the immune system & can cause more problems than the original problem & they most definately do have major side effects!
Long term use of them can destroy bone joints, cause osteporosis & prevents the proper uptake of calcium.
You can read more at the link below.
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/steroids.htm
http://www.naturalrearing.com/J_In_Learning/Misc/STEROIDS.html
http://www.wholisticanimal.com/veterinarydrugs.asp

Christine, Spain.

Thanks for the information Christine I will have good look at these websites.

Why do you bathe him so often?

Caz

Hi Caz,

We were told to bath him twice a week in episoothe by the vet and then a fellow dog walker with a Scottie said that her dog was the same as mine when it was young and they got Malaseb from the vets and the condition cleared up so I asked my vet if I could try malaseb because the episoothe didn't seem to be working.  He has been a lot better and doesn't scratch his body as much or pull his hair out like he did last summer but he scratches his ears a lot and has made a big sore which keeps bleeding on his left ear, its usually his right ear that he does this to.   With him being white he soon looks really dirty and sometimes especially with his hair long it is impossible to get through his hair and the bath softens his hair so that I can groom it properly.  I was trying to wait while until the weather got better before I had his hair cut but I have booked him in for next week whilst he is still on the steroids.  He also likes to dig and he does get really muddy when we go out for a walk so a bath is sometimes needed.   It might not be the bath that is triggering the scratching it maybe something else but we don't know what as yet.