My male weimar has had some skin problems recently, something I've never experienced before. 3 weeks ago he came up in lumps, we took him to the vet who advised it looked like an allergy and told us to give him Piriton. The lumps started to go down and pretty much disappeared, however about 8 days later they came back :-( We took him to the vet again and he put him on a low dose of steriods for 10 days. We saw an improvement the same day he was given his first tablet and again the lumps pretty much disappeared.

The night before a show I bathed him in his usual Tea Tree Shampoo and the following day he was covered in dandruff. Never had a problem with dandruff before. That same day I noticed one or two lumps slightly larger - that was Saturday. Today he has approx. 5 or 6 lumps in total although not as big as when they first appeared 3 weeks ago. The vet says just to keep an eye on him and see what happens.

I'm wondering could I have been bathing him too much ? Recently he has been bathed almost every week simply because we are in the middle of building work and his coat was getting full of dust. I always make sure I rinse him thoroughly. Surely too much bathing wouldn't cause these lumps but I'm at a loss as to what to do next. He gets garlic tablets daily.

If anyone has any ideas I would be extremely grateful. I'm a bit worried. :-(

Does the Vet still think this is an allergy? If so , then when the piriton tablets stop ..and your Weim meets up with whatever he is allergic to again , the bumps will come back up.

I don't think it is ever a good idea to bathe a dog too often ..and I would think that once a week IS too often , but more experienced people than myself will be able to advise on that :)

Melody

For a smooth coated dog like that I wouldn't bathe often. Our whippet and whippet-mix get bathed properly maybe once a year (unless rolling in Fox Muck). I often spot clean with an amazing shampoo we got (do a search on the internet for Plush Puppy Wonderwash) which you spray on and work into the coat then it's self-rinsing. For the building work you have going on probably a rinse with the hose would be enough to get the dust out of him - or to be honest even a quick brush would be enough.

When our girls get muddy from a walk within about 1/2 hour they are usually spotless again as the mud dries and falls out - any remaining gets brushed out. We use a sheding blade for this (kind of like a hacksaw blade).

Wendy

It certainly sounds like an allergic reaction. The problem is to identify what he is allergic to - it could be food, insects, household cleaners, tobacco smoke....the list is endless. There are tests your vet could run to discover what it is (intradermal skin test, or RAST).

I would have thought with his smooth coat a good brushing each day would get the dust out of his coat. Otherwise would just rinsing him in clean water after a brush be adequate?

Hope it sorts out soon. :)

Thanks for your replies Guys :-)

I think I have been bathing him too much. It never occurred to me that rather than bathing him I could just rinse him down with warm water to remove the dust :rolleyes: I'm going to try and get some of that spray on shampoo stuff.

Chatting to my breeder last night she wondered if maybe he is building up an allergy to tea tree shampoo particularly as he has been bathed so much lately. Something I hadn't thought of.

Anyway no more bathing for a while. He gets groomed every day anyway and so far the lumps have not got worse and he's not on any medication or piriton. Vet still thinks its an allergy but said we are unlikely to find out what is causing it and to be honest he's not the sort of dog that could handle being in a vets having loads of tests done. I would really only put him through that if it was a matter of life or death because he's a big scaredy cat :D

Thanks again, very much appreciated :-)