Any help would be great....
10yo GSD with CDRM...has always had a problem on and off with smelly skin under the belly & between back legs...treated with courses of antibiotics and steroids
Recently treated with very expensive antibiotics cost about £3+ a day for 21 days!!! plus piriton to reduce itching and bath wash to use on under carriage..
Completed the 3 week course though vet felt could,be long term treatment needed...as didnt see fantastic improvement on the expensive antibiotics and didnt feel result warranted the expense decided to try some cheaper antibiotics...which kept things on an even keel...since finishing back to square one smelly warm skin....turns your stomach....have to shut dog outside when eating up the table in the kitchen....dont allow him anywhere else in the house anyway so not a problem there.
I do personally feel it is an old doggy problem max has really gone down hill the last 4 months with the probably diagnosis of CDRM befroe that use to look half his age...is now draging hind toes worse at times to the point of playing ball with OH out on road to dry off after a bath and came in with bleeding claws, very wobbly on back end, he still has the get and go which is the distressing thing...
When do you call it a day? have really had enough of the skin saga spending out a fortune on treatment and not seeing the results....the CDRM is another thing and we had decided that when he can starts to fall over due to the unstability of his back end then we would call it a day...at the moment he finds it difficult to walk across kitchen lino as cant steady his back end when he wobbles to one side particularly if he is rushing to the door...but other them that it hasnt become a real issue outside...still goes for a jaunt with OH round the block in the evenings and to the woods for a stroll at the weekends.
Any suggestions on what we could try with regard to his smelly skin...it is obviously a yeasty infection which doesnt seem to respond to antibiotics and which returns as soon as antibiotics stop...

Have any diagnostics been done to ascertain the cause of the skin problem or has it always been treating the symptoms.

A skin scrape/culture/biopsy should reveal if it is malassezzia and then diet can help enormously in this case.

http://www.dogaware.com

This site will help if you look under other conditions.

max had blood tests about 6 weks ago when thed latest flare up started and they ddidnt really show up anything apart from slightly higher white account which would have been due to the skin infection...the skin looks like elephant skin and is extremely smelly with at its worse grey stuff like wax which can be picked off...though not present at the moment just smelly and hot...we have always had to be careful with his diet because certain things would set his skin off...he has been on his present food for ?years...
No skin scrapes etc have been done...
How much do you keep paying out for a dog that has CDRM...sounds cruel i know and if we thought the treatmnent would improve the skin then we would but when continually seeing little or no result it really gets one down not to mention the dog...

thanks ..have had a look at the website and the picture of the skin under malassezzia certainly looks like Max's under carriage at its worse...cant remember the name of the tablets he had recently that were very expensive but sounds familiar, the wash stuff is called Paxcutol and is used as a degreasing wash..
My other concern if this is an immune problem due to ?old age then surely nothing is going to clear it up totally?

10 year isn't geriatric for a GSD.

Ref the skin condition, I agree with Tohme.

>10yo GSD with CDRM...has always had a problem on and off with smelly skin under the belly & between back legs...treated with courses of antibiotics and steroids

>My other concern if this is an immune problem due to ?old age

I take it this is the skin condition?  Has he always had it or is it just a recent development?

Just a few pointers about CDRM that may help to improve your dog's quality of life. 

>is now draging hind toes worse at times to the point of playing ball with OH out on road to dry off after a bath and came in with bleeding claws, very wobbly on back end, he still has the get and go which is the distressing thing...

Can your dog not play ball on grass instead of the road?  Must better to safeguard the claws/paws from cuts and abrasions.

>at the moment he finds it difficult to walk across kitchen lino as cant steady his back end when he wobbles to one side particularly if he is rushing to the door...

Very difficult for a dog with neurological dysfunction in the hind quarters to steady himself on lino, a rough mat or piece of carpet will give him greater stability.

You can use the tail to help them balance and Hydrotherapy is very good to keep good muscle tone.

thanks for the replies...
We do tend to keep Max to grass when going for walks etc...just the once i noticed the bleeding from the claws after OH played with him outside house on road to dry off after bath...since noticing this we obviously no longer play on road surfaces including driveway.

We are in the process of sorting out piece of carpet for kitchen, he only slips etc when excited but we had already considered getting carpet..

Though woke up this morning to poo all over kitchen floor,he had obviously tried to get to door from the pattern but majority was on his bed...hmmm is this the downwards progression with regard to CDRM we know it is coming....

Was outside till we both when to work at 0830, came home at 1400 and found poo on lounge carpet, kids hadn,t shut door tightly...:((
he has only very occassionally pooed indoors and then only when he has had a upset tummy....the first in the kitchen this morning was very loose, he had pooed outside aswell before we went to work...the one in the lounge this afternoon was solid...not sure he is starting to be unable to hold on...cant remember whether vet said control of bowels would go first followed by bladder or vicea versa....

Plan to see how things go over next few days, need to consider carefully quality of life, being from a medical background i,m not one to put myself first... the dogs quality of life will be foremost..

spender i also agree 10yo is noway old for a GSD...have had GSD in my family before now the last 2 were my grandparents and they lived well into their mid teens....
We were very shocked and upset when Max started to develop the unsteady gait in his back end which has been very progressive over last few months...prior to this he was a very active dog ,still tries to be !!! so that it is even more sole destroying.... and very distressing for my 2 daughters aged 7&9...

I know, bless you, it is a really horrible disease.  A friend of mine had to PTS his 12 year old girl only three weeks ago because of DM.  2 months before that, he lost his 14 yr old male, DM too. 

Being a Shepherd owner myself, it's something I carefully watch for in my older GSD's.  Unfortunately there is no cure as yet.  Glasgow Uni did some studies a while back using Vit E but the results weren't encouraging.  

It's not painful tho and the dogs appear to be happy which leads to some people carting them until it gets to the point where it can't be manageable.  But they need 24/7 care.  It's very hard for us humans to watch and some prefer to let their dog go with some dignity.  There are no easy answers; I guess it depends on the owner and the dog. 

Whatever happens, enjoy the time you have left with Max and make it even more special than ever before. 

had a wet floor today:((
No poo but maybe because we starved him for the day just incase he had a tummy upset...
have chatted to my girls tonight incase things are deterioating , not something we really want to consider before xmas...

not really going to consider carting... we casnt reduce him to that when previously max has been very active ...we live literally a minute off the beach and much of his exercise takes place there...also due to ?incontinence the look on his face when coming in to find a puddle of wee or pile of poo says it all....ears flat back, eyes wide, crouching he knows he shouldnt have but doesnt understand why it is happening...its torture for him and us ...

Check out yeast kits for the skin problems and flexicose for the legs at www.first4pets.co.uk

Reading about your boy brings it all back to me I lost a shepherd three years ago with the same condition as your lad has.
I really really feel for you it is so heartbreaking to watch them upset when an accident has happened that is beyong their control.
All you can do is keep a good close eye on him and you will know when your dog has had enough his expression will tell you, I really hope I,ve not upset you I,m sending lots and lots of love to you and your boy .
Sharon