hello everyone.i have been browsing on this site now for almost a year and have found it absolutly invalable for the advice given for westies. from a phantom pregnancy (very traumatic for my girl,which was in turn traumatic for me) we have since had her neutured and no problems since. to her skin problems which up to a few months ago were quiite minor.
i have just returned from the vets,which i rarely use due to the great "more natural" alternatives listed by all you very knowledgable people.
but i was at my wits end at the weekend due to the fact my westie had found a new way of scratching her constantly itchy back.she had used the metal garden chairs in our garden and achually worn her skin away to bleeding point and worn three bald patches all in the space of 20 minutes.
i have had her on wafcol pot and salmon,msm tablets, cider vinegar rinses.no treats,no frebeeze or other sprays, for approx 2 months ,all with little or no results.
the vet has just given her a steroid shot and after 4 days i have to start giving her prednisolone, twice a day.she has diagnosed malassezia.
having read many threads now and related links,i feel sure she is right.
she didnt mention wether this was a short term measure but i have to take her back in three weeks which is when the tablets will run out.
she did however tell me to bath her in baby shampoo regularry.which is not the advice i have read on past threads.firstly because over bathing in westies can cause their own problems and that baby shampoo is not the right ph level.
can any one give me any more advice?i dont know if its coincidence but since coming back from the vets she (about 2 hours ago) she hasnt made an attempt to scratch at all.
i feel so sorry for her,she is my world.i have had her from a puppy for two years now,and she is an absolute delight.but spending 75% of her day scratching is taking its toll on her,i just want my bouncing little girl back again.
any advice will be gratefully received.

Hi - I have a westie bitch with skin problems. I would definitely bath your dog. The people who say not to bath westies are the lucky ones who don't have skin problems.

I would suggest starting with a mild dog shampoo (I use the Johnsons puppy and kitten one when I need a mild shampoo). To see if this helps. Failing that I would expect your vet to prescribe Malaseb shampoo which specifically kills fungal and bacterial problems.

Does your vet just suspect malassezia or did they perform any tests to confirm this? I think off the top of my head it involves scraping with a microcope slide and performing staining techniques on it to confirm actual presence of yeast.

Is your westie insured?

You can get allergy testing done either via a blood test or patch testing which can highlight other potential allergies that cause itching. Common causes are house dust mite, pollen, grasses and sometimes food allergies. Fleas and mange are other things that need to be ruled out.

When my bitch was first diagnosed I did lots of reasearch and printed out reams of info. I would suggest reading the book "Pet Allergies"   "Remedies for an Epidemic" by Alfred J. Plechner as this book contains the vast majority of the info. I printed out from various sources. This book also supports the idea of bathing an itchy animal.

There is lots of stuff on the web specifically about malasezia. Westie rescue in America have some really good detailed stories on getting rescued dogs back to health from having really bad skin problems.

Hope this helps. Apologies for taking so long to reply.

Ailsa

I dont know anything about this problem..sorry

but my vets Liverpool University small animal Hospital ...Brilliant

they have a website I noticed the other day that they have a specialist in this particular subject.

lecturer Mr Tim Nuttall
He also runs a dermatology refferal clinic..

thier website is www.liv.ac.uk/sah/

Roni

my friend had a similar problem with a cairn. she spent hundreds of pounds trying to sort the problem until she found a homaeopathic vet. within a few weeks the problems had resolved. maybe it's worse a try for you too?!