For the Vets in the neighborhood, Dogs and skin issues

good news Pete!!

funny, Buck loves a bath and comes running for one...then again he is a 85# lab not a 100# brick head. hehe.

you should see Bucks ears if he finds the neighbors bread they throw for the birds...now that is nasty!!
 
Pete
It goes to show you, if you have a problem take it to "duckboat forum". Glad you solved Otto's problem. You know turning Otto's name inside out spells "toot". Just a little humor :-)
wis boz
 
Hey, Pete,

How old is Otto now? I found this - taken in January of 2004 at Greg's when the MLB hunted Monroe Lake. That's when Greg had the little stray mutt that kept going after Otto. What was that dog's name??? Heck, my hair was mostly black back then, and Otto's coat looks pretty good.

View attachment Bireshunt1304 009.jpg
 
Bob,

I was thinking about that trip recently and couldn't remember when we were at Greg's. Knowing it was 2004 makes sense though as I quit drinking shortly after that trip. Otto just turned 10 on January 24th so he would have been almost two during that hunt. That junk yard dog that adopted Greg's house was named "Lucky". Lucky was lucky that Otto doesn't bite back :) I think that was his first experience with an unprovoked attack. It's happened a few times in the last 8 years and he has never defended himself.
 
Hi Pete. Good news for you and Otto!

My BLF is having similiar issues. How often are you given Otto baths with the Johnson's baby shampoo?

Best,
Brian F.
 
Brian,

The first month it was about once a week. It has gradually tapered off to about once a month now. After seeing the results I would rethink that schedule and do two a week for a couple of weeks and then start tapering off. The indications that he needs another one are excess foot licking first, followed up by excess dander on his skin. Now if he gets too much dander flakes I give him one immediately and it nocks it out right away. I'm not as good at giving regular baths as I should be but we both are getting more used to them. I can tell within 24 hours that he is significantly more comfortable after he has had a baby shampoo bath.

Let us know if this works for you. This is a much bigger problem than any of us realize. Every vet I talk to has a lot of experience with it but not many cures. All the vets as well as my own intuition figured it was an alergic reaction but I really didn't expect that it might be his own dander that was the cause (and it still may not be the root of the problem just the symptom).
 
Pete, not real sure actually, my wife has taken him in several times because of ear infections and black crap coming out of his ears (not sure if it is just wax or what) but since he is HER baby, I pretty much just leave it all up to her.

In a nut shell, no bread, no issues....Watch that rascal chase a rabbit or squirrel when we let him out...he ends up sometimes at the neighbor who likes Buck a lot and gives him treats all the time....and likes to feed old bread to the birds....Ole' Dopey thinks that is a treat too...2 days later, ear issues....

Either way, avoid bread, life is good.

Glad to hear Otto is getting better. Pete, the picture I love of him is that one you have from Green Bay when you went out with your BB in 2-3 footers with him up by the front with the dodger...classic.
 
Wow, that's weird, think it's the yeast in the bread?

I think this is the pic you are refering too. I searched all over my computer and couldn't find it and then remembered that I had sent it to Patti Maye for her web site, Windy Point Chesapeakes. I found it there and saved it back to my computer so I have it again.

OttoGreenBay2.jpg

 
Eric you will have feed the dog glutton free bread. The hard part will be convincing the neighbor to feed the birds glutton free bread but you could try......


Pete, Carol said to tell Otto or toot hi....
 
Pete, about twenty years or so ago my wife and I went to look at a litter of chessie pups. Well of course it was love at first sight, we went home with a little brown fuzz ball we named maggie. Maggies litter was whelped in a horse barn so she was absoloutely infested with fleas, on top of that our vet found red mange mites in her skin. After all was fixed at a year or so she started having these ugly red sore spots on her skin a lot like what you guys described. A friend suggested giving her brewers yeast as a suppliment, well her skin literally exploded with sores. We now did just the opposite and put her on a brewers yeast free diet, and all was well till she passed at a ripe old fifteen years of age. Rich
 
The second week of October I took him off of all the meds and started with the Baby Shampoo baths. It wasn't so bad the first month or two because we could do it outside but since then the battle to get a 100 lb. chessie in the tub has, at times, strained our relationship :) Suffice it to say that Peanut Butter is my friend!!


Thanks for the idea with peanut butter! Amazing how my lab will jump in no fear to below freezing salt water in Maine but runs like he his getting stabbed when it comes to a bathtub. Suffice to say the bathroom is virtually black when we get done most times.
 
That's interesting Rich. I've tried at least a half a dozen different foods and tried to pinpoint anything in his diet that seemed to exaserbate the outbreaks. Nothing seemed to be the culprit - not to say there still might be but the shampooing seems to be the best bet so far.

Your story about a new dog with fleas brought up a memory of a flea infested, in heat, Blue Tick that I brought home in the trunk of my car one time (it was free). My wife didn't speak to me for a week and never did like that dog. That dog knew how to tree a coon though.
 
Hi Pete,

I was just thinking about you and Carol the other day. Been awhile since I've seen you, hope you are both doing well.
 
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