OT: English Bulldog skin issues

[jb1020]

My bulldog is going on 10 years now, the past 3 or 4 summers his skin is just terrible. It gets progressively worse every year. He'll start to get these scabs then just clumps of hair fall out.

I've been to the vet, they give me some special shampoo and tell me to wash him for 10 straight days, then 2-3 times a week thereafter. I've actually done that and it doesn't seen to help a bit. The vet will also give him a steroid shot which doesn't really seem to do much either. After four years the vet has basically told me just to expect his hair to fall out in the summer.

I finally decided to change him from iams to blue buffalo after reading it could be food allergy related...that didn't change things.

I decided just to go ahead and shave him this afternoon, he was pretty much hairless anyways.

Any suggestions? I'm sure there are a few other bulldog owners that have dealt with skin issues.

 

[jb1020]

My bulldog is going on 10 years now, the past 3 or 4 summers his skin is just terrible. It gets progressively worse every year. He'll start to get these scabs then just clumps of hair fall out.

I've been to the vet, they give me some special shampoo and tell me to wash him for 10 straight days, then 2-3 times a week thereafter. I've actually done that and it doesn't seen to help a bit. The vet will also give him a steroid shot which doesn't really seem to do much either. After four years the vet has basically told me just to expect his hair to fall out in the summer.

I finally decided to change him from iams to blue buffalo after reading it could be food allergy related...that didn't change things.

I decided just to go ahead and shave him this afternoon, he was pretty much hairless anyways.

Any suggestions? I'm sure there are a few other bulldog owners that have dealt with skin issues.

 

[weblow]

They were first told it was allergies, then they were told it was 5 different things. None of that was correct. They were certain shampoos from the vet, told they were bathing her too much, then too little. They went to special food and that did not work. They finally came to live with the fact that their dog was going to have bald spots and nothing was going to fix it.

Once they gave up they started bathing her, about once a month in head and shoulders shampoo and her hair started growing back. They continued to do this and never had a problem with her hair falling out again. It was strange because they used Head and Shoulders because it was what they had in the shower.

Their dog was not a bulldog though. My understanding is that bulldogs have awful problems with their skin.

 

[benatmsu]

... it started a couple of years ago. Her skin would fall out in just one big spot on her side. Then when the fall came around it gradually grew back.

This summer, however, things are a little different. She's getting these sores on her back... almost like she's been stung by a wasp or something. They turn scabby then all the hair falls out around them. I just figured I would wait until the Fall and hope it doesn't get any worse.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

Every year around spring time he gets bad hot spots.I use special shampoo and feed him blue wilderness. It's just something that's gonna happen.

 

[1msucub]

This year has been atrocious as far as skin issues have been concerned. More fleas, more ticks, worse allergies, new allergies..... It is easily the most frustrating thing to treat. The problems that you are seeing are seasonal, so you can likely rule out it being a food issue. Everything mentioned above is true; you can bathe too often OR not often enough. Steroids work great for true "hotspots", as they are just areas of intense allergic reaction to something. Shampoos work great if you are using the right one (Capt. Obvious, I know) but are worthless if you don't. Dandruff shampoosare wonderful for dogs with dry skin, and you can buy the cheapest human brands. Food allergies are real, but it can literally take up to a year before the food change begins to manifest as improvement in the skin condition. Antibiotics help with the secondary infections (the scabs you see) unless it is a secondary fungal infection, in which case you would also need................that's right.......anti-FUNGALS. The only way to get a true diagnosis, and thus a specific efficient treatment is to take a biopsy and/or undergo allergy testing. Few people are willing to go the testing route b/c of high costs up front. Even then it can be unrewarding.
There are NO cookie-cutter solutions, but you've likely figured that out by now.

 

[kibblesnbits1]

They said she had hot spots and a staff infection. They washed her in some shampoo that smelled like *** and gave us some antibiotics to give for 10 days. She seems to be doing better. On another note y'all are wasting your money on that expensive dog food. I have been feeding her purina pro plus for 3 years and have never had any skin issues. The stuff has shredded bits of chicken or beef all throughout it.

 

[dawgoneyall]

.

 

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

Wife has a dachshund and we took in another from a family that had to get rid of another one due to them having a baby and evidentally the baby was allergic.

The poor dogs hair was a mess till we gave them both Omega 3,6,9 pills for a month. Now water will roll down both of their backs like a duck. And both coats are shiny and thick.

 

[MStateFan22]

Or some other seasonal vegetation. Keep him out of the yard and woods for a while and see if that helps.

 

[madisondawg11]

I have a white german shepherd that does the same thing. Try giving him local honey on top of his food. The honey has to be from within a 30 mile radius or so from your area. Apparently the pollen in the honey will help build an immunity to the seasonal allergies. It may help, it may not but it has helped for my dog and my allergies included. Also I second the Fish oil

 

[MidTNDawg]

we had a Boxer with the same problem(s) you are describing. Our vet in Jackson was an old-fashioned kind of guy. He told us to add bacon drippings to the dog's food. The skin cleared up very quickly and any time the problem tried to return we added bacon drippings and the problem was gone immediately. Perhaps you will be as fortunate.

 

[weblow]

a month or so prior to the season you would start putting bacon drippings in their food so their coats would thicken up and get very oily and shiny. It would make the water bead up and just roll off their coats and keep them warmer in extreme temps.

 

[weblow]

supposedly there is a very fine balance of what your dog needs and giving them too much can lead to a lot of problems and make them much weaker at fighting off cancer mainly and a few other diseases. No clue if there is any truth to this or not though.

 

[benatmsu]

Regarding the food, I have to feed ours prescription R/D. If I don't, she balloons up to the size of a house.

 

[MidTNDawg]

As I said, he was an old-fashioned guy.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

different foods work differently for each dog. i tried every kind imaginable and nothing helped his skin. i went to blue wilderness and his coat is as pretty as it's every been, doesn't constantly lick on his paws and his shedding has reduced immensely. not to mention he doesn't drop mustard gas farts every 10-15 minutes anymore.

 

[jb1020]

I guess my vet is probably right in this is just something you ride out. I got hasty and went ahead and shaved him. I gave him a good bath this afternoon and you could see all the irritated skin. Obviously I've been googling this **** for years, but on suggestion was to cover him in corn starch. <div>
</div><div>my wife is not happy about any of this. she woke up from a nap with a shaved bulldog that was covered in corn starch. </div><div>
</div><div>Next thing is head and shoulders....</div><div>
</div>

 

[dawgoneyall]

Humans need 3X more O 6 EFA than O 3 EFA (don't know about dogs) but the typical U.S. diet contains 20-30X more O6EFA than Omega 3.

Bottom line O6EFA is basically an inflammatory component while O3EFA is anti-inflammatory. Need both and 6 is essential for many functions but too much 6 causes problems.

Probably can take too much 3........ but too much water will drown you.

 

[weblow]

You can say a lot of stuff does not matter and every dog is different but one thing is always the same, quality food matters on every level.

Your dog may be doing great eating that food but it is a 2 star (out of a possible 5) at best. The majority of the name brand foods are crap. Full of different ****** grains and crappy filler.

Here is a website that is run by an independent group that reviews most foods on the market and ranks them on a 5 star scale. It also breaks down every ingredient and gives an explanation for the ratings.

Your dog may be doing ok on the food but that is a less than decent diet for a dog. Trust me, you are doing better than most dog owners, but don't fool yourself into thinking you are feeding a high quality food.

Something most people don't realize is the 1st ingredient listed on dog foods that many believe makes up the majority of the food is ********. Let's use chicken as the first ingredient example. They weigh the chicken prior to dehydrating it. In doing this, they can count the 80% water weight. They rank ingredients by weight and use the weight of the chicken prior to it being dehydrated to form the kibble or dry dog food. In all reality the largest portion of your food is probably the 4-5th ingredient listed which is usually some type of poultry by-product meal. this is basically ground up crap left over of a bird (chicken or turkey).

All manufacturers do this, every one of them. What you want to see is quality meat products in the first and hopefully second ingredient.

Check this website to look at actual break downs of food.

Dog Food Analysis

Then again, I have said all this, my childhood dog who at the cheapest crap Jitney Jungle sold lived to be 16.

 

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

My main fear was slicking them too much up on the inside and maybe causing some messy accidents. No problems though. My Vet didn't mention any problems to watch out for when I ran it by them what I was doing on their annual visit.<div>
</div><div>I gave them one pill apiece every two days till their coat started looking nice. then one every three days. They won't eat them of course... so i poke a hole in the end of the pills with a toothpick and squeeze it on their food. </div>

 

[CoachemUp27]

It's a condition called seasonal allipecia (sp). Just cracks raw egg in its normal food and rub some sort of no scent lotion on the spot and it will fill in during the cooler months

 

[407Dawg]

Your vet can get you a prescription. I go through this every year in the summer - skin starts to scab up and get all gooey - the prednisone will knock it out if 2-3 days - the skin will dry out and the hair eventually grow back. I usually can see it coming and give my dog a pill or two before it gets too bad. And I feed great dog food and supplement with lots of fat and bacon grease but it still happens - I actually think shaving your dog makes it worse (although I shave mine anyway).

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[Seinfeld]

that there are several things that could be causing the issue. Therefore, I wouldn't be rushing out to look for allergy meds or changing his dog food before crossing a few other things off.

I have a 3 year old English bulldog, and he usually runs into some sort of skin issue about this time every year. There has been one time where our Vet has given him some sort of antibiotic since our dog had pretty much scratched his skin raw, but other than that, he told us to hit it with Tinactin the first time we notice the condition and that has worked liked a charm 99% of the time. Clearly, our Vet determined that it was more of a fungal issue for us, and it usually takes about 2 weeks to clear up and hair to start growing normally again.

Anyway, it sounds like you've gotten off to a good start with trying a few different things, but I wanted to reiterate msucub's point that it could be a fungal problem. If nothing else, it's at least another thing to rule out that doesn't cost much to try.