Ebony

Started by Cheryl C, August 27, 2022, 02:25:20 PM

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Cheryl C

Hi my name is Cheryl, we have a lovely 6 year old Rescue dog we call Ebbie. She is a wonderful happy dog.
However, 2 years after she came to us she picked up a germ when running through a muddy ditch and developed sores all over her body.  She would shake her coat after a walk and blood would splatter up the walls!  We where told it was an Auto immine problem and she was put on Antibiotics and steroids.  We thought we were going to loose her, it was a very worrying time.  After a month or so she started to recover and all the little sores (bald patches) slowly went away.

Four years later, (today) she is back on Antibiotica and steroids as her nose was swollen, sore and bloody and she had a few tiny sores by her eye.  We assumed she drank from her water bowl in the garden, which may have had foxes drinking from it in the heatwave? Or maybe even the sun brought on the attack?

We just don't know what to think, as the Vet doesn't seem to know either.  I'm afraid if this keeps happening that the antibiotics will stop working ?  Please can anyone help with how we can limit the likelyhood of this returning???  Very Grateful for any help.

Jo CIMDA

Hi Cheryl

I am sorry that Ebbie's skin problem has returned. From your description, it sounds very traumatic.

 It is so difficult to know whether a skin problem is a primary autoimmune disease such as pemphigus, discoid lupus, vasculitis, systemic lupus etc., or perhaps an allergic skin problem, which are numerous and so difficult to identify.  Very often an allergic skin problem is treated almost with trial and error because the cause the eruption of the skin can be caused by so many different things such as food, fungus, parasitic, bacterial etc....... It can be so difficult to manage if the true cause can't be identified.

Primary autoimmune skin diseases can be are far easier to identify, and therefore the treatment is well documented and that is with immunosuppressive doses of steroids (usually twice the dose of steroids used when treating allergies). Although allergic skin disease and autoimmune skin diseases are both 'immune mediated' they are a different disease process and therefore treated differently. There are many different drugs these days for treating skin disease so steroids are not the only option.

I would hope that as the treatment worked four years ago then it will do so again, if it doesn't then you vet will have to look at other treatments or maybe consider that this is not the same as happened before.

Can you think back to Ebbie having anything that may have 'triggered' this event, such as recent vaccine, spot on treatments or preventative treatments etc?

Perhaps you could have a look on line at the diseases and causes, that I have mentioned above, to see if you can identify something that might look like Ebbie's clinical signs. An allergic type reaction can be difficult to manage if the cause is not known.  There are allergy tests that can be performed but very often these come back as inconclusive, and there is no point in having these done if a dog is on steroids, because steroids mask results.

Links below are somewhere to start:

https://www.dog-health-guide.org/DiseasesandConditionsCanineSkin.html


https://iloveveterinary.com/blog/10-most-common-dog-skin-problems-with-pictures/


https://www.thesprucepets.com/photos-of-two-canine-dermatology-patients-4121974

https://todaysveterinarynurse.com/dermatology/how-to-recognize-autoimmune-skin-disease-pemphigus-foliaceus/

I do hope you can find an answer.  Please get back here if you have any queries.

Best wishes
Jo




 

Cheryl C

Thank you Jo.  I appreciate your time in replying.  For the moment I will wait and see how Ebbie gets on between now and when she finishes her Steroids. She does seem to have picked up again now she has finished the antibiotics and the skin 'seems' to have healed.

I will read through the links you sent too and if the problems continue I will ask for blood tests etc.

What a minefield this is, so very grateful for advice, thank you so much.

Jo CIMDA

Fingers crossed Cheryl.

Jo