Folliculitis,can anybody help?

[TexasWalker]

I've been having an ongoing issue with with my dogs skin for the past nine months.
My vet says it is folliculitis and he keeps prescribing the same antibiotic which clears up the bumps in about a week but they always come back and each time they do it gets a little worse.
She is not covered in it or losing hair but I want to nip it in the butt before it gets out of hand,it just seems like a vicious circle with the antibiotics.

Anybody have any experience with this?
I'm thinking of getting a second opinion.

She is a 16 month old purebred Staffordshire bull terrier,she has no other health problems.


http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv67/bigmike_420/C07F1A62-1B52-43B0-8706-770ADC840FF9_zpse7jqkqxx.jpg (http://s670.photobucket.com/user/bigmike_420/media/C07F1A62-1B52-43B0-8706-770ADC840FF9_zpse7jqkqxx.jpg.html)

[Cdn-Redneck]

Usually the vet will blame what you are feeding the dog with skin issues, have you looked at that. Quite often wheat, grain or corn based foods can cause skin issues. I am not familiar with what your dog has but based on the name I would guess it is an infection of the hair folicles.

[BimmerBob]

My guess is it needs a longer course of antibiotics and you need to use an astringent shampoo with daily baths until the bumps disappear.

[albravo2]

My guess is a reaction to food or an irritant she comes in contact with. Had a lab/retriever mix years ago and we saw a whack of doggie specialists trying to figure out her skin issues. We eventually changed her diet and it cleared up

[Foxton Gundogs]

Are you feeding a "house brand" food IE Kirkland, PC, Old Roy etc. They are contracted out and when the manufacture changes things can go to hell in a hurry. I fed Kirkland for years great food then all of a sudden my dogs started to drop weight blow coat and loose energy I changed to of all things Beneful and they picked up right away. Come to find Kirkland had switched manafactures and the food had gone down hill over night. Resursh led me to find this can be true of all 'house brands' when my dogs condition changes I look to the food first.

[TexasWalker]

I hear you guys on the food.
I only feed Acana ranchlands or Acana pacifica,she has never shown a reaction to either one when I have bounced between the two.
She also gets raw venison and wild salmon.
My vet feels strongly this is not food related and says it is basically a staph infection in the hair follicle.

Today he put her on a six week antibiotic schedule which is way longer than the previous doses.
I also got a prescription medicated shampoo that must be left in for 10 minutes,that is really fun to get her to sit still with all the shampoo on her!!

If this fails I might try a diet change but I have never seen a dog react bad to Acana,in fact I have turned many friend s on to it and it has cleared up skin conditions in my friends Presa that is allergic to everything.

fingers crossed,poor little bitch has the bumps all over her cheeks

[Foxton Gundogs]

I hear you guys on the food.
I only feed Acana ranchlands or Acana pacifica,she has never shown a reaction to either one when I have bounced between the two.
She also gets raw venison and wild salmon.
My vet feels strongly this is not food related and says it is basically a staph infection in the hair follicle.

Today he put her on a six week antibiotic schedule which is way longer than the previous doses.
I also got a prescription medicated shampoo that must be left in for 10 minutes,that is really fun to get her to sit still with all the shampoo on her!!

If this fails I might try a diet change but I have never seen a dog react bad to Acana,in fact I have turned many friend s on to it and it has cleared up skin conditions in my friends Presa that is allergic to everything.

fingers crossed,poor little bitch has the bumps all over her cheeks

Just keep an open mind on the food issue. I to swore by Kirkland Hi Pro and got others to use it then the bridge came tumbling down. Good luck

[lovemywinchester]

Probably an allergy to peanut butter. Makes sense when you consider your lack of mobility due to back problems.

[TexasWalker]

Probably an allergy to peanut butter. Makes sense when you consider your lack of mobility due to back problems.

Don't be a hater just because I sleep with non-inflatable women.

Jealousy is a stinky cologne.

[Iron Glove]

Don't be a hater just because I sleep with non-inflatable women.
Jealousy is a stinky cologne.

I had to switch to crunchy peanut butter, the smooth caused problems. :mrgreen:
But, seriously most skin problems, if this is truly a "skin" problem are food caused. It's often not the additives in the food, it's the actual base food involved, be it fish, fowl, beef, whatever. One of our dogs had some skin problems as a young one so we went to the expense of having her tested for allergic reactions and found there were a number of things such as rice, sage brush, spiders, and to a lesser degree chicken that caused problems. WE adjusted her food accordingly and voila, no skin problems.
Good luck, hope it all turns out OK.

[pieter]

Ours lab dogs get hives if we feed any food with corn in it, and that includes table scraps which they don't get much of if has corn scraps, the old bitch dog has hives and scratching within hours

[TexasWalker]

I might have to look into food allergies a little deeper,it just strikes me as odd it would be a food related issue as it has only gotten bad in the last three months and she has been on the same diet her whole life.

The first time she got it last summer it was gone in a week and never came back until a few months ago,no diet change.

[Rackem]

Some times allergies develop later in life after having the same thing for a long time....so it could be food related. You could try an elimination diet, but that is a pain in the ass, and the allergy test pinpoints the problem pretty well...

[35rem]

Allergy tests only test for environmental allergens. There are no reliable allergy tests for food based allergies. You need to try an elimination diet as Rackem suggests. Ask your vet for some recommendations.

[Iron Glove]

Allergy tests only test for environmental allergens. There are no reliable allergy tests for food based allergies. You need to try an elimination diet as Rackem suggests. Ask your vet for some recommendations.

Whilst I'd agree that the allergen testing is not ideal, it certainly helped point us in the right direction with our dog, particularly the chicken and a few other food items. The tests were dead on.
Elimination diets are time consuming and unless you are feeding raw or similiar, you might not know if it's the base protein ( such as chicken ) in the product or one of the fillers or additives.
Just my humble opinion based on our experiences.

[Foxtail]

You could try salmon oil pills to help. My brothers doghas skin problems and she is spoiled on a fish only diet which really helps. I went with bentiful aas well. For an inexpensive dry dogfood, it has worked very well for my dogs.

[Cdn-Redneck]

Orijen makes a fish based food they are also the same company as ancana. If you are looking at food I would start by eliminating grains and corn. If this is a recent thing grass pollen could be something to look at too.

[rides bike to work]

Ya my dog had the same problem for over 3 years the vet prescribed anitibiotics and it would help but then it would come back. Finally on a friends recommendation we switch to a fish base food instead of chicken base and it cleared right up. Might be worth a try

[Cdn-Redneck]

Just looked back thru this post. Drop the raw venison, had a friend a number of years ago feed his dog raw moose meat and the dog got a parasite from the moose meat and it showed up in the skin. Just another thought. I know we are just throwing darts at this hopefully you find something that helps.

[bccanadian]

Get a second opinion just to be on the safe side.