Hi Everyone,

Well Sampson, my 2 year old male GSD has enviromental allergies. I keep him in Chlortrimton(?spell) from the vet and I give him salmon oil, vit E, Ester C, Liquid yucca root and I have had him on Clear Allergies that leerburg sells here which really helped him over the summer months. I ran out and just recently bought more and put him back on it.

the problem is for the last couple weeks he has a stinky odor to him. Its really bad in his crate in the house (wire crate with sheet over it) I dont really smell it on him when hes just walking around but when i scratch him on back, around collar, ears I smell the same smell that I smell when hes in his crate.

I think its yeast (not sure why as I dont know what yeast smells like) but with his history of allergies thats my first thought. He had a hot spot a couple months ago i guess and it healed but I did notice after that he had a couple just small scabs back in that area. They are gone now but could he maybe have developed a bacteria infection? Will that smell? Hes still somewhat itchy, licks his paws, scratch body but not as bad as during the summer months. Ears dont seem to be bad, usually gets ear infections off and on during summer months that i use Zymox on and seems to clear up.

I know leerburg sells a fungal and yeast dtox, I was thinking of gettig this and trying it to see if it helps clear whatever up but do you think he should just go to the vet and skip that? I have just read in posts that infections if they get internal can be really bad and hard to clear up.

I dont really care for any of the vets around here and I dont think they are very knowledgable about allergies, etc. If I do take him should I make them take a skin sample and check it or what would I want them to do?

He is a long hair so its hard to see anything on his skin

Any suggestions? Also, he is on a raw diet, only very occassionally gets leftover green beans or peas and I have recently given him yogurt a couple times a week.

I'd get him to a holistic or derm vet, and I agree that he probably has a yeast overgrowth.

Allergies can trigger this, and so can antibiotics, illness, overvaccination, and more.

 Quote: kathy west

...... vets around here and I dont think they are very knowledgable about allergies, etc.

Most GP vets aren't, and dermatology is a speciality, so I don't expect them to. My complaint is that too many ditz around with what IS a specialty while money pours down a black hole and the dog suffers.

I have no general vets-are-bad POV at all: People do not go into vet med to get rich; they do it because they care about animals. But derm issues join nutrition for me in a category of "I wish vets who don't know about this would just say they don't."

JMO, of course.

Would anyone happen to know a good Holistic or Derm vet in Colorado or possibly South Dakota? I live in western Nebraska in a very small town out in the middle of nowhere(lucky me). I'm about 4 hrs from Denver and 3 hours from Rapid City, SD.

Thank You.

Here's the search page at the Ahvma website: Holistic Vets

I had a GSD with a stinky fungal and bacterial skin infections. I took her to a vet who told me she had a flea allergy and to get her dipped. That didn't help and if anything made it worse. I checked around to find a better vet and that vet gave me some ointment to rub on her skin, which had turned black; and some antibiotics. The second vet had done skin scrapings and found that she had the fungal and bacterial infections, but neither the ointment or antibiotics worked. She had little appetite, was growing thinner by the day, was loosing her hair, and was always pacing.

Finally I found a vet who specialized in GSDs. Not that he only saw GSDs, but that he saw more GSDs than any other vet around and was the vet used by the police department. He asked if she had been tested for a thyroid condition. She hadn't. He took a blood sample and went back to his in house lab with it. She was hypERthyroid. Most dogs with thyroid problems are hypOthyroid, but GSDs are one of the few breeds prone to hyper. He told me that there was nothing wrong with the ointment, but that until her thyroid condition was under control; nothing would work. I went home with thyroid meds and a better skin cream. Three weeks later I began to see a change in her nervous pacing and appetite. (I had had to resort to habd feeding her to get her to eat at all, and even then I had to tell her to eat. She would not eat for anyone else.) Next came a decrease in odor along with her hair beginning to grow back and her skin turning pinkish again.

In a couple months, she looked great with a thick glossy coat, good appetite, and calm demeanor. She had to be on the thyroid meds for the rest of her life.

As for canine dermatologists, I'd never heard of such a thing then. This was 20 yrs ago.

You (and your dog) were fortunate to get that properly diagnosed, because hyperthyroidism would indeed be low on a vet's list of suspects. As you say, it's unusual in a dog. Go blood tests!



ETA: Just to second the point made by Joy that hypOthyroidism is not particularly unusual -- just hypERthyroidism.

Edited by Connie Sutherland (10/28/2009 10:37 AM)
Edit reason: eta