New to the world of Bulldogs and have so many questions!

SLCBully

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Elsa
Hi All! New member from Salt Lake City. I have a 3 1/2 year old English Bulldog named Elsa, although I suspect she's a mix, or Olde English. We took her into our home a little over two months ago. Her first home she was used for breeding (~2 1/2 years), and her second home she lived in was a small apartment with a young family (~8 months), who were unable to provide the attention she needs. That makes us her third home and her new forever home. We are absolutely in love with her and want to provide her with a happy and healthy life.

When she first moved into our home, we immediately took her to the vet for a wellness check, she seems to be in good health, other than some skin and possible seasonal allergy issues. The vet suggested we put her on a daily regimen of Zyrtec to help with her allergies. She gets 15mg/day and it does seem to help her eyes from being as puffy and red. She also has red/swollen paws, with yellow, rough patches and she licks them a lot. We have treated a cyst between her toes with Epsom salts and it went away pretty quick. Any advice on how to help her paws otherwise? Could it be a grass or other allergy?

Elsa also suffers from a dry nose that runs a lot, lots of shedding and dander (I know bulldogs can shed a lot, but it's getting worse), and the newest issue are tear stains. I'm especially worried about the tear stains, not because of how they look, but the fold under her eye is constantly moist and now she is losing a little fur and has a red pimply looking bump on one side. She also is having more eye "boogers" than she had before. She has more gas than before and her poops are softer and bigger. We wipe her face a few times/week, bathe her every other week, and treat her nose daily with coconut oil.

I was wondering if all these symptoms could be a food allergy? When we first got her, she was eating Pure Balance, a Walmart brand. And although it didn't seem terrible, I wanted to do better by her. I went to a local pet shop and they recommended Zignature dog food. We tried some sample bags, and she liked them all, so I bought her the 11lb bag of Trout and Salmon Meal. We did the slow transition over the course of a week. She ate the entire 11lb bag and so I went ahead with the larger bag. We've been on that food for about a month, and in that time period her symptoms have become worse. So, I am leaning towards a food allergy. Any suggestions on what our next step should be?

I'm so excited to have her in my life and want to give her the best I can. I've been reading everything I can, both in these forums and on other Bulldog websites. There's so much info. out there, it was becoming a bit overwhelming sifting through it all, so I appreciate any and all feedback!
 

Hankster

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Aug 27, 2016
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hank
A big welcome and you sound just like the rest of these good people here... There is so much great information from some really experienced bulldog people (I'm new to bulldogs, so I love hearing all they have to say and am doing so great because of them ) The weekends coming so may be slower than norm, but you will get some really good stuff coming your way :) From what I hear, sure sounds food related to me, but lets see what the xperts have to say... Again, welcome,,,,,,,,,,, AND pictures please :)
 

Dollys Owner

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Honey
Why don't you try her on a dehydrated grain free raw dog food? We've been talking on the group a lot about the different brands, and the cheapest is the Spot Farms, but there's a lot of other good brands like Honest Kitchen, Grandma Lucy's, Sojos etc. It's even cheaper to buy a base mix and add your own protein. eg. buy Honest Kitchen Kindly base mix and add your own beef or chicken or turkey ground meat. Transition her gradually off her Zignature.

Try adding to her food some salmon oil ( eg. from a punctured capsule, or from a Grizzle Salmon oil bottle with a pump ), 1/4 tsp turmeric powder ( with 6 grinds fresh pepper ), kelp https://www.amazon.com/STARWEST-BOTANICALS-Organic-Granules-Pound/dp/B0071GWMA2 , probiotic such as Herbsmith microflora plus or Proviable DC every so often. Give her a teaspoonful of coconut oil to eat per day and increase that if desired to 2 teaspoons.

Soak her feet in a bath with a bit of povidone (Betadine) in it to make it tea colored for 5 minutes daily for a couple of weeks.

Shampoo her weekly with a medicated shampoo like Ketohex, Malaseb, Curaseb which contains antifungal and antibacterial ingredients.

Try rotating the Zyrtec with Chlorpheniramine 4-8mg twice daily if you are using it long term.

Wipe her wrinkles daily with a wet wipe with optional witch hazel on it, or if using a plain wet wipe dry the wrinkle after with a paper towel. I have one dog with really bad wrinkles where the eyes drain and every few days I first wipe the wrinkle with a wet cosmetic pad with a dab of Curaseb shampoo on it, then another wet cosmetic pad to wash that out, then a third cosmetic pad to dry it. My other dog with normal wrinkles I just wipe it out with wet wipe or paper towel then dry it with another paper towel.

Clean her ears weekly or more frequently if needed with a spray of 50% organic apple cider vinegar and 50% witch hazel which is then wiped out with a cosmetic pad. Or use Zymox otic drops weekly like I do, by flooding the ears with it and then massaging the ear.
 

Dollys Owner

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Honey
Oh, and if your dog has a tail pocket, you will need to keep that clean ,usually after a poo,by wiping with witch hazel and then drying, and apply some desitin if it's at all red,or if it's in bad shape:
put a drop of malaseb or curaseb shampoo in a spray bottle with some warm water, spray the tail pocket area a few times to flush it clean, ( apparently a lot of gunk will come out !!! ), let it sit a few minutes, wipe dry with a paper towel, and then an hour later apply some cream eg. silver sulfadiazine or polysporin cream if it's infected, or desitin if it's not. Do this daily for a couple of weeks. After that flush weekly as a maintenance and in between clean every day with a regular wipe or malacetic or malaseb wipe and then dry,
 

Hankster

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Aug 27, 2016
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hank
Why don't you try her on a dehydrated grain free raw dog food? We've been talking on the group a lot about the different brands, and the cheapest is the Spot Farms, but there's a lot of other good brands like Honest Kitchen, Grandma Lucy's, Sojos etc. It's even cheaper to buy a base mix and add your own protein. eg. buy Honest Kitchen Kindly base mix and add your own beef or chicken or turkey ground meat. Transition her gradually off her Zignature.

Try adding to her food some salmon oil ( eg. from a punctured capsule, or from a Grizzle Salmon oil bottle with a pump ), 1/4 tsp turmeric powder ( with 6 grinds fresh pepper ), kelp https://www.amazon.com/STARWEST-BOTANICALS-Organic-Granules-Pound/dp/B0071GWMA2 , probiotic such as Herbsmith microflora plus or Proviable DC every so often. Give her a teaspoonful of coconut oil to eat per day and increase that if desired to 2 teaspoons.

Soak her feet in a bath with a bit of povidone (Betadine) in it to make it tea colored for 5 minutes daily for a couple of weeks.

Shampoo her weekly with a medicated shampoo like Ketohex, Malaseb, Curaseb which contains antifungal and antibacterial ingredients.

Try rotating the Zyrtec with Chlorpheniramine 4-8mg twice daily if you are using it long term.

Wipe her wrinkles daily with a wet wipe with optional witch hazel on it, or if using a plain wet wipe dry the wrinkle after with a paper towel. I have one dog with really bad wrinkles where the eyes drain and every few days I first wipe the wrinkle with a wet cosmetic pad with a dab of Curaseb shampoo on it, then another wet cosmetic pad to wash that out, then a third cosmetic pad to dry it. My other dog with normal wrinkles I just wipe it out with wet wipe or paper towel then dry it with another paper towel.

Clean her ears weekly or more frequently if needed with a spray of 50% organic apple cider vinegar and 50% witch hazel which is then wiped out with a cosmetic pad. Or use Zymox otic drops weekly like I do, by flooding the ears with it and then massaging the ear.

I knew they'd get good info... and just curious.... theres a few Zymox otic drops.... might I ask which you use incase I need :) Right now, all is well with Helsonwheels oil whipe (amazing I might add!! )
 

Dollys Owner

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Honey
I use the Zymox otic drops ( not the wash ) without hydrocortisone. https://www.amazon.com/Pet-Treatment-without-Hydrocortisone-4-Ounce/dp/B0025YMU3E/ref=sr_1_6?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1496972432&sr=1-6&keywords=zymox+otic My dog had an ear infection when I first got her, and the ear drops the vet prescribed were useless. I then used the Zymox daily for 2 weeks, then weekly for a long time, and now monthly. In between the monthly applications which is total flooding of ears with Zymox, I clean weekly or more often with my essential oil mixture of tea tree oil and oil of cloves in witch hazel, on a cosmetic pad which I wipe the external part of the ear with. The price of Zymox is outrageous, so you are better off continuing with Helsonwheels oil wipe.
 

1Chumly

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Feb 19, 2015
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Buster 2013-2023 Monty 6/2010 - 1/2020 Chumly 2002-2014
I have my dog on Zignature and feel its a good food but maybe your girl can't handle the fish. Monty does well on Salmon and Trout but not on Mackerel. You could try a different protein in the Zignature and see how she does.
 
OP
SLCBully

SLCBully

New member
Jun 8, 2017
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SLC
Country
United States
Bulldog(s) Names
Elsa
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  • #8
Why don't you try her on a dehydrated grain free raw dog food? We've been talking on the group a lot about the different brands, and the cheapest is the Spot Farms, but there's a lot of other good brands like Honest Kitchen, Grandma Lucy's, Sojos etc. It's even cheaper to buy a base mix and add your own protein. eg. buy Honest Kitchen Kindly base mix and add your own beef or chicken or turkey ground meat. Transition her gradually off her Zignature.

Try adding to her food some salmon oil ( eg. from a punctured capsule, or from a Grizzle Salmon oil bottle with a pump ), 1/4 tsp turmeric powder ( with 6 grinds fresh pepper ), kelp https://www.amazon.com/STARWEST-BOTANICALS-Organic-Granules-Pound/dp/B0071GWMA2 , probiotic such as Herbsmith microflora plus or Proviable DC every so often. Give her a teaspoonful of coconut oil to eat per day and increase that if desired to 2 teaspoons.

Soak her feet in a bath with a bit of povidone (Betadine) in it to make it tea colored for 5 minutes daily for a couple of weeks.

Shampoo her weekly with a medicated shampoo like Ketohex, Malaseb, Curaseb which contains antifungal and antibacterial ingredients.

Try rotating the Zyrtec with Chlorpheniramine 4-8mg twice daily if you are using it long term.

Wipe her wrinkles daily with a wet wipe with optional witch hazel on it, or if using a plain wet wipe dry the wrinkle after with a paper towel. I have one dog with really bad wrinkles where the eyes drain and every few days I first wipe the wrinkle with a wet cosmetic pad with a dab of Curaseb shampoo on it, then another wet cosmetic pad to wash that out, then a third cosmetic pad to dry it. My other dog with normal wrinkles I just wipe it out with wet wipe or paper towel then dry it with another paper towel.

Clean her ears weekly or more frequently if needed with a spray of 50% organic apple cider vinegar and 50% witch hazel which is then wiped out with a cosmetic pad. Or use Zymox otic drops weekly like I do, by flooding the ears with it and then massaging the ear.

What great information! Thank you. I'm thinking that Salmon oil may not be good as when I looked up the ingredients of both foods, the fish was the biggest difference. Is there a substitute for that? I'm guessing it's to get her some omega-3s for her coat, which was quite healthy when we got her and still is, I just don't want the shedding and dander to get worse. She is already on a daily dose of coconut oil, which she absolutely loves :) I may consider switching her food to what you recommended. Or trying a different protein as 1Chumly has recommended.

I've been cleaning her ears about once/week using peroxide on a cotton makeup pad and then wiping them out again with a dry pad, but I like the idea of going natural with ACV and witch hazel and will probably switch to that! As for a tail pocket, Elsa's tail has been docked. Not sure when or why this happened? I regularly check that region for cleanliness and she does well with our biweekly bathing, so far.

What is Chlorpheniramine? And what are the benefits to rotating it with the Zyrtec?

I'll look up everything else you've mentioned as well. Elsa was in heat when we brought her into our home. Could any of her changes be caused by changes in hormones? We are looking to get her spayed in a couple of weeks. Will this have any known affect on these health symptoms?

Thanks :)
 

helsonwheels

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Jan 10, 2016
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Alberta
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Nyala, Jake (R.I.P. Duke)
Crap wrote a whole.....long...helpful post n tablet frozed!!!!! :bang:

So again....in a smaller version...if you still want to feed Elsa kibbles, stick to Orijen, Acana or Fromm. If it's feasible stick to Spot Farms Turkey or Honezt Kitchen but Spot Farms is 1/2 the price n just as good quality as HK. Since you're into natural maintenence with Elsa and GOOD JOB on that, check out this link and you will get tons of questions answered
http://www.englishbulldognews.com/forums/your-bulldog-s-health/51130-essential-oils.html
Like [MENTION=16280]Hankster[/MENTION] mentioned, he uses a blend that I swear by for mostly anything. (Even humans) was a member that posted it was for ear infections. I used it on a couple rashes, every 2 days on Nyala's tail pocket, a little puss she had in between her toes and never failed, within 2 days all disappeared. Her tail is a constant problem but this mix keeps her tail clean. I don't use salmon oil much, more the coconut oil n cod liver oil but ONLY every other day as she gets loose stools especially with salmon oil. Nyala is 20 ish months old and been on home cooking since she was 5 months old. So basically she eats mostly real healthy human food. One very important thingbto give to Elsa is sauerkraut fermented ones you fine in your health food stores. In glass jars again in the fridge section NOT canned or on the shelves. Tons of probiotics. I don't give her anything for fkeas/ticks/worms as I go the natural route BUT THATS ME! In the link I attached. So like we all know, tons to read in here. We are all here for you.
 

Dollys Owner

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Feb 20, 2017
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Honey
People and dogs get tolerant to an antihistamine if used long term ( months) , so they work better if they are rotated. Anithistamines are only minimally effective in a dog with environmental allergies compared to Cytopoint injection but they are completely harmless so I would keep using them. I would say the Braggs apple cider vinegar mixed 50:50 with witch hazel is better than peroxide for the ears. I forgot to mention that it's recommended to give Vitamin E 400IU from a punctured capsule once a week if you are giving daily fish oil. If you are giving your dog a can of sardines or salmon instead of the oil you shouldn't need the vitamin E. That essential oil mixture that Helsonwheels recommends is good for tail pockets, ears and hot spots, but I never bothered getting in all the ingredients. It's also a good idea to get in some products to have on hand for emergencies eg. Vetericycn spray or Banixx spray or Nustock ointment or Equisilver spray for skin problems, Vetericycn eye drops for eye problems, povidone (Betadine) for paws or for skin problems.

What great information! Thank you. I'm thinking that Salmon oil may not be good as when I looked up the ingredients of both foods, the fish was the biggest difference. Is there a substitute for that? I'm guessing it's to get her some omega-3s for her coat, which was quite healthy when we got her and still is, I just don't want the shedding and dander to get worse. She is already on a daily dose of coconut oil, which she absolutely loves :) I may consider switching her food to what you recommended. Or trying a different protein as 1Chumly has recommended.

I've been cleaning her ears about once/week using peroxide on a cotton makeup pad and then wiping them out again with a dry pad, but I like the idea of going natural with ACV and witch hazel and will probably switch to that! As for a tail pocket, Elsa's tail has been docked. Not sure when or why this happened? I regularly check that region for cleanliness and she does well with our biweekly bathing, so far.

What is Chlorpheniramine? And what are the benefits to rotating it with the Zyrtec?

I'll look up everything else you've mentioned as well. Elsa was in heat when we brought her into our home. Could any of her changes be caused by changes in hormones? We are looking to get her spayed in a couple of weeks. Will this have any known affect on these health symptoms?

Thanks :)
 

KING OLLIE HOUSE of BULLDOG

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Dec 29, 2016
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King Ollie
We feed Zignature. Try feeding the venison or the kangaroo. These are two are ingredients that dogs don't normally have access to. It helps to isolate a food allergy. Within two weeks of starting the venison Daphne's eyes stopped running. The venison and kangaroo cost a couple of dollars more, but are worth it.
 

2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
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Thank you so much for giving her a great new home... she is a beauty and you'll have her fixed up in no time with all the great advice the gang has given you.

:welcome3: to EBN
 

Florida girls

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Feb 3, 2015
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I agree about the possible allergy to fish, Sadie can't tolerate it or beef...and Lady cant do pork.
 
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SLCBully

SLCBully

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Jun 8, 2017
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SLC
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Elsa
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  • #14
[MENTION=15310]helsonwheels[/MENTION] Thank you so much for that link. I tried searching it after hankster mentioned it and was completely lost. I'll go through that feed later :)

I'm going to look into other kibbles. Zignature is not bad, but she's definitely not loving it. Does anyone ever use the dehydrated raw foods like honest kitchen for dinner and then a kibble for breakfast? Obviously it would be something I would want to transition her slowly into. I just want to make sure she's getting as many nutrients in her food as possible. We will be doing some road trips, so having her on kibble during those times would be ideal.
[MENTION=16884]Dollys Owner[/MENTION] that makes total sense about the allergy medicine. I myself go through different medicines to avoid tolerance, so it makes sense Elsa would have the same issues!

You all are so great and helpful! Thank you so much.
 

2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
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[MENTION=15310]helsonwheels[/MENTION] Thank you so much for that link. I tried searching it after hankster mentioned it and was completely lost. I'll go through that feed later :)

I'm going to look into other kibbles. Zignature is not bad, but she's definitely not loving it. Does anyone ever use the dehydrated raw foods like honest kitchen for dinner and then a kibble for breakfast? Obviously it would be something I would want to transition her slowly into. I just want to make sure she's getting as many nutrients in her food as possible. We will be doing some road trips, so having her on kibble during those times would be ideal.
[MENTION=16884]Dollys Owner[/MENTION] that makes total sense about the allergy medicine. I myself go through different medicines to avoid tolerance, so it makes sense Elsa would have the same issues!

You all are so great and helpful! Thank you so much.

A few here do Honest Kitchen for one meal and kibble for the other.



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