Bulldog allergy, hotspots, yeast, staph, other infections.

ddiizzyy

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Oct 4, 2013
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USA
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Augustine
I got my bulldog at a pet shop ( i know i know) but thankfully I did cause i saved her life. Anyway sometime around Dec 2013 she started to become extremely itchy. A month before that we had to take her to the vet for hives that were all over her body. Anyway, to this day she still has chewed up ankles/legs in the back legs, both under arms are raw from scratching, and her belly has hard crusty skin. My vet just keeps giving her antibiotics and this last round (new antibiotic) made her sick. I am finally getting closer to healing her myself and I want to post the things I have noticed that are contributing to her illness so in case you havent thought of these things you can try and see if it works for your bulldog.

1) Got one of those round costco beds about the time she got these allergies. I just found out about 2 weeks ago it was making her sick. How? Well I took it away from her for some reason and gave it to my boxer for the night and gave the bulldog something else. Well my boxer spent the night having breathing problems. It wasnt until I noticed the boxer having breathing issues and that my bulldog seemed to itch less that i investigated this bed. Apparently they add wood chips to the bed, cedar to be exact, that is a known dog allergy. I threw out the bed. Same bed actually was making lots of other dogs sick.

2) I put her on the most limited ingredient dog food last month. It literally only has fish and potatoes. I had changed her food from a grain free chicken recipe to then a bison grain free from canidae. Vet was certain it was a chicken allergy but the dog still didnt clear up. Both dog foods only had one thing in common, pea and alfalfa. Both a known dog allergy.

3) She gets a fish oil and vitamin e vitamin everyday per vets instructions.

4) Let me tell you what i learned that seems to be amazing. I literally disinfect her with Povidone Iodine. You mix it in a bowl with warm water until it turns a iced tea color then apply to all the dogs skin to include the wound and around it. Then rinse rag, and apply a second time, pat dry the dog. This is the alternative to antibiotic (must catch her break out early). It Disinfects staph, yeast, and almost all common bacteria, it doesnt burn, and safe for the dog to lick.

5) I wash my bully with an oatmeal shampoo weekly.

6) Witchhazel works wonders for break outs of chin acne as well.

7) I will cook oatmeal, stir it around until I get alot of milk from it, sop it up with a cotton ball and use that on her wounds/acne. I swear the next day the dog seems almost healed.

8) Jojoba oil - This stuff is a natural type antibiotic as well as a an anti-inflammatory. You can apply this to really bad eczema. The dog can also lick this (be careful she doesnt drink alot of it cause it can cause the runs). This was the only topical solution that actually held up on her hot spots for the longest.

Unfortunately I've had to turn to benadryl. My bulldog keeps chewing the back of her legs up and all the other areas I mentioned. Because she was extremely over vaccinated by that crappy puppies n love pet shop and the first 6 months of her life on 3 antibiotics at once for pneumonia I fear that has something to do with all this. What really bugs me is when she went in for severe hives (i think it was grass related) the DR gave her a steroid shot and after that, these symptoms showed up and never passed. I have switched vets as of now because the vet I liked moved to another practice. I was wondering why none of the vets left seemed to care about my concerns.

I hate the benadryl because it makes her so sleepy and I have one of those overly active bulldogs that never rest so seeing her so tired sucks.

I am having a real hard time getting this baby healed but where I am today is the best Ive been so far but I will come back with new things I learn to share. I would love to avoid steroids and antibiotic by doing these other things and to be honest they seem to do better then anything else that I have been given by the vet.
 
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Texas Carol

Texas Carol....put the heart in EBN
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Jul 4, 2012
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Brutus & Cami live in Heaven
GOD bless you for saving her life then hanging in there with her <3
Thank you too, for sharing such great tips, a word of caution about
oatmeal, sometimes that can be an allergen even used as a shampoo.
I will post some herbal antibiotics at some point to you, I'm moving
and am brain dead! Thankful she is better...Welcome to EBN <3
 

My Otis

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Sep 2, 2013
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Elmo
Thank You for this advice, it really helps all of us, I am Glad your Bully seems better. I will remember this. Thank You Again. Give Augustine a Big Hug and Kiss from me.
 

2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
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Great work and determination in keeping her healthy! A lot of members here also prefer to avoid the steriods so we can all use the shared info.

Best of luck and please post some pictures of your babies!
 

dolphin

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Nov 5, 2012
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Wow, this is great. I wish you continued success and I hope one day it clears up for good, you've saved her life literally. I feel the same about the Benadryl but it's the only thing that helps especially during allergy season,. I too would love to see some pics of your baby.
 
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ddiizzyy

New member
Oct 4, 2013
17
2
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USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Augustine
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dolphin

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WOW!! What a SWEEETY!!! I love his tongue, toooooooooooooooooooo CUTE!
 

2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
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Chelios (Frenchie), Nitschke (2004-2011) Banks (2005-2014) and Lambeau (2014-2024)

mzza111

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May 16, 2013
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Orange County, CA
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Gypsy (May 2013- March 2015)
What brand is the fish & potato food? I'm currently searching for a new food.

Gypsy has swollen webbing in between her toes, but no cysts, and I was starting to wonder if it was the peas in her food. Trying to find a food without peas and grain free is almost impossible! Right now she is on Rabbit & potatoes but I'm learning this is really hard to find.
 

aprilemari

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Sep 11, 2011
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Lola & Fox
Maybe you've read some of my threads on Lola's allergies. I think hers are environmental, but paw licking, raw underarms, all night urgent itching, we've been through it all. We did a steroid bout with the extreme high dose escalating down within two weeks. When weaned off it, symptoms came back (despite protein in food change). We found that just one pill or half pill per day was enough to keep the itchies at bay until the winter hit, and we weaned her off. She's been great until the spring hit a few weeks ago. Sometimes you just gotta do it (give steroids) to give them a break, although i know why its not good for long term use. We were using vanactyl-p which is also an anti-inflammatory.

Just one more thing...I think you're a great bully mom and you love her very much!
 
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ddiizzyy

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Oct 4, 2013
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USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Augustine
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This is the only food on earth I have found that has no pea or alfalfa in it and seems to be extremely limited ingredients. I am not sure yet on how I feel about Petsmart brand food but this really is a very limited food.
http://www.petsmart.com/dog/food/si...r_id=36-3186&_t=pfm=category&pfmvalue=faceted

Thanks for all the comments on my sweet girl. I wish I could add video so you can see her silliness. She is a very very very active bulldog that runs around like crazy and makes the boxers tired.

Tomorrow I have a vet appt yet again (switched vets since my favorite vet moved so I tracked her down to the new clinic) as she got this huge welt/hive on her side and I am going crazy.

I'm going to put in more pictures. My entire face book is all this bulldog. She is jealous all the time. No one human can kiss me or she squishes in between our faces. She follows me around, sits next to me non stop, grabs my hand off the keyboard to insist i scratch her. She hates tail pocket cleaning time but loves the shower. She likes to sleep under her coolaroo (i got her a hammock type bed because I think with the weight of these dogs that something that was suspended would be the most comfortable) and she loves that coolaroo.
The one of her under the dog bed was literally HER making that bed fold like that herself to create her own fort. Shes a trouble maker to say the least.
The last one in this post is her squishing her face between two couch cushions cause she wants me to let her on the couch.
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ddiizzyy

New member
Oct 4, 2013
17
2
Country
USA
Bulldog(s) Names
Augustine
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I am new to this so I am unsure if I have to reply to your post for you too see this or if I can just reply to thread. In one of my newest posts I put the link for the food. It seriously has almost nothing in it. Now my dog got a bit finicky after half the bag so I just bought the can food (same one as the dry) and i only put a spoon of it in the food and crumble up the fish then get all the dry food wet with it and she eats it right up.

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Thank you. So much work but worth it
 

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