My dog has recurring fungal infections. What's the next step?

The first thing I would want to ensure is that this is in-fact a fungal infection. Since you have seen multiple doctors, I'll assume they diagnosed it through a fungal culture or a positive response to a UV light. If this has not been done, then I highly recommend you have it done. If it's definitely ringworm, then you will have to treat this for a long time before it goes away. It can take a few months sometimes. The terbinafine cream is helpful, but for an infection that has spread all over the body, I would be giving the dog antifungal tablets. You will need a veterinarian to prescribe these. Your location is showing as the UK, so I am surprised that you were unable to find expert doctors. Have a look at this website and see if you can find a veterinarian near you: http://findavet.rcvs.org.uk/find-a-vet/ I hope this helps, but if you require further assistance, you are welcome to start a consult.

This is not normal and indicates that the infection was not cleared with the original treatment. This happens frequently with fungal infections, because it often takes long-term medication to completely clear the infection. I recommend scheduling a recheck appointment with your vet. They will be able to advise on the next step in the treatment process. I hope that helps and Coda gets better soon.

Hello, It would be helpful to know what your veterinarian recommended for the next step of Bella's treatment at her recheck. Fungal infections that are not responding to topical treatment often require a course of oral medications. Skin is the largest organ in the body, so it takes the longest to respond to infection treatments. Many skin infections require a full 6-8 weeks of treatment. Skin infections can also be complicated by allergies, underlying endocrine disease, or associated immune mediated or dermatological disease. This means sometimes an underlying problem may need to be addressed to fully resolve the skin issue. I hope this is helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Many yeast and or fungal infections can take a while to improve. Veterinarians often start with topical therapy and often that is all that is needed. However, if the area is larger, not improving, bleeding, or otherwise seems worse than sometimes oral anti fungal medications and sometimes a cone to keep them from licking are important nest steps. I would encourage you to have a follow up appointment with your veterinarian. Best of luck and thank you for using Pet Coach.

There appears to be some good hair regrowth, but it could be infectious still. I've seen lesions that appear completely normal and still test positive for ringworm, so it is best to take her to the vet for testing. The test takes a few days, but is relatively inexpensive and is the best method we have for determining when to stop treatment. I hope that helps and all Juju recovers soon.

If you and Savage have gone through that many rounds of treatment at such a young age, I would consider getting more aggressive with the diagnostics and treatments to get to bottom of the problem You should consult your regular vet to see what testing they can perform at their clinic before you get referred to a dermatologist specialist. They can take skin scrapings or do a skin biopsy or start allergy testing to find the underlying cause of her problems.

Hi there! For ringworm we often treat for 30 days, depending on the veterinarian's choice and how bad the infection is. You will probably not be able to get a prescription without seeing a new doctor unless you can get you're other doctor to fax a previous prescription. If they did not prescribe you anymore, your doctor may want to see if your puppy improves with little treatment. You will have to get ahold of the original prescription before you can do anything else unless you want to see another dr (probably ER on the weekends) to see if the doctor thinks you need more.