My dog's sticky, smelly skin isn't better after antibiotics. Steroids?

Sorry to hear about Dexter! It looks like he needs a steroid or other prescription allergy medication, in addition to the antibiotic. He should not need to be on 2 OTC antihistamines to control allergies. Benadryl and Claritin combined may be causing more lethargy. You can clean his ears with an ear wash, ideally obtained from your vet, and soak his paws in Epsom salts. A cool bath with hypoallergenic shampoo may help as well. That swelling is pretty severe on the lips so I would recommend a recheck if you aren’t seeing improvement within 48 hours. Also, if you haven’t already, discuss with your vet about a hypoallergenic diet.

Based on your description and her age, I personally would not recommend steroids for this skin infection. Express your concerns to the vet and consider not giving the steroids going forward. Often-times a topical spray that contains a steroid is helpful and not as much of an issue as oral steroids can be. The antibiotics alone however should take care of her skin condition if this is just a bacterial pyoderma. I hope that this helps! Best of luck with your pet Molly moving forward. Take care.

Betty looks generally red, so my biggest suspicion is that she has environmental allergies. However, mange should be ruled-out as a cause as well. The antibiotics are great for treating secondary bacterial infections of the skin, but will do nothing for the primary cause of the itching. She needs to go back to the vet and get the primary cause of the itching diagnosed and treated in order to keep this from getting worse. With appropriate treatment, we can often get this problem under control. For now, it's good to give a bath with just cool water once to twice a day. This will help to relieve the skin and possibly flush away any environmental alergins. I hope that helps and Betty gets better soon.

A few things to consider. She should be tested for hypothyroidism to make sure she doesn't have a thyroid condition. She probably needs to be on some type of allergy medication long term to control any allergies that are contributing to her skin condition. Your vet could try an antihistamine, like hydroxyzine, and see if that helps. There is also a new medication called Apoquel which seems to work very well. She should also stay on the antibiotics for at least 3-4 weeks before stopping. Adding Free Form Snip Tips may also help keep her skin healthy. You could also try a hypoallergenic diet like z/d for 8 weeks and see if that helps. Lastly, you could take her to a veterinary dermatologist if your vet can't get her condition under control.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. The photos you have provided are a bit blurry but I can tell that the skin is thickened and irritated. From your description, it sounds as though Cleo is battling a skin infection that could be secondary to a chronic allergy. Prednisone will help with the symptoms of the allergy but unfortunately long term use will lead to abnormal clinical signs from the steroids. I would recommend treating Cleo with oral antibiotics, antifungals alongside topical therapy. She may also be dealing with a condition known as Atopic Dermatitis, in which case will need specific treatment such as Atopica or Cytopoint. I would recommend using the below recommended products and discussing additional oral treatments with your vet other than steroids. I would also recommend having her skin scraped to check for skin mites. I hope this helps and that Cleo's skin improves! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. 1. Douxo PS Chlorhexidine combination shampoo and bathe twice weekly until resolved 2. Malacetic conditioning spray and apply to the affected areas twice daily until resolved 3. Welactin omega 3 fish oil capsules 4. Essential 6 spot on by Dermoscent ***All of the above products can be found online quite easily*** These treatments above should not be to supplement veterinary care, they should be in addition to.

This is probably due to a severe allergy, although it could also be fleas or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat her with a high quality flea treatment (e.g. advantage), then get her to the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try discovering the cause of the allergy. Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair the skin lesions (steroids and antibiotics). simultaneously you should start her on a prescription hypoallergenic diet for at least 2 months. Hopefully you will see some results after all this, if not you and your vet should consider putting her on a long term allergy treatment (Atopica or Apoquel).

Yes, you can definitely give the oral antibiotics and apply the dermalone ointment at the same time. I would apply the ointment 2-3 times a day for at least the next 7 days and finish the entire course of antibiotic (give with food). Something else that can help is bathing every 2-3 days for 2 weeks with a medicated antibacterial shampoo such as Malaseb (available on chewy.com and petco.com), although your vet probably has a similar medicated shampoo that you can pick up from their office today leave the suds on for 5-10 min prior to rinse to allow the medicated shampoo bto have the greatest effect. Purchasing a probiotic from your vet as well can help prevent diarrhea from the cephalexin. Good luck!