Story of Toby along with Skin Issuess Care & Treatment

MoonStr80

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#1
I get dogs with various skin issues all the time and one of the first things I figured out is conventional vet care rarely ever works for the more complicated cases. I have developed this protocol over time and with a huge degree of success and then came Toby. Toby was the worst case of chronic skin infection I have ever seen. To refresh everyone, Toby was a 9 year old Shih Tzu who's owner dropped him off at a local shelter as I was standing there choosing other dogs to rescue. They had gotten Toby as a pup and his skin issue began almost immediately. By the time I saw him, he had 9 years of special kibbles, prednisone, antibiotics, special shampoos etc, etc etc. He stunk to high heaven. You could smell this guy coming in the door. His skin was fire red, sticky, weepy, oily, greasy. The tissue in his ears was reddened and somewhat inflamed making his ear canals appear smaller than normal and the inside of his ears were also stinky and oozy. I decided to fire all of my guns at once and used every thing I could think of to combat this lifelong problem and prayed something in the mix would work. The treatment would be time consuming, must be consistent and most of all had to be something others could follow if he stood a chance for adoption. Otherwise, we were looking at a dead dog. His lifelong family had already given up on this stinkpot with the coat too sticky and greasy to pet. And honestly, if Toby hadn't of been such an outgoing happy dog, I wouldn't have bothered either.

Now it happens we have Benard and Carol on the list today and their problem seems very similar to Toby's so I hope some of this may help.

I approach skin disorders as an inside out thing. This is not something than can be treated from the inside alone nor will treating just the outside net results either. To clear up skin disorders you have to treat the dog, inside AND out.

Toby had been on every special diet the vet could think of and was currently on Eukanuba fish and potato. It obviously didn't help because if improvement was being made, his owners wouldn't have dumped him.

Toby's inside treatment:
I can't help anyone to choose a commercial kibble diet when it comes to skin issues. There just isn't a kibble that will help and most will keep the problem going. I strongly urge anyone facing a chronic skin disorder to get Kymythy Schultz book, learn about basic natural diet and get started. Skin issues are almost always either yeast related, staph related or both. Commercial kibbles are grain laden and contains far too many sugars, yeasts and sugar or yeast producing elements, regardless of what the label says. I simply can't tell you strongly enough that kibble diets are the reason the problem never clears up. In order to clear up a problem like Toby (and it sounds like Benard) has, a wholesome, natural diet made of fresh quality human grade foods is mandatory and to do less is wasting your time and efforts.

Toby's Diet:
Ground chicken with the bones ground into the meat, ground veggies (no more than 3–5 kinds of veggies in any mix, completely avoiding the starchy veggies. The mix was 75% meat and 25% veggies. Toby got no treats other than bits of 100% pure chicken breast, dried like jerky or fresh whole raw veggies.

Toby's Medications:
Red or pink itchy skin that stinks and oozes or sweats and feels greasy is a sure sign of yeast overgrowth and staph in combination. Yeast comes from the body's inability to process grains and sugars and grows profusely and staph grows in the microscopic tears in the skin that come from constant scratching. Interestingly yeast and staph often will not show up in a skin scraping at the vet. Yeast is a fungus and staph a bacteria so usually what works for one will increase the other! That is why nothing seems to work.

......contiunes......
 

MoonStr80

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#2
Toby was put on Cephalexin 250mg twice a day for as long as it took to get his condition under control. Cephalexin kills staph better than any other drug but does encourage yeast overgrowth. Cephalexin can be purchased at upco.com without a prescription much cheaper than buying it form the vet. Look for Fish Flex on the net and compare prices.

Because antibiotics contribute to a yeast overgrowth, Toby was also given 5 drops of GSE (Grapefruit seed extract) in liquid form with each meal. This bitter stuff was hidden in a small ball of his meat mixture and handed to him before the rest of the meal so I could be sure he ate it. His cephalexin was also in the ball. GSE is very effective with killing yeast internally.

To boost his immune system I also gave him a teaspoon of Colloidal Silver (20ppm) every day.

While the internal stuff is making changes in the yeast machine inside, the outside treatment begins to clear up the skin allowing the pet to become a comfortable, pettable family member. While this treatment plan will seem extreme, it needs to be remembered that Toby was a lifelong case and needed extreme care. The protocols can be adjusted to the various degrees of the problem you are looking at.mI'll explain further in a sec.

Shampoo:
Here it is imperative that the shampoo used is left on the skin 10–15 minutes each time to allow it to actually do something. For Toby I started with Malaseb which is expensive but nothing works as well for this type of issue. Do an internet search for this and find your best price. I began using it straight but eventually, as things began to improve, diluted it with a little water. Other shampoos I have had great luck with included Nizoryl (sp) (human dandruff product), Ultra MD by Kelco (www.americanpetpro.com) or plain Ivory Liquid, mixed 50/50 with water and enough betadine scrub added to make it look like a mocha coffee. So this was the most time, consuming part of the treatment, due to the 15 minute marinating time. This is also done daily, that's right, I said daily. You can stretch the time to every other day or longer when there is enough improvement so that the sticky feeling or the smell doesn't come back for a day or two. Use that as your guide.

Rinse thoroughly and then rinse some more. After rinsing and toweling dry, I sprayed Toby with NatureVet ear wash with Tea Tree oil (also has boric acid and witch hazel in it). I used it in a generic spray bottle, sprayed it all over him, including inside his ear flaps and left it on. This was after each and every bath. (Take care aroundm nose, mouth and eyes, dab on with cottonballs if you need to get it on the face). Naturevet Ear wash is readily available in gallon sizes at most pet supplies stores or can be ordered from americanpetpro.com

Every single night (even after he wasn't needing daily baths) I would powder Toby with Gold Bond Powder, making sure I got every place he was pink or red. Yeast can't grow if there is no moisture. I used the Gold Bond clone at the dollar store and it was perfectly fine.

As Toby began to improve (skin becoming lighter pink or white, like normal skin, sticky greasy feeling staying away longer, smell gone for several days at a time) I did adjust his bath schedule to the condition of his skin so it was daily, then every other day, then every 3–4 days and finally once a week. He is now getting baths once every 2 weeks, his skin is white except for a small light pink area under the folds of his flabby shih tzu chin.

Inside Summary:

  • A diet of fresh ground chicken with the bones and veggies 1/2 a cup or 4 oz twice a day (Whole Foods now carries their own form of this) and many pet supply stores carry something similar in their frozen section

    NO treats other than fresh veggies or 100% chicken strips

    Cephalexin to kill the staph infection (Toby weighed 20 pounds, so received 250mg twice a day for what turned out to be 6 weeks)

    Grapefruit Seed Extract in liquid form (6 drops in a meatball per meal) to kill the internal yeast overgrowth

    Colloidal Silver 20ppm 1 teaspoon poured on top of his breakfast
    daily to boost his immune system.

Outside summary:

  • bath daily (or as needed when condition improves) with Malaseb, Nizoryl, or Ultra MD and leave the shampoo on for 10–15 minutes, rinse well

    towel dry and spray all pink skin with NatureVet ear wash with Tea Tree oil, leave on

    Powder daily with Gold Bond or a generic form of Gold Bond medicated powder, be sure skin and coat are completely and totally dry before powdering.

That's the inside and the outside of the treatment that works, over and over again for me as I take these dogs from shelters after their owners have given up on ever getting help. The total cost to me was a fraction of what one round of tests at a vet would be. Toby was a dead dog when he walked into the shelter. If I hadn't have decided to see what I could do for him, he was have been euthanized due to his condition. In fact, I only agreed to take him for 30 days and fully intended to return him to the shelter myself if I saw no improvement in 30 days. It took 90 days to get Toby where he is now, which is a white skinned, itch free, stink free dog with soft hair that begs to be petted. He has been in his adopted home for about 10 weeks now and she continues the baths every two weeks, the natural diet and the GSE with his meals. She reports he is the nicest dog she has had and was worth the effort.

Jan's Sam was treated for long term flea dermatitis and generalized pyoderma resulting from neglect, which is much easier to manage and clear up. I did not give her the whole Toby protocol for Sam and honestly can't remember just now what I did suggest other than a natural diet, which is always the first step in any skin related issue. had Sam been in my care, he would have had the natural diet, cephalexin twice a day for 3 weeks, bathes with ulta MD 2–3 times a week until clear. tea tree oil spray on and GSE daily to inhibit yeast overgrowth from the antibiotic. Infact, now, whenever I give an antibiotic for any reason to the dogs or myself, I always give it with GSE.
Written by Sunny
 

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