Just Labradors banner

My Yellow Lab - Chronic Skin irritations / Ear Infections

14K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  amazongold 
#1 ·
I am hoping that one of you can help me with the following.

My Yellow is 3 years old. For the past year he has been to the Vet consistently for chronic skin irritations (start off as hot spots sort of ..that become infected). If left untreated for a few days - 1 ear also develops a yeast infection.

Antibiotics at first was taking care of it ..but when the antibiotics ran out it all started coming back.

I have tried changing his food (per the Vet) so we can see if it is a food allergy. Well found out it is not a food allergy ....as it is back and he is back on antibiotics.

Last week he had a blood test - which will be sent to a lab to determine what he is allergic to.

I am wondering if any of your pets have had something similar or if you have heard of this. Incase..they come back and tell me the allergy test is negative.

thanks for any help you can provide !
 
#2 ·
Lots of people here have had similar issues.
What are you feeding? That is the most important question.

Also, here is a site with a formual for a fantastic ear rinse that really nips these infections in the bud and prevents some from coming back. But I bet your boy is having a reaction to something in his food...maybe the corn? Seems to be the culprit with many of them.

www.woodhavenlabs.com
Go to articles
Ear Wash
 
#4 ·
WeHeartLabs said:
Lots of people here have had similar issues.
What are you feeding? That is the most important question.

Also, here is a site with a formual for a fantastic ear rinse that really nips these infections in the bud and prevents some from coming back. But I bet your boy is having a reaction to something in his food...maybe the corn? Seems to be the culprit with many of them.

www.woodhavenlabs.com
Go to articles
Ear Wash
The rinse is awesome. Our trainer's dog had infected ears, as well as rash on his tummy. She tried the "purple stuff" in his ears and saw improvement in 2 days. She started dabbing some of the solution on his rash and also saw improvement. She now has a purple llasa apso, but he is much happier.
 
#5 ·
The Gentian violet cost about 8$ from the pharmacist and the boric acid powder was 7$ i think?...we tried a spritz bottle...
bad bad idea..they didnt like the noise it made going in and i got purple stuff all over my shirt ::)
so, now we make them lie down and pour some into the cap, then directly into the ear. Massage it well because they will shake when they get up and if its not absorbed it will splatter.

Good luck...you will hear some people on this board tell stories of their dogs battles with chronic alleargies, hot spots and ear infections. They were able to track it down to the food and make changes. Some have gone on to a complete raw food diet with great results.
We have a RAW section in the forum to if youre interested in their stories.
 
#6 ·
Those prescription diets are some of the worst out there, it amazes me how little some vets actually know about canine nutrition.

He is getting way too many grains in his food which commonly lead to chronic infections of the ears, skin, urinary tract etc. I know not all dogs that eat a high grain diet get these but when you are having problems over and over it is really something to look at very hard.

I would suggest a raw diet, just chicken for a few weeks. You can feed chicken quarters and chicken backs, he will love it and I'll bet you will see some improvement.

If you can't feed raw I would suggest a low grain food live Innova Evo, Solid Gold Barking at the moon, etc. Dogs really weren't meant to be stuffed with corn :p
 
#7 ·
My lab had ear problems and skin problems and they were eventually solved by thyroid meds (vet needs to do a thyroid panel) and food change. I was feeding Natural Balance Venison and Rice until the recall almost 2 weeks ago. Fed home cooking for a couple of days and now feeding Prairie Chicken and Rice for a week and my lab has a really gunky ear and both dogs are chewing their feet. Not sure what food to try next.
 
#8 ·
I agree with everyone else - it's probably the food. Change to a food with lots of meat protein and little or no grains. Hill's food is just the opposite, BTW.

Also, feeding probiotics and digestive enzymes is very helpful in dogs with these issues. Chronic digestive inflammation due to poor diet can cause allergy symptoms. Change the diet, heal the digestive problems, and I bet your allergy problems disappear - I've seen it happen.
 
#9 ·
I just want to thank everyone who responded. I took the advice and took him off of the Dry food.

He seems to already be doing better. The problem I am having is this.

I am feeding him cooked chicken, ground turkey. (carrots, gr beans for snacks)

Do any of you who do a strict meat diet feed anything else with it?

Some meal ideas would be great.

Thanks again !!
 
#12 ·
Glad you got him off the Hill's. That stuff is no good.

I'm not sure about jumping straight into raw or home cooking like you appear to be doing now. It requires a fair amount of research. I suggest you start by reading through the Natural Diets/Holistic section of the forum and in the mean time, but him on a kibble. There are many high quality kibbles out there -- you could even try grain free. Names of a few high quality kibbles: Solid Gold, Canidae, Innova, Timberwolf Organics, Orijen, California Natural and Nature's Variety.
 
#14 ·
Unfortunately, sometimes there is really nothing you can do. my past Lab had them problems from age 2 till he past a month back. We did the food testing, skin scraps, blood testing, and nothing was really ever found. he was on thyroid medication that he took for the rest of his life. helped out a little. We live in Florida and he would get bad in the spring, then again in the late fall. Antibiotics usually 2 times a year. The thyroid medication should help lesson it a bit. And the antibiotics will treat it when it acts up. Also, you may want to have the vet check his ears, we also had to use drops in his ears for months at a time, and also antibiotic powder on the hot spots before they caved in and created a huge hole in his skin.
 
#15 ·
What are the skin spots like?

My Puff had some red blotches on her belly that would turn dark as if they were dried mud (they were actually scabs).

I took her to K-State's CollVetMed Teaching Hospital and our vet diagnosed it as Staph infections/pyoderma. She Rx'ed a course of 21 days of cephalexin which cleared it up but it came back almost immediately after stopping the meds.

So we went back again and got more cephalexin.

And then a third time with the same result.

At that point I asked to see the dermatologist and she thought that since Puff runs an hour offleash early each morning in a nature preserve, she was probably picking up dew and pollen on her belly which irritated the skin. She prescribed a 21 day course of cephalexin followed by use of a medicated shampoo ("Benzoyl Plus") which is applied, left on for 10 minutes, then rinsed off -- 3X/week or as needed.

Voila!! No more cephalexin for that for the last 3 years.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top