Thursday evening I noticed a spot on the inside of Sampson’s left leg.  It looked similar to the spot he had in the beginning of October, except it hadn’t advanced as far.  I’ve also noticed that both of my dogs have been scratching a lot.

 

I was picking up food on Saturday so I thought I’d run it by Sandy, she’s very knowledgeable about all things dog and she usually has a holistic solution.

Her first thought on the itching was fleas. It has been a very bad flea/tick season in the northeast for these critters.  I said, “I think I’d see fleas, especially on Sampson.”  She said it could have been only one or two, you need to comb him and check his tail area to see if it feels like he has crumbs there. (Ew gross.)  She also said it could be mites, which really freaked me out. (I combed them both when I got home, no sign of fleas.)

As for the skin thing, she feels like his immune system is weak. 🙁

As you can imagine, I left Sandy’s and called the vet.  We scheduled him for 9:30 this morning with Dr. B.

 

Sampson was of course excited to see Dr. B.  I tried to get a picture but his excitement was very prominent in the photo, and since they shamed me good on the Human Shaming blog hop, I decided you could do without the visual imagery.

As we walked into the exam room, I noticed he had spots on the inside of each leg!

Dr. B said I just want to read through his records and refresh my memory.

 

Dr. B looked him over and said, yes he has another skin infection.  Thankfully we caught it before it got too bad. She gave me (she didn’t actually GIVE it to me, I had to pay for it) an anti-biotic ointment (Mupirocin) which is applied twice daily.  She also gave me some Vetericin VF wound and skin care spray gel which she suggests I apply the second I notice something amiss.  She said many times the gel will fix the issue before it progresses.

I was concerned about his immune system and the fact that he keeps getting infections. Dr. B put him on Welactin 3, which is a Natural Omega-3 for dogs (fish oil) and she also put him on a probiotic by Animal Essentials. We’re hoping that the combination of the two will give his immune system the boost that it needs to get him over this hump.

She also said if I don’t see an improvement within a week or so, or if it gets worse to call and she will give him the oral antibiotic again.  I’m really hoping to avoid that.

As for the itching, well she ruled out fleas and mites, the official thought is the drier weather, combined with the fireplace had just dried out their skin, which hopefully the Welactin will help with.

Do you use supplements with your pets?  What do you use and why?

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