Skin Infections

For the second time in 4 months Triley has developed a skin infection after staying at PetsMart. We always get him an "exit bath" and our vet said that the infection is probably caused by water - they don't dry him and so his hair and skin stay wet for too long and the bacteria gets in. Since he had such a bad reaction to the antibiotics from the first infection, this time they just shaved his "hot spot" of sores and we've applied topical medication every 12 hours. Thankfully, it is clearing up pretty quickly. We plan to cancel his "exit bath" next time he goes to PetsMart, but I am still concerned that he is just prone to skin problems. Does anyone else have corgis with sensitive skin? Any suggestions on what I can do about it? =-(

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on June 13, 2008 at 7:01pm

Avoid bathing him too often, dry skin can trigger itching, you want to let his natural oil condition his own skin.

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Permalink Reply by Nicole on June 14, 2008 at 9:54pm

My collie has a lot of skin issues. She was found by her rescuer with severe demodectic mange, and had another mange outbreak after we adopted her. She's been mange free since, but she still has severely dry skin. Our vet has recomended that we put her on a fish oil supplement. After looking online, it seemed as if wild salmon was the "best" fish oil to use, so I ordered this:
http://www.k9power.com/wholistic_salmon_oil.php

She has it on her breakfast, and she loves it. Seriously, at night she starts eating right away, but in the mornings she doesn't start eating until everyone has been fed and I add the fish oil to her bowl. I also started using natural dog shampoo. I sell handmade jewelry online at a place called Etsy. Etsy is a giant gathering of individuals selling handmade products. I was already buying my own soap from etsy sellers. After the vet commented on how bad her skin was, he asked if we used medicated shampoo. I told him we'd tried about a half dozen different brands of medicated shampoo and shampoos designed for dry skin. None of them ever seemed to make a difference. It occured to me that here I am buying natural soap for myself, but still using over the counter soap on the dogs that contained chemicals and detergents. I wondered if the chemicals were just irritatign her skin further. So I started looking around at dog shampoos and decided to give this one a try:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9830502
She now has it available as a liquid if you prefer. I also purchased her coat detangler, since my girl is a purebred rough collie who gets frequent brushings, and the salve which I use any time I find a particularly bad spot.

In addition to switching to a chemical-free soap and adding fish oil, I also have all three of the dogs on ProPlan Sensitive Stomach and Skin, which is a salmon based food.

I hope that helps.