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Old June 23rd, 2013, 08:29 AM
xcaer xcaer is offline
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Location: Mid Western Ontario
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2 dogs, 2 issues

Okay, so number one;

my 1 year old, Cato is a German Shepherd/Akita mix. Just yesterday I noticed that he woke up with one really goopy/watery eye. I wiped the goop away and inspected his eye, nothing in it that I can see, and it didn't seem to bother him at all. No redness, the goop was just white/clear and it was perfectly fine the rest of the day. Same thing happened this morning though, just not as bad. Same routine wiped it, checked his eye, nothing that I could see and so far, no goopies are back and it's not bothering him.
Both the dogs like to crawl under our bed(it's home made and high up, we really need to get around to closing it off so they can't get under it) so I thought maybe it could be dust or something under there, but in only one eye?
Also, our other dog(whom is Cato's biological father if that makes a difference) isn't experiencing the same symptom.






Second; Eli, our other dog is Shepherd/Akita and 2.5 years old.

Several weeks-month ago, we noticed he started itching a lot more frequently, his truck,one paw,armpits and tail mainly. At that time, we had just switched their food, so that's a factor, but we had also been doing some renovations and tracking fiberglass insulation all through the house for a week or two, as well as that was when we really got the big shift towards the nice warm summer weather. All factors.

Now, after a few weeks on the new food, they weren't really impressed, so we switched back to the food they've both always been on (just purina dog chow) because they've never had issues on it at all and always been very healthy. This was within the last week or so that we switched back so we're waiting to see if there's improvement from that.
We also finished the renos and cleaned the house really well about 2 weeks ago, so no more insulation, and we noticed that after a few days, Eli stopped itching so much.(Cato was itching some too and all but stopped) Eli no longer licks his one paw raw, his armpits don't seem to bother him either other than the occasional itch, but his poor tail.

He's chewed it near raw in two spots. No hair loss or anything from it, but the skin when I first inspect it will be a little raw with yellow crusty stuff(almost like dried wound discharge, but there's no cuts or anything? and it's slightly foul smelling) so I shaved the two spots down(he has REALLY long thick hair) so I could clean it really well, applied some polysporin and wrapped it. After about 4-5 days, the first one more or less went away and it doesn't seem to bother him. It's still a little flaky though. The second one is getting there. No longer raw but I still have to clean away the dense flaky stuff in the mornings and re-wrap it and it's looking a bit better. Still bothers him though. Also, before the yellow flaky stuff made an appearance, when I caught him chewing it, if I rubbed the skin where he was chewing it felt oily, but then after giving it a couple seconds on my finger, it felt sticky, then a few seconds after that it would just go away. It was weird.

I've ONLY seen this on his tail. No other spots, even the other spots he occasionally chews like his haunches. Any idea what this could be?
Already checked for fleas and ticks and mites.
Tried him on Benadryl for several days, 1mg for every 1-2lbs of weight, I didn't really notice it making a difference, plus that's a lot of benadryl to be giving a dog since he's 100lbs so I don't want to do that.

Any ideas you can give me before spending another several hundred+ dollars at the vet would be great!
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Old June 23rd, 2013, 09:24 AM
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marko marko is offline
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First off - welcome to the forum!

To me, these problems seem to be taking care of themselves.

For problem 1 - if the dooger is no longer tearing, the problem might well be over. These things can happen when irritants get in the eye.

For problem 2 - unless I've misunderstood something, seems the dog has a raw tail that is healing slowly. What originally caused this might have been the airborne construction materials that irritated the tail and he started chewing on it. I'm guessing here of course. But if that is the case, I would expect it to heal up on its own within the next few weeks.

Obviously a vet visit is the safest route any time you are concerned - but I would not expect this to cost hundreds of dollars.

I'd be very curious to hear what other members suggest.

any chance you can post an image of the raw tail?

Good luck!
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  #3  
Old June 23rd, 2013, 05:37 PM
xcaer xcaer is offline
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I will keep an eye on...well, Cato's eye hahaha. Hopefully you're right, but it's weird that it was two days in a row and only in the morning in only the one same eye.


As for Eli, I just gave him a really good bath in a medicated shampoo from Pet Valu used for itchy skin,hot spots and seborrhea(which actually sounds about right for the diagnosis other than it's on his tail and not the usual spots for it) so I'll wait until tomorrow morning to post a picture of his tail, as that's when the yellow gunk is the worst. Right now it just looks like his skin is a little off color/yellowed in that spot; not sure it would show very well in a picture. With any luck, the shampoo will help though, I'm going to start it at once a week(or 2 if he gets really wet/dirty since a yeast infection can develop with soborrhea((if thats what this ends up being)) and we live right near the water,so lots of standing water,swampy areas,dense greenery etc) and decrease it eventually to once every other week for maintenance.

As well, once this bag of food gets low, I found a much better brand of food I'd like to switch the boys to without grain,corn,gluten I believe and fillers just in case it's a recently developed food allergy, and the best part, it won't break the bank lol
Hopefully it's that simple.

Will post a picture tomorrow!Wish the poor "little" guy luck!
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Old June 23rd, 2013, 07:18 PM
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pbpatti pbpatti is offline
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Welcome to the forum. I am glad to hear that you are going to change up the food that you are feeding to a grain free product. Your pups problems could be allergies. I would love to see some pictures of your furkids too!
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Old June 24th, 2013, 09:13 AM
Longblades Longblades is offline
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Fibreglass insulation? That stuff is Terrible for getting into small spots and itching like the devil. If that was the kind might well have been responsible for the goopy eye and the other itching. Weren't you itchy too?

For the tail, google up on Stud Tail and see what you think. The oiliness and the smell are typical. It's named for being most common in intact tomcats but happens in dogs too and both genders of both species and also in neutered as well. I know someone who swears cocoanut oil helped her dog over it. The GR next door had it and he has got his hair back as well, he just seemed to grow out of it but I know he was on treatment from his Vet too. Sorry, don't know what the treatment was.

Tail Gland Hyperplasia is the medical term.
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Old June 24th, 2013, 09:20 AM
xcaer xcaer is offline
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Oops!
I lied, unintentionally of course.
The food isn't grain free, it has whole brown rice in it, but it's soy,wheat,corn and by-product free.
Still much better than Dog Chow though nutritionally.

http://www.nutreco-pet.ca/brands/lif...large-breed/2/

Also, my husband said that Cato's eye wasn't goopy that he noticed this morning, so hopefully that's the end of that!

This is Eli's tail this morning. I tried to email myself two pictures, but only this one came through and it's sort of hard to see, but the yellow gunk just kind of clumps on his skin and around the hair. When I rub it a bit with some paper towel it resembles dandruff. There isn't AS much as there was before his medicated bath, and I haven't noticed as strong of an odor, but if this IS Seborrhea, than the poor dude will be dealing with it for the rest of his life and all we can do is manage it.=/

You might have to tip your screen to see the difference lol, but the majority of the yellow gunk is near the middle-left of the shaved area.





Also, these are my babies

Cato, 1 year old.


Still got the baby face<3


Eli<3



If Eli had a choice, it'd be winter all year round.


Both
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  #7  
Old June 24th, 2013, 09:35 AM
xcaer xcaer is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Longblades View Post
Fibreglass insulation? That stuff is Terrible for getting into small spots and itching like the devil. If that was the kind might well have been responsible for the goopy eye and the other itching. Weren't you itchy too?

For the tail, google up on Stud Tail and see what you think. The oiliness and the smell are typical. It's named for being most common in intact tomcats but happens in dogs too and both genders of both species and also in neutered as well. I know someone who swears cocoanut oil helped her dog over it. The GR next door had it and he has got his hair back as well, he just seemed to grow out of it but I know he was on treatment from his Vet too. Sorry, don't know what the treatment was.

Tail Gland Hyperplasia is the medical term.
I was only itchy when I was working right in among the stuff, and the itch more or less went away after a good shower. Eli got two good baths during this time and neither helped the itch and we did everything we could to keep the dogs away from it while it was in the house. It was kept in the front porch where the dogs only go on the way outside, but they were always on leash through there, and in the nursery where we still keep the door shut. The only way I could think of them having any contact with it was when it was being carried the few steps through the kitchen from the porch to the nursery.

I googled Stud tail. The flaky/greasy gunk sounds accurate, but there's really no darkening of the skin or anything and no hair loss.
The first spot also seemed to go away fairly quickly with only a routine of cleaning with mild soap and water,drying it and using some polysporin while it was raw, and wrapping it dry after the rawness went away.
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