Comments on: Kyrie and the Superbug, round three — with a surprise

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:52:30 +0000

Lisa i don’t know if this will help but i had an Akita that was rife w/all the inherited genetic skin diseases. When he was young i found Moducare Sterinol and that put him into remission for quite awhile until it stopped working. He was on a raw diet and only vaccinated once. At the end of his life (about 2 yrs before he died) he was on DAILY antibiotics to control his terrible skin disease. I realize of course that this isn’t ideal by any means but it is what it took to maintain quality of life and make him comfortable and i supported him the best i could with the help of a holistic vet until he died at age 14. What i did learn in all my research on antibiotics and dermatitis in dogs is that a MINIMUM of 6 weeks is necessary to treat dogs with reoccuring pyoderma like this, or any skin infection and you must continue with the antibiotics for TWO solid weeks after clinical signs of remission. In other words, when the condition looks like it is completely cleared, abx must be continued 2 weeks after that. That adviced truly saved my dog and he was able to go long periods of time inbetween dosing until finally he had to have them daily. Finding the cause of the symptoms is ideal but not always feasible. I imagine my dog had some kind of immune defect and i don’t know any holistic way to “fix” that, unfortunately. AFA food allergies, that is a tough one, you need novel proteins the dog hasn’t been exposed to and be STRICT about everything, even treats and chew toys.

By: lisamarie grosso

lisamarie grosso — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:28:04 +0000

i christie,
thanks so much for your help. i’m not working with a dermatologist, just a regular DVM. as for the skin culture, he didn’t go into details about the type of staph. he just said cocchi-something. i could call him and find out. also, when the sores and odor first began appearing again, i did bathe her with a tea tree oil shampoo. i mentioned this to the vet and he seemed skeptical about it helping her and gave me the chlorhexidine. but, at this point, my experience with any kind of traditional medicine has been to take some of it with a grain of salt. in my mind, it’s a given that they just don’t know as much as claim to. anyway, i would like to try feeding her a homemade elimination diet. i’m just not sure how to do it. do i need to give her supplements? the vet said supplements can be problematic because they are often sourced from foods that the dog is allergic to, like beef. and how do i know which protein to pick? she’s had almost everything (i was feeding her merrick) except rabbit. again, thanks so much for the help.

By: Christie Keith

Christie Keith — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:06:47 +0000

lisamarie, you say you had a skin culture done; what did it say?

If this is just garden variety non-resistant staph, then there is an underlying condition, and an allergy is a good possibility. The recurring staph infections are a symptom, not the primary cause of the problem, albeit a symptom that causes your dog a lot of distress and that needs to be treated.

Veterinary diagnostics are expensive, and I had a dog with terrible, terrible allergies and skin problems, and I know how very hard they can be to keep under control. And by the way, my poor dog was allergic to chlorhexidine, so be aware that might be extremely irritating. Tea tree oil in a lotion or body wash (this was for humans) was actually found to be MORE effective than chlorhex on resistant staph, so you might want to try Desert Essence Therapeutic Tea Tree Shampoo or their Relief Spray, and see if those don’t work better with less irritation. The honey might also help her sores, but again, that and the tea tree are just addressing the symptoms.

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to the underlying problem. And no cheap ones, either. But if this were my dog, I’d put her on a homemade diet — I’ve seen many dogs on kibble have longstanding allergy and skin issues resolve as soon as they stop eating commercial foods. They might be allergic not to the actual food items in the kibble, but to contaminants like molds and insect droppings, or some other ingredient.

Consider a true 90 day allergy elimination diet… a REAL one, not a halfway measure like changing from one multi-ingredient food to another. I have info on that here:

http://www.caberfeidh.com/Allergies.htm

Lastly, are you working with a board certified dermatologist, or some other kind of vet?

By: lisamarie grosso

lisamarie grosso — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:38:14 +0000

hi,
i have an 11 year old chow/german shepherd mix. for the past 2 years she has been suffering from a recurrent bacterial infection on her skin. i’ve been to 3 different vets and spent quite a bit of money trying to get some help for her. the first few times i was given antibiotics for her. they seemed to work for a while. but the infection always returned. my new vet insists a food and/or seasonal allergy is the underlying problem. she prescribed cephalexin 750mg twice a day for 21 days and also put my dog on a strict diet of royal canin rabbit and potato (rabbit being a novel protein for my dog) the infection seemed to clear up but within 2 weeks it was back. itching. oozing sores, hair loss, and a horrible smell. she blamed me for not returning before the end of the course of antibiotics so she could determine if my dog needed further antibiotic treatment. unfortunately, i just didn’t have the money since i paid almost $500 on the visit before( office visit, prescription food, drugs and thyroid panel). she also insisted that i wasn’t following the diet correctly. so i decided to see the head veterinarian at the same clinic. i insisted on a skin culture since the first vet didn’t perform one. he confirmed a staph infection and now wants my dog on the cephalexin again, but this time for AT LEAST 6 weeks. he also gave me a chlorhexidine shampoo and wants me to bathe her twice a week.i don’t like the idea of loading my poor dog up with this amount of antibiotics. i know how horrible they make me feel so i assume my dog can’t be feeling all too great. on top of the strict new diet, the twice weekly baths (which she hates) and the discomfort of her skin issues. but i’m going to do it because i just don’t know what else to do. i want to try the medical grade honey dressings. she has sores around her neck area, on her sides and a lot of irritation on her abdomen. what do you think is the best way for me to apply the honey and where can i purchase it? do you think i should get the dressings or the tube? any info you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
lisamarie grosso

By: John Seets

John Seets — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:42:00 +0000

Your “medical grade” honey is no different than the raw honey I sell from my hives. You are just talking it up to be something “special” in order to charge an unbelievable price.

Unfortunately, there are so MANY uninformed idiots out there that you will most likely make a tidy profit selling honey under this specific aegis when in reality it is NO different than what we beekeepers who process RAW honey are selling.

And there’s a bunch of us out there.

By: Suzanne VK

Suzanne VK — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:57:05 +0000

My Golden Retriever has methicillin resistant staphylococcus intermedius. I am curious about the Medihoney treatment since
my dog’s staph is resistant to almost all antibiotics. My dog has
sores all over his body so I would be unable to use a bandage for the Medihoney. Is there anyother acceptable way to apply the
Medihoney ? I realize that I can’t apply honey all over the dogs body since it seems like it would be too sticky. Has anyone used the Medihoney treatment on a dog with sores covering large areas of a dog’s body. The dog is on Choriphenicol and steriods.
Any advice is appreciated. The dog has seen two dermatologists already.
Suzanne VK

By: Colorado Transplant

Colorado Transplant — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:13:15 +0000

Just want to add a side note: a human dermatologist told me—that the wound likes a covering even though we would think it best to have the wound exposed to air.

Just a thought, particularly since Christie has had success with the medi-honey bandages that did indeed cover the wound.

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:03:18 +0000

Christie thanks for your reply. I understand where you’re coming from on Manuka honey. I have some from a reputable website and my cat has EGC (eosinophilic granuloma complex) a TOUGH case of it (luckily he was never vaxxed, eats fresh raw and is under control by a TCM vet) and he had awful wounds that i applied Manuka honey to and it seemed to produce healing in them, albeit EGC plaques are entirely different from staph infections. He had one non healing lesion excised surgically and healing was going very well until vet thinks he had a poss. reaction to the suture site and guess what? Lesion back (this yr has been a nightmare) we are going to try topical tacrolimus (protopic) as i don’t want to at this point go the oral cyclosporine route but if that doesn’t work i might try the honey again, am wondering if i should try the bandages you are, where do you obtain them? Thanks for your time :)

By: Colorado Transplant

Colorado Transplant — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 14:56:52 +0000

Angela, I pray the medi-honey works.

I am glad you are going to try it to stop your dog’s suffering. Skin application seems best. It should be soothing.

Often the dogs and cats hide their pain.

That staff infection is TOUGH!!!!! We have to outsmart all the superbugs—if we can.

By: Angela

Angela — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:25:05 +0000

Christine. No right now she is not seeing a dermatologist. We do not have one in our area. We were lucky enough to have one visiting in the area while he was giving a lecture in the Boston area. he was the one who noticed right away that Abby probably had staff and the cultures that he had my vet order prooved it. I will talk to her about changing Abbys antibiotics, as the baytril is probably no longer working. This may have been caused by her being off of it for two days when she ran out over the holiday weekend and the vet wanted to see her again before giving her more. the vet thought she was looking better and only increased the dosage.