[AlohaVizsla]

So it seems Vizslas suffer from minor skin irritations. My boy, Copper and many of his litter mates have all suffered from red bumps as juveniles. Copper's red bumps often became infected with Staph but never too serious. Now he has become inflicted with more serious Staph infections, something like impetigo, pustules that pop easily then crust over. He is on his second within a few months, but now he has a slight dry cough. Has anyone experienced symptoms like this after an allergic reaction? Antibiotic/steroid ointments work, but what can I do for prevention. I do not like overmedicating.

 

[Islander]

Our Vet gave us a shampoo called Benzoyl-Plus, Moisturizing Benzoyl Peroxide Shampoo. If you use it a couple times a week, seems to make a huge difference. If you don't want to shampoo the entire dog each time use it on the irritated area, try to leave it on for 5 minutes and then rinse.
Ziva loved it, of course she loves her showers, will bark at the shower door for you to let her in! I also use a shampoo on her from Halo, which is totally herbal and that too seems to keep her skin erruptions under control.

The vet gave her an antibiotic the first time I took her in (which I hate to use the meds unless absolutely necessary) .... with these two shampoos it seems to be keeping the erruptions from occuring or at least from becoming too prevelant.

Good Luck

 

[Lisa]

Catan would break out is small read bumps from head to toe. (Never got infected like you've decribed.) They would last for about a week and then show up again another time. Turned out it was his shampoo. We switched to a hypo allergenic shampoo and haven't seen them since.

 

[Crazy Kian]

hmmm... Kian had little bumps (pimple like) on his belly near his ..... they come and go. Lately nothing.

Now, this poses anothe question.. how often do you bathe your V's?
We've had him 7 months now and I think he has been bathed 3 times.

 

[madaboutvizslas]

Mine gets a grass allergy from Dec through to March (summer) each year. Now its her second summer we have worked out what it is. We have a grass in our lawn that causes it. If I go to my holiday house for 1 week or more then it clears up. It causes a red rash on her belly and elbows which she chews and sucks ferociously. So she gets a really weak dose of prednisone to ease the symptoms.

I wash mine either:
a) if she gets filthy
b) if its been a while and she starts to smell (can be a month or two).

On average I guess she gets a shower monthly and I just use a general low allergy shampoo and wash it out well. Even after a shampoo she still smells a bit doggy. I don't think you can get this out. After all she is a dog

 

[Lisa]

I love that nice clean doggy smell. Of course it only last about 3 minutes. Catan always runs around the house like crazy after a shower. I figure he's trying to get back the doggy smell as quick as possible.

Catan get's a shower whenever he get's into something while out walking/running (nothing better than a decaying rodent to roll in) or if it's been a couple of months since his last.

 

[Islander]

When we first noticed Ziva getting little breakouts in her groin area and her right arm pit we had the Vet look at them. At first due to our region we thought they were fire ant bites, but because she had them in two locations groin, arm pit, the vet said it was pyoderma, kinda like puppy acne. You can google it and learn more. When she gets little outbreaks of them now I use the medicated shampoo on them and use a topical ointment and they disappear.

 

[AlohaVizsla]

Thanks everyone. I have started using a benzoyl peroxide shampoo once weekly and hypo allergenic shampoo any other time. My vizsla will get bathed at least once a week, sometimes up to three times. It rains very often where I live and Copper gets very muddy. As well we make it to the beach at least once a week. He has cleared up for the second time now after 4 weeks of diligent topical treatments (shampoo and topical antibiotic/steriod). I noticed pustules after playing in the tall grass yesterday and today so I gave him Benadryl to see if I can prevent the crusty, pussy sores.

 

[Waldo]

My Brittany also has skin issues, after some biopsies at the vet's nothing firm was diagnosed. At it's worst when it first arose she even had a temp. and was very very lethargic, she wasn't a well little camper. After a period of research via. the net and forums like this I modified her diet as she was getting quite a bit of venison off-cuts/scraps and this seemed to be compounding the situation. Now she only has venison every few days and I include a soup spoon of vegetable oil on her food each night. Research indicated salmon oil would be best but I couldn't get it locally and the veg. seems to be working.
Cheers,
Waldo