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Itchy Skin And Bad Odour In A Dog

by CorinneC - January 12, 2023 View Case Report

Geno is a 10yo MN Soft coated Wheaton terrier who was rescued in 2016 after being abandoned without food or water and in despicable conditions. When I started seeing Geno in June 2019 he looked pretty awful. His mom had been battling a bad skin issue for 3 yrs. He had ventral lichenification, was mostly hairless and greasy, and smelled like a "yeast bucket". Hi pulses were toned and deep, tongue lavender-pink, moist, sl swollen. His ears were the same but with a thin yellow exudate. He was itchy all over and constantly licked or chewed at himself, esp his feet. The owner, 1 week prior, had switched from kibble to a. homemade diet of fish and squash out of desperation which had made him less itchy. His nails were very overgrown from previous neglect, but I also noticed that his nailbeds were dry as were his pads. The skin around his eyes was hairless and there was a yellowish exudate OU that made his lids stick together. I was in the middle of my CIVT graduate course in herbal medicine, but hadn't reached the skin part yet, so I thought Damp Heat and out him on San Ren Tang. Somewhat better but not substantial. Eventually I switched to Chu She Wei Ling Tang and then lost touch. I realized later that he had been slowly losing wt too, from 21.4kg down to 18.9kg in 3-4 mth on these herbs. I realize now he was Yin deficient because of my choices.

Flash forward 2 years Dec 2021. Covid, O moved far away but decided to return to me, she had had Geno on several rounds of abx (Clavaseptin, Baytril, Cephalexin for skin + Surolan, Mometamax, & Claro for ears), Cytopoint, Bravecto, and Ketoconazole through another Vet but it wasn't working longer than 2 weeks at a time. With abx the skin odour never went away which I thought remarkable. He was terrified of loud noises (new). His fur had mostly come back in, but he had a dorsal strip of hairloss and the tops of all his feet were lichenified and hairless. He still reeked of yeast, was greasy, ears were yeasty but clear other than mild lichenification, and was itchy. His tongue was dark pink-purple, swollen, and moist and his pulses seems slippery to me so I put him on SMS & Nettles. I kick myself now! He came back 2 weeks later and had chewed his paws raw and the owner could no longer bear to be in the same room as him for the horrible skin odour. Sadly, I thought I had dried him out too much and put I'm on Dry Derma Relief + Clavaseptin (+ Cytopoint cont'd by local Vet). By Feb 2022 I finally came to my senses. The poor owner was bathing him almost daily due to his horrible odour! I put him on XCHT & Aventi GI and he started to improve little by little - by March he had these weird red flakes of dander? but was less itchy and hair was growing in very slowly. I had also taken the CIVT Nutrition course so I made Geno a new homecooked diet which seemed to really help as well.

However, by Sept 2022 his horrible odour was back and he seemed to literally give off heat (I couldn't help but think think was Damp Heat but now I wonder if it was Empty Heat???) so I added a bit of SMS in with the XCHT. Odour didn't change and he again seemed to get a bit worse. His tongue was now dark pink, moist, normal size and pulses were toned. As of last month I put him on CHJLGMLT.

What is this odour?!?!?! I feel like such a failure with Geno! I've had so much success with TCM and he has continued to elude me. I'm embarrassed to send this but I lost my ego long ago with Vet med and I'd rather see others learn from my mistakes and you lead me in a better direction!

Corinne

by CorinneC

March 10, 2023

Unfortunately the QYT did not make any difference. I checked back on all his records as I had assumed someone in the past would have checked his thyroid but it had never been tested. I ran a full thyroid panel through Hemopet and he was EXTREMELY hypothyroid! So he's been started on Levothyroxine and slowly improving. Once we get his thyroid straightened out, I will reassess for TCM. For now we are just wanting to get him regulated.

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