Hi there XXXXXXXXX,
Thank you for your question regarding your English Bulldog and his skin problems. I guess the most important thing we need to discover, is the root of his allergies. Basically there are a number of things that could be causing this problem for your English Bulldog.
Firstly - you need to make sure that your dog is definitely up to date with flea control. Make sure you are using a flea product appropriate for his weight. Even though you cannot see any fleas on him doesn't mean there are one or two lurking and oftentimes this is all it takes for a dog with flea allergy dermatitis. In your boy's case it does sounds like he may have an underlying allergy of some sort with secondary infection, however this could also be caused by parasites or fungi (ringworm or yeast).Bascially dogs are allergic to four main things - food, fleas, grasses/plants (contact allergy) or environmental allergens (canine atopy - the dog version of ezcema). I am sure you have worked through all of these with your Veterinarian, but I always like to ensure I have talked through each of these with my clients here in New Zealand. Flea allergies are avoided by strict flea control - every 3 - 4 weeks with Advantage or Advantage Multi or every 5 - 6 weeks with Frontline. You must also ensure all dogs in the household are treated at the same time. For a food allergy, you need to undertake a food trial with a 'novel protein' diet such as Hill's Z/D ultra allergen free and needs to be fed SOLELY for 3 weeks. After this time if you are seeing a change in your dog's allergy you can slowly introduce different foods week by week with the guidance of your Veterinarian. Contact allergies are best treated by avoidance of the plants that are to blame, but identifying the exact cause of a contact allergy can be very hard. A referral to a canine skin specialist may be the way to go in your dog's case for either a skin patch test or a blood allergen test.
It is also possible your dog may have skin mites or lice as they commonly cause intense itching and irritation. These could be either Demodex (less itchy) or Sarcoptes mites (VERY itchy) and you should ensure a full Veterinary check up so that he or she can carry out a physical examination and possibly a skin scrape to check for mites and lice, as well as signs of fleas. The next step would be to double check for fungal disease (such as ringworm) and there are several tests for this including a UV light and a fungal culture. It could also be that your dog has a bad yeast problem - and a good medicated shampoo such as Malaseb may well do the trick! Again a full Vet check will be able to confirm or deny this. If after these tests there is no diagnosis, the next step would be to carry out a food trial as above.
You really should get your boy checked out further by your Vet to try and pinpoint the underlying problem of the itching and smell. It definitely sounds as though he has a secondary bacterial and yeast infection (causing the smell) but the primary problem still needs to be definitively identified. For the best thing to use for his smell, as above, you should purchase a medicated shampoo that will deal with both yeast and bacteria - Malaseb (or a similar product containing both Chlorhexidine and Miconazole) is the most ideally suited for this. This requires you to make a lather and leave this lather on for 10 minutes before washing off! For many clients this is easier said that done, but it is SO important.
Please keep in touch and let me know how you get on with your itchy boy!
Thank you and please now click ACCEPT.
Kind Regards,
Dr M D Edwards
PS: Thank you for the extra information I have just received. The steroid shots are ideal for his itching and will definitely help calm down any inflammation in his skin and help relieve the need to scratch constantly. However they are a short term fix, not a long term cure and the root of the problem really needs to be identified here. If you are not getting very far with your current Vet, I would encourage you to ask him or her for a referral to a Veterinary dermatological specialist for skin patch allergy testing and the like.
Again, best of luck.
Dog Veterinarian
Veterinarian - BVSc (DVM equivalent)