help needed for a poorly german shepard :(

[iliketosleep]

Hes only 5 and is a beautiful thing! But he is constantly nibbling and scratching, especially at his paws and his groin. His groin area has gone black and the vet told us to put fucidine on which cleared it up for all of 3 days and now its back. Every time he is took to the vets (about every 3 months) she wants to give him steroids and antibiotics, which totals a whooping 105 pounds each time. She doesnt seem to find a cure and doesnt seem to bothered about finding one either! It is getting way to expensive to keep ontop of but at the same time hes suffering. He also smells too and his fur has somewhat of a tacky feel to it. Has anyone had this problem or does anyone know of this condition?

I don;t know of this problem, but there are a few vets on here that might be able to help.

I would say though,

1. find another vet if you are not comfortable with their diagnosis 2)when they advise medication, ask for a prescription and take it to your local pharmacy which deals with vetinary prescriptions - this wll make it a lot cheaper, and don' get fooled into being charged for prescriptions or ahving to see the vet regularly as it both are against the ruling of the Competitions wotnot.

he has seen numerous vets in the past few years but to no avail. poor little man when he scratches it hurts him so much he starts to whimper

Ask your vet to refer you to a veterinary dermatologist for further investigation. It is not acceptable to give the dog a few drugs, and then a few more etc without looking into the underlying cause. It sounds like an infection that may well be secondary to an allergic problem, or maybe even mange. Mange can be treated with Stronghold, and your vet should be able to supply that without seeing the dog again so long as he has been seen relatively recently. I normally recommend stronghold be applied every 2 weeks for a total of 3 doses to treat mange even though the literature says monthly dosing. All sorts of things can be done for allergic skin problems though it is unlikely a cure will be found, but there are better ways of managing it than steroids. Sometimes antihistamines can be helpful, evening primrose oil in the diet (about 3000mg a day for a GSD) and washes etc. In certain cases vaccines can be given to try and desensitise them to the allergy, but that depends what they are allergic to in the first place.
Just a note about veterinary prescriptions - it is correct that your vet may not charge you for writing it. By LAW however they will have had to have seen the dog within a certain period of time (defined a lot by what is being prescribed and why) and therefore you will have to still see the vet at intervals to be allowed these prescriptions. The vet is quite within their rights to charge you for these checks. Not all human pharmacies stock all of the veterinary drugs so you need to find out if they stock what you need too.
If your own vet will not refer you then go elsewhere for a second opinion and ask for a referral from there.

Thanks beautiful girls, are you a vet? He is given stronghold on a regular occurance and has been treated for mange but thats not the problem, Im just beggining to wonder wether the vets are out for the money rather than making him better My dad just calls him a walking vets bill and it breaks my heart although i know he still loves him he says he regrets having him, but its not taz's fault!! will give the evening primrose oil a shot! anythings worth trying!!

Yes I am, shhh don't tell anyone! Sounds like you need the dermatology referral really. Good luck. Evening primrose oil may well help but I doubt it will sort the problem out completely.

thankyou i will try that when he goes back tomorrow! Also he has a bad case of the runs, is there anything that will be able to cure this? he has had them for around 3 weeks now!

Starve him for 24hrs, water available at all times. Start him back on white meat, white fish and boiled rice little and often. Use that as sole food for a few days then gradually start to mix in his old dog food again over a few days to let his tummy adjust. If that is not settling it or he is unwell in himself at all then tell the vet. If you are at the vets tomorrow anyway though you could ask for some protexin paste to try alongside the feeding I have just described.
If he is a sensitive tummy dog that makes him more likely an allergic dog too. There are veterinary low allergen diets, but you may like to try James Wellbeloved diet from a large pet shop first to see if that helps. I have many clients that swear by that stuff.

When we had our cocker spaniel he had something that sounds very much like what your german shepherd has.We never found out what it was either ,he had skin samples etc taken ,drugs .We used to bath him twice a week in Malaseb shampoo (which you lather up and leave on for 20 minutes before rinsing).Our dog did have other severe health problems as wellso it was a constant battle and expense for 9 years.
You could try something like Aloe vera juice added to food?

wow beautifulgirls thanks its a shame your not near the midlands id bring him to you!!! pelvicfloornomore im sorry, its not nice watching them suffer is it well i will take a copy of this conversation to the vets (names blanked obviously) and see what she says!

my gorgeous westie has been diagnosed with furunculosis, which apparently is usually seen in german shepherds. Is your dog licking her anus? (sorry, bit yucky)

he has actually started to do that alot yes and i can imagine he is quite sore from it now!

maybe you could ask vet about this? My dog has just been put on 'Cyclosporin' after 6 months of antibiotics which had no effect. She started to improve within about 2 days of these tablets and vet thinks she'll be cured within 2 months.

really? brilliant!! is this just the (anus) licking or is it the whole scratching nibbling etc etc?

Mostly bum licking, but lots of paw nibbling too. After a while she started having big problems pooing, as a result of thickening around her anus, so probably a lot more serious than your dog's problem. Holding their tails down can be a sign. Anyway, I feel I wasted a lot of time and money going back to my vet before I got a referral to a specialist who has been more pro-active. Good luck, hope you get it sorted.

awww poor little mite! well im glad she is on the mend now! so much useful information, im bound to find a cure out of all of this!!!

Beautifulgirls - to clarify, I accept what you say about checks being necessary (and the law) and I would feel unhappy for my own dog to be given the many many medications he is on without the necessary health checks. However, I understand from my current vet and an article I have read that many vets (including my previous one) insist on checks in addition to those necessary as a direct result of not being able to make the previous profit margin on the sale of drugs and it is that which flouts the Competitions Commission ruling, not the fact that checks have to be made and paid for

I hope you do iliketosleep
I hope he feels much better soon!

Beautifulgirls has a good suggestion on using James food (I have heard that one). I feed my dog Burns, and I understand that the fish and duck ones have the least allergenic "properties" and if your dog has a propensity towards being allergic it may be as well to look closely at his diet?

we have looked at his diet before going from james wellbeloved to bakers sensitive as the vet said it may be a wheat allergy but this didnt work, I have never heard of burns Hes actually gone off food, but i think thats a mix of it being so hot and him feeling so crap so i dont blame him! Im gonna see if i can post a pic of him on my profile

ok done, heres tazzy

he's gorgeous!!

thankyou he is a stunner lol