My dog SMELLS!And what's this stuff the vet told me to use...

[judydoes]

I adopted a Spaniel recently.He's almost 11.

I took him to the vets almost straightaway, because he's overweight, and he had a dry nose, matted ears and very bad breath.

He also smells horrible! A bit like maggots? A foisty, very unpleasant smell. Not a normal 'doggy' smell at all.

Vet treated him for the dry nose but says the smell is just a symptom of how spaniel's skin goes as they age. Nothing that can really be done. He did say to get something, and I wrote it into my 'phone but for some reason it didn't save.

It was something like 'Hibby Scrub'. Apparently available at chemists and 5ml to a pint rubbed on his coat will stop him smelling like a swamp donkey.

Anybody know what he meant?

I love the dog to bits but this is definitely curbing the cuddles he's gettting!

Hibiscrub is a disinfectant, for cleaning wounds I think...?
It certainly disinfects, I used it years and years ago for myself but can't remember what for.

It's bright pink, seems an old thing to use for a dogs skin but then I am not a vet.

Ah!So I DID remember it right.

The vet did say something about yeast but told me there's nothing to worry about, he's happy and (now) healthy apart from being overweight.

I'll google. Maybe if very diluted it might be okay?

Thanks, I'd never heard of it.

He's already had two baths. Luckily he doesn't seem to mind. Previous owner gave me some dog shampoo for him. I've clipped his ears after the vet showed me how to do it without hurting him, as they were really matted and that did make him smell better. But not enough!

Maybe he has ear mites?
That can cause quite a strong smell?

I think for a newly adopted dog who reeks, a one off bath with Hibiscrub would be a good idea (vital to properly dilute it) as it is a broad spectrum antimicrobial.

Then maybe a trip for a good clip, a change of diet to help his skin (lots of fish oil) and a weekly bath with tea tree oil shampoo and lots of brushing.

Did the vet check his teeth?

Where you say he has bad breath aswell, being an older dog, if the vet feels it's safe I would put him under for a thorough teeth cleaning.
I bet they are in revolting condition.

Thanks everyone.

I will take him back in for the vet to have a look at his teeth. He has had four pulled at some point, written on his med notes.I told the vet this but he didn't look very thoroughly.

I do brush him a lot. He seems to have been quite neglected the poor little thing, he's a lovely dog.

Thanks a lot, much appreciated. I will definitely order some coatex, too :)

Sounds like he may have something like Malassezia. Which is basically an overgrowth of yeast. It has a uniquely disgusting, yeasty smell, like decaying things - really unpleasant and the coat will feel greasy to the touch. It's usually worse around skin folds, between the toes and in the ear canals.

My old girl had it and we tried everything over the years to deal with it. Best thing we found, in 14 years of actively looking and trying different things, was Neem Oil Shampoo. (We bought a liquid one from from here though. )

You can boost the effect by adding a bit of pure neem oil to the shampoo, but the neem oil itself stinks, so best to see how it goes without first.

Hibiscrub is good stuff for disinfecting hands and small wounds, but is really anti-bacterial, rather than anti-yeast and will dry your dog's skin, which will then cause it to increase oil production and actually make the yeast problem worse.

The other thing that helped our girl was putting her onto a grain free diet and then ultimately raw food. You may find the condition will improve to some degree anyway with a decent diet and him generally losing weight and improving in health, but it's unlikely to completely resolve without some sort of topical treatment.

Vets sell something called Malaseb that is supposed to help, but you have to use it very frequently and leave it on for 10 minutes and it made very little difference to our girl.

I'm back all, sorry moosemama I did read and acknowledge your reply, I actually thought I had replied already but obviously I didn't-sorry. I have been feeding him 'natures menu' since ordering it after reading your post. He likes it, but my other dog turns her nose up at it. Ah well.

I didn't use Hibiscrub in the end. All of what you all said made sense and I googled it and it does seem harsh-I'd not heard of it before.

I bathed him in Coatex, thanks for that suggestion, which did seem to help-the small wasn't as strong.

It seemed to improve, he was fine , then in the past handful of days, the smell seemed much , much worse and seemed to be coming from his mouth only.

I couldn't see any obvious cause so I took him back to the vet, who checked him thoroughly this time-all his gums and inner folds of his mouth are lacerated and ulcerated

So, antibiotics now. I feel bad as I've been giving him dry food and I think that must have been hurting his mouth .

Because he's really overweight, I can only think his previous owners must have fed him a load of crap fatty/sugary foods and his mouth's in bad condition.

I hope the antibiotics work,he must be in pain.

Thanks again for all your replies.

Oh don't worry about acknowledging my post, people have real lives to deal with - I never get offended if they don't have chance to respond.

Poor lad with such a painful mouth. But at least you've got to the bottom of problem and now he can start to get - and feel - better.

Is he a Springer by any chance? I only ask because they have a predisposition to Lip Fold Dermatitis, which if left untreated can lead to both bacterial and fungal infections. If it doesn't resolve completely with the antibiotics it might be worth asking your vet if they'll do a fungal culture. There's some info about Lip Fold Dermatitis here.

Hope he's feeling better soon and I just wanted to say what a lovely person you are for taking on an older dog with health and weight issues. So many people would have looked straight past him and only considered all the younger, healthier dogs - he's a really lucky boy to have you.

Ah thank you moose :)

It wasn't a typical rescue case so I can't take so much credit. He belonged to a family member, albeit one I hardly ever speak to, just never been close-and they were unable to take care of him any longer. No other family member could take him, all that was talked about was which rescue to take him to. It was close to xmas, and I knew with his age it wasn't likely he'd find a nice home.

Despite my not particularly having looked at getting an (other!) dog I'm really glad I said yes to him-he's a great dog! No malice,well-trained, friendly, loving. I just couldn't have him go into rescue so I took him on.

Thank you for the info, I'm having a read, now :)

And not a Springer-he's a cocker but I guess similar mouth structure so it does make sense.