Crud on Skin of Long Haired Dog?? Help please?

[buschkn]

I have a 7mo Pyrenees mix (maybe with St Bernard?) He has medium length fine soft hair, not really long and thick like a Pyr but longer than most St Bernards. He has had these spots of crud pretty much all over for a couple months. He is on regular heartworm and flea/tick prevention and has been to the vet for it twice. He got a 10d course of strong antibiotic b/c we thought they might be bites that got infected. No change. Went back, different vet saw him and gave him a shot of steroids and said "some of them do this in the summer". Huh?

They are small dry scabby areas that seem to itch him but he isn't constantly scratching or anything like that. They are pretty diffuse but they don't cover his entire skin. Seems more on his back and underside, less on his sides, none on face. He LOVES to swim and does so almost every day. I am wondering if it is related to that where the hair stays wet longer? But he has them by his groin where he doesn't have hair so not sure.

Any ideas or help would be welcome. The hair isn't falling out like my other dog who had a food allergy, I have 5 dogs and nobody else has it. My others usually get shaved in summer but I couldn't bring myself to do it b/c he is a baby and has such a beautiful coat. IDK if it's too late to try that? I hate the thought of it but if it will help him I will.

[Bluey]

Saint bernards come in long and short hair, so length of hair would not determine if he is one or not.

Maybe you could ask your vet to refer you to a skin specialist?

[buschkn]

I know they have different lengths, I mean the longer haired St. Bernard, he has hair similar to that for the most part.

There is a clinic in Louisville that has specialists I might try. Just thought I'd see if anyone has any ideas until I can get there.

[TKR]

It could be a food allergy even if the other dogs don't have problems. What are you feeding? My GSD had some crud over his hips that was just stubborn and wouldn't go away and would get crusty and raw. I changed him to the Chicken Soup dry kibble and have used Taste of the Wild more recently also -- HUGE difference in his skin and coat. The kibble I'm using is derived from meat with brown rice and other good food sources enhanced with Omega 3 oils instead of the "chicken by products" corn and fillers. Hope you can find the problem. Good luck!
PennyG

[kmsf]

Have you noticed if any of the crusts look more like pimples or red spots early on? The distribution sounds like infection (underside and groin), but the pustules don't last long before they scab over. Sometimes they can take a while to heal on antibiotics. Allergies more typically affect head and paws. Should also check for mites if itchy (vet can do a skin scraping), but you usually will see hair loss with mites.

[buschkn]

We did check him for mites the first time around, they don't really look like pustules that I have seen. I feed a pretty high quality food only available at my pet store, first ingredient is chicken, then maybe barley, can't remember. I didn't mean it couldn't be an allergy b/c the others are ok, I actually have him on the puppy version of this food, three others on the lg breed adult version, and one dog who DID have food allergies where he looked like mage and lost a ton of hair and weight, so he is on a Fish and Sweet Potato food from Wellness. That food is quite expensive so I would rather not have to feed the giant dog that if that isn't the problem, but will if I have to. Just looks totally different from the other one I have that had allergies and the pics I have seen when I looked for others online.

Quite the quandry. Certainly infection can take a while to clear up but it really doesn't look bacterial to me, though I'm a human Dr not a vet. He was on pretty hearty high dose antibiotics for a full ten days with no change at all so I don't think thats it. :( Guess I'll go back to my clinic once more then request a Derm referral.

Thanks for the ideas!

[kmsf]

Derm referral may be helpful if the antibiotics didn't help. The pustules in animals are very transient as compared to humans. I have seen a few cases of autoimmune diseases that presented that way also, although seven months old seems young for that especially in a mixed breed.

[Inuktik]

Hi Buschkn,

We had a siberian husky who had some similar patches - light grey, scaly and crusty looking. It turns out that he had a zinc deficiency which runs in certain breeds of dogs. He ended up needing to be on a zinc supplement and same cleared up. Just a thought.

[Guin]

If he swims every day, I might just chalk it up to generic skin crud. My corgi has an incredibly dense, thick coat, goes swimming every day, and ends up with - skin crud. There is really no other word for it. She's not infected like hot spots, I think it's just the general dirt in her coat next to her skin that gets wet, sticks to the skin, and then gets irritated. I try to rake her every day and that helps quite a bit - if you get all the dead, loose hair off and stimulate the skin, you kind of loosen the crud off.