Bacterial Dermititis

[AndysMom]

Mike and I are fostering a dog who came in from track on Thursday (3 days ago) with what our vet describes as "bacterial dermititis". This is my first experience with this, so I have a question.

 

The day we brought him in, he had two lesions on his back, about the size of a quarter, near his spine. The vet checked him over and put him on oral antibiotics. The two sores were just starting to heal and were drying up.

 

We brought him to our house on Friday and, by Saturday morning, he had at least two new bumps. This time, they were swollen, pussy and the hair came off in circles leaving nasty, red, oozy sores. This morning (Sunday), there were several more bumps. I believe he's got 7 or 8 of them now, mostly on his back, on one side of his spine or right along the spine itself.

 

He's also TERRIBLY thin. He has a really hearty appetite so I'm hoping he'll put some weight on really quickly. We're giving him yogurt a couple of times a day because of the antibiotics, but the last two days I've fed him three times a day. His stool was kind of soft, but that was probably just nerves and change of diet; seems much improved today.

 

Our vet says the dermititis is absolutely NOT contagious to dogs or humans. I called her today (Sunday) and she said that she's not surprised that there are several new lesions, that this was the normal course for this condition. She recommended we bathe him twice a week with Chlorhexiderm shampoo twice a week, which we started today. He's getting antibiotics 3x a day. We're putting antibiotic ointment on the lesions 2x a day.

 

I'm hopeful his condition will start to improve now. Tomorrow will be third day on antibiotics.

 

So here's my question: Is it likely his hair will grow back on the spots where he's had these lesions?

 

Thanks for any advice you might have.

 

Lois

Edited October 13, 2008 by AndysMom

[Guest greytkidsmom]

Tiel had this. She still has a few small spots where the hair has not grown back. They are hard to see. It depends on how much damage was done to the follicle due to the infection. Her treatment was the same - oral antibiotics and twice-weekly baths. Once the initial rash cleared, the vet recommended baths with the chlorhexiderm every 2 weeks for a few months to prevent recurrence. I imagine his nutritional status will make it a bit more difficult for his immune system to deal with the infection.

 

Good luck - with your love he will get better and find a forever home of his own!

[ShantisMom]

Shanti had a nasty bacterial infection of her skin. She lost all the hair and large quantities of skin off her tail and some of her thighs. Much to my surprise, it did grow back. It does depend if the hair follicles are damaged in the infection. I also do the chlorhexiderm baths, 1x a week and soak for 15 minutes. Make sure you let the shampoo soak or it is not effective.

[AndysMom]

I'm hopeful we caught this early on as he had only two sores on Friday and it has progressed from there. He's got a good coat otherwise, so maybe the follicle damage won't be too much.

[Batmom]

Don't give up hope if it takes a good while for it to regrow. If the hair loss occurs at the wrong point in their natural shedding cycle, it can take several months.

 

Hope his condition gets under control soon!