Dermatology Diary Part 3: Meet Simba and Asia
The Derm Diary series of articles was authored by Lianne McLeod DVM, who was the About.com Guide to Exotic Pets for 11 years.
Dermatology Diary Table of contents
Dermatology Photo Gallery
Derm Diary "chapters"
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 |
Week 13 Progress Report
The Dogs: We started on cyclosporine at the end of week 12, starting with a partial dose for 3 days, which would be increased to their full dose by the second day of this week.
After the 3 days on the partial dose, the dogs were in terrible shape. Asia was quite red and itchy and shaking her head and scratching her ears a lot, though they didn’t appear infected. Simba was even worse – his neck was red and raw, and he was rubbing his belly on the carpet constantly to the point that his belly was red and inflamed as well. He was also constantly shaking his head until the tips of his ears started bleeding a bit. This was the worst his ears had bothered him since he came to us. Prior to us taking him a series of ear infections had caused enough head shaking that his ear margins (toward the tips of his ears) had cracked and bled. Despite a couple of ear infections while with us, we had never seen his ear flaps bleed until this week. I spoke to Dr. G. on the phone, as there was no way I could get in before the weekend, and we decided to go back to a low dose of prednisone until the cyclosporine could take full effect (and Simba was still on antibiotics anyway from his last bout of urinary tract infection).
The relief with prednisone was quite dramatic for the most part, although their ears were still bothering them. I cleaned their ears for a couple of days (which only caused worsened head shaking, making Simba bleed even more). Asia improved, but Simba was still suffering, so I went back to his ear medication too (which also contains a corticosteroid), which offered some relief. A bath also seemed to help, although it did coincide with going back on prednisone again.
We elected to go back on prednisone short term only because we probably won’t be doing skin testing until the February school break. This is partly due to not wanting to have the kids miss school for dog medical appointments, but also because driving for 6 hours on the prairies the depth of winter is not something we are eager to do, even for the dogs! February will be risky enough. That gives us a couple of weeks of leeway to completely get off the prednisone.
No vet visit this week.
It was such a relief that the food trial is done. The dogs loved their new food, but I was still cautious about trying much in the way of additional foods; after so long on the food trial it seems weird to give them anything else.
Dermatology Diary Table of contents
Dermatology Photo Gallery
Derm Diary "chapters"
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 |
Week 13 Progress Report
The Dogs: We started on cyclosporine at the end of week 12, starting with a partial dose for 3 days, which would be increased to their full dose by the second day of this week.
After the 3 days on the partial dose, the dogs were in terrible shape. Asia was quite red and itchy and shaking her head and scratching her ears a lot, though they didn’t appear infected. Simba was even worse – his neck was red and raw, and he was rubbing his belly on the carpet constantly to the point that his belly was red and inflamed as well. He was also constantly shaking his head until the tips of his ears started bleeding a bit. This was the worst his ears had bothered him since he came to us. Prior to us taking him a series of ear infections had caused enough head shaking that his ear margins (toward the tips of his ears) had cracked and bled. Despite a couple of ear infections while with us, we had never seen his ear flaps bleed until this week. I spoke to Dr. G. on the phone, as there was no way I could get in before the weekend, and we decided to go back to a low dose of prednisone until the cyclosporine could take full effect (and Simba was still on antibiotics anyway from his last bout of urinary tract infection).
The relief with prednisone was quite dramatic for the most part, although their ears were still bothering them. I cleaned their ears for a couple of days (which only caused worsened head shaking, making Simba bleed even more). Asia improved, but Simba was still suffering, so I went back to his ear medication too (which also contains a corticosteroid), which offered some relief. A bath also seemed to help, although it did coincide with going back on prednisone again.
We elected to go back on prednisone short term only because we probably won’t be doing skin testing until the February school break. This is partly due to not wanting to have the kids miss school for dog medical appointments, but also because driving for 6 hours on the prairies the depth of winter is not something we are eager to do, even for the dogs! February will be risky enough. That gives us a couple of weeks of leeway to completely get off the prednisone.
No vet visit this week.
It was such a relief that the food trial is done. The dogs loved their new food, but I was still cautious about trying much in the way of additional foods; after so long on the food trial it seems weird to give them anything else.
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