Smelly, oily coat

[krazydog]

We have a dog in rescue that has been diagnosed with discoid lupus of the nose. He also, however, has a funny odor and quite oily fur in places. We've taken him to a regular vet and to a dermatological vet. We've had full blood panel run on him that came back fine. Tests didn't detect any yeast or bacterial infections in the skin. Can't find anything wrong to explain the odor and oiliness.

The dog did come into rescue in a very neglected condition--smelling like a urinal in a NY train station with poop stuck all over his butt and urine stains everywhere, fur felted down to the skin, and a huge baseball-sized cyst under his chin.

We're bathing him with a special shampoo the vet recommended. And we're considering trying a food change (he has a very sensitive stomach, so we need to do this slowly).

Anyone have experience with a condition like this? Any ideas what might be causing it? Any other suggestions for what to try?

Thanks,
Beverley
San Francisco Samoyed Rescue
www.sfsr.org

[azsammies]

Did you have his thyroid tested? Low thyroid will give an oily coat.

:shock:

[Janet White]

Thyroid coat is what I thought of as well. All the dogs that I've known with low thyroid have a sort of "greasy dandruff" that really sticks to the hair right near the skin.

[azsammies]

It's caused from really high cholesteral (SP?)

Low thyroid, since it is an autoimune deficiancy, can cause other things to go haywire also.

[krazydog]

Interesting. The owner said the dog had been diagnosed with low thyroid, but she had "just run out" of his medication. (Right. His other meds were all dated from 2 years ago and had hardly been used.) So we had a full blood panel run, including thyroid, and it came back within normal range. I'll double-check if they did the more detailed thyroid profile on him. I've seen brittle coat with thyroid, but never seen greasy coat. Thanks for the info!

High cholesterol? Then he and I may have something in common! Is there anything we should be doing about in case it is that? Special diet or anything? Would that mean he might be more prone to pancreatitis, since it's also a high-fat-related problem?

Beverley

[azsammies]

Was he on the low side of thyroid? I have put dogs on thyroid medication that have been on the low side and yes, I would watch his diet.

[Janet White]

Yep, anything borderline with the thyroid needs to be continually checked. I had low thyroid as a teen and that's the reason Mike and I can't have kids -- it's basically your body attacking itself and the reproductive organs are the first targets. Meds don't fix that. That's the reason I DO think this is a serious problem in our breed...breeding-wise. Owner-wise it's not a big deal, though as it's cheap meds and easy to add to breakfast and dinner meals for the dogs.

But when it's on the move one way or another, it often needs to be almost checked monthly until it stablizes. I no longer need thyroid meds as...oddly...when my fibromyalgia was diagnosed, and I had been sleeping well for 5 years or so, it dropped monthly to borderline low for almost a year until I was completely off the meds. The dogs I've dealt with seem to be the same...borderline high or low is a signal to me to check monthly for a bit.

[Anonymous]

That's good to know about rechecking the thyroid often for a while. MacKenzie's thyroid was on the low side of normal. I had them run a more comprehensive thyroid check and it came back ok.

I realized today that Mac has tapeworms. I thought I might have been seeing signs of worms in his stool, and was going to have his stool checked when I take him to the vet again on Tuesday. Then today I clearly saw a good-sized worm. Had to be 4 inches long. Gross. That could partly explain his weird coat texture--tapeworms preventing him from getting full benefit from whatever he's eating.

So, I guess I'll have to treat Mac and my own 4 dogs for tapeworm.

This boy is such an easy-going guy. Even my dog Niku seems to be accepting him, which is extremely unusual. We'll be fostering him for a couple more weeks, until we're sure the kennel cough is cleared up.

I also wonder if his coughing is partly from the tapeworm. I've heard if the worms get long enough they can get into the esophagus. I'll have to check with the vet on that.

Bev