My heart breaks every time I groom this little man. His name is Coco, and he's a sweet, sweet Shih-Tzu that's only slightly over-the-hill. His little tail wags the whole time he's on the table. It gets in the way sometimes, but also creates a nice breeze so I don't complain ;)
The rest of this post will be "under" the link, because I'm sure not everyone will want to read the details or see the pictures. I'm telling you, your heart will break for this little guy. It's not pretty. However, if you want to see what happens when a yeast (fungal) infection in a dog's skin goes bad, then go ahead and look...
This poor little guy started out looking just fine, but I could tell when I groomed him that his feet and ears were yeasty. The ears is frequently where this infection will start. It makes the ears itch, and I believe that it spreads to the paws because the dog will constantly scratch at those poor ears.
How do you know that something is wrong with a dog's ears? The inside of the ear should be smooth, soft, a healthy light pink, and not have a foul smell. If the ear is bumpy, rough, or leathery, a dark pink or red color, hot to the touch, discharging a yellowish fluid, and/or foul-smelling, then that ear is in trouble. The best way I can describe the smell of yeast on a dog is... well, it's sweet but it's a bad sweet, a rotten sweet.
How can you tell if the dog is developing the infection in in his paws? The pads will have that yucky sweet yeast smell, and they will probably start to swell. The dog may also chew or excessively lick his paw pads.
I had told the owners when I started to notice problems with his paws and ears. His paws just got more swollen and his ears were worse as well. Every time I noticed a decline I'd mention it. They were taking the dog to their veterinarian, who would just "give him an allergy shot." (THAT vet cop-out is something you can be sure you'll read about in a later post.) Obviously, those "allergy shots," which are steroids, were not helping him at all. They would stop his itching for a while, but did nothing for the cause of the itching. He got worse, and worse, and worse.
I finally talked them into switching veterinarians, and thank goodness they did. He identified the true problem, educated them about the cause, effects, and solutions, and prescribed the proper medication. He actually improved for a couple of months! I was so hopeful... Sadly, once the condition is as out of hand as poor Coco's, the medication is soooo expensive and requires a lot of discipline to keep up with the application and administration of creams, pills, etc. I guess they just couldn't do it. So now he's back to being a hot, sticky, stinky, leathery mess. Poor, poor guy. He really doesn't act uncomfortable, but he has to be.
As his groomer, I don't know if there's anything I can really do to help him. I only see him every 6 weeks. I do what I can, though. I give him a nice soothing medicated soak in Maleseb and use a hypoallergenic cream rinse afterward. Groomers, is there anything else that I can do? I'm at a loss... I really love this little guy and will do whatever I can to better his condition and/or comfort him.
Here are the pictures. As always, click on a picture to see the full-size version. You'll see the infection on his face, his paw pads, the top of his feet, his flanks... I didn't take any pictures of the inside of his ears because that might be too gross, but they are affected as well (hot, smelly, runny.) Please, if your pet or any of your clients' pets are at the beginning phase of this, educate them and send them to a proper veterinarian right away before it gets out of hand! It's so much easier to treat when it's just in the ears or paws than all over.
