We recently adopted Freyja from a rescue, she was a stray before (see https://www.itsahuskything.com/t18746-we-adopted-freyja for more details).

She came to us with a pretty bad skin condition, and fleas. The skin condition shows as weak fur or bald patches, with reddened skin and scabs through most of her back. Unpleasant odor emanates from the bad skin areas. Her underbelly has dark patches with little black spots. Her paws have some darker areas. All of those seem to itch a lot, she frequently bites and scratches herself.

The rescue vet did ringworm tests, and those came up negative. For the skin condition they prescribed 20 days of Cephalexin 500mg every 12 hours (course completed last week), and a Douxo (Chlorhexidine 3%, Climbazole 0.5%) wash twice a week (still ongoing).

The 11th of July we applied Advantage II for the fleas.

We take her to our own vet last Thursday, and he said he thought it was likely flea allergy, to keep doing the Douxo, and visit him again if she has not improved in two weeks, for skin culture and more tests.

We're not sure if she's improving or not. The underbelly seems to be better, but the patches in her back don't seem to improve much. And she continues biting herself so we're suffering for her.

I'm writing in case anybody has seen anything similar. Any ideas?

So im guessing they checked for mites and mange. Im also wondering why if its thought to be a flea allergy your vet didnt recommend benadryl or an antihistamine. When theu did the skin scrape for ring worm did they look for anything else. To me it looks like rain rot which is a highly contagious skin infection that effects horses. Its also highly transmittable to humans and any mammel with fur. Its decribed as this :Dermatophilus congolensis. It is characterized by the formation of crusty scabs, which peel off along with clumps of hair, leaving bare spots on the skin

Also could be pyoderma. Still same as what you have been doing same with rain rot. Antibiotics and antimicrobial baths should clear in about a month. Maybe use some vetericyn. Scarlett oil also would work but its alcohol based so i wouldn't use it on broken skin.

Allergies can be hard to chase. My big male came to me with large open sores on him that he would chew at constantly and he had a lot of allergies to various things that until we removed them all we couldn't get the wounds to heal up or him to stop itching. If it was only an allergy to flea bites once the fleas are gone you should, in theory, start seeing improvement. But if there's also a grass allergy or a food allergy it can keep things open much longer. I give my boy Origins 5 n 1. It's a powdered fish formula I add with his food and I've seen it help heal his sores faster when he's had a reaction to airborne allergens. My big male is allergic to everything, especially any food with chicken in it. Allergy tests can be a helpful tool. The food ones though are not accurate so I wouldn't spend money on a food allergy test. If a food issue is suspected then an elimination diet is your most accurate bet.

Thanks for the suggestions! She was not tested for anything other than ringworm. She's slowly getting worse, so this Saturday we're taking again to our own vet, so he can perform some additional tests on her.

I read these kind of problems can be caused by mites as well, and in that case a chewable flea medication can help. Even though, I'm wary of the seizures side-effects it has on some dogs, we're thinking about putting her on Bravecta to see if we can get her to improve.

If this doesn't work, next we'll try allergies.

So just make sure that its spaced out from the heart worm pills if you use them. I would also try a iodine/betadine shampoo as a last ditch effort. I just hope your not dealing with some type of mange mites.

Thanks! We'll see what the tests say.

What are the possible treatments for mange mites? I read a couple of studies that Bravecta or NexGuard are effective for those, hence what I was mentioning in my previous comment.

That would actually depend on the type of mange. High doses of ivermectin/heart guard anti parasitic sulfurated lime shampoo and antiparisitic meds like bravecto or simparica. But this is a much better all around article https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/mange-what-you-need-to-know/

I've dealt with something that looks very much like this. Long story short, yeast overgrowth was the main component for me. Never did find out exactly why but contributing factor was an under active thyroid. I was told that thyroid problems are not uncommon in female huskys and don't become apparent until 2-4 years of age. I've since found out that I should have had my girls zinc levels tested, a deficiency can manifest as skin/yeast issues. I also found some relief for my Kira with grapefruit seed extract - its a natural anti fungal....and its ok if they lick it

Thanks for the replies. The vet did a scraping and said it's caused by demodex mites. He gave her a treatment plan of 4 weekly injections of Dectomax.

First injection was this Saturday, and we have not seen any noticeable improvements yet, I guess we're just too impatient to see our girl get better. Fingers crossed this works. I'll keep the thread updated.

Yuck mange. Atleast its the curable kind. Did the vet recommend any type of antiparasitic shampoo along with it?

He recommended continuing bathing her twice a week with Douxo (Chlorhexidine 3%, Climbazole 0.5%) to promote healing of possible secondary infections.

That seems like a good plan. Demodex mange takes awhile to clear up. And i mean months awhile sometimes.

Glad you know what it is. Have patience. She will get feeling better with time and persistence.

An update: after a long wait (over two months) and 7 Dectomax injections the course is over, and Freyja is doing much better! The red swollen areas are gone, they have turned darker (vet says that means it's healing) and fur is growing back. We're very happy.

I bet she feels much better

Yay! that's great she's on the mend.