Very smelly rash on groin area of dog

by Vanessa Clarke
(Canada)

nasty rash

A little over a year ago my dog came down with this very bad allergy/rash that covered in the end a good portion of his body. He lost a lot of hair because of it. He was loosing handfuls. He had areas where he developed bald spots, and he was very smelly.

We changed him to a completely RAW diet which he is still on. As part of this diet I do give him vegetable and fish as well as flax seed oil.

It took months to figure out what was wrong and what was best to do for it. By late summer by boyfriend finally decided to take him to the vet because he was not getting better. He was itching constantly.

While the new oatmeal shampoo we started to use was helping with the smell and itching, that was it. The rashes were circular in nature the they would ooze a kind of yellowy puss. He had the rash on both side of his groin to various degrees.

A giant patch on his tail and on his back just above his rear end and down the backside of his legs high around the but area. Along his back on his sides, it was fairly wide spread.

Finally he was put on antibiotics (Cephalexin 500mg tablet) for 21 days and the end of which all seemed well. About a 2 months or more we noticed this start of a new rash but only in the groin area and only on the left side.

It smells horrible and oozes a nasty yellow substance that sticks his fur together. Part of the area is now very black and looks terrible. The skin also gets dried and flaky then his hair falls out.

There are also some dime size areas on the inside of the leg that get crusty and flakes off. It has not spread further but it does cover a fairly good sized area.

We don’t like to subject Panchito to a lot of antibiotics. Before this all started he was troubling with and still has trouble with Interdigital Furunculosis which are these nasty looking boils on his paws in between his toes. He mostly gets this in the spring and fall with the wet weather.

Consequently, he was on antibiotics for the past couple of summers for his recurring problem and it did seem to have any long term affect. He was ok for a couple of months then they would be back. So we were reluctant to go that way again. And that is also the case now.

As part of his diet He eats meat: beef,bison,pork,horse,lamb,veal,smelt,turbot,broccoli, asparagus, carrotes, kale. I was also putting colloidal silver in his water and I had sprayed the area it seemed to help initially but not anymore.

By the way, his name is Panchito and he is a soon to be 6 year old Australian cattle dog. He is a Blue Heeler.

Please, any help you can give me would be most appreaciated.

Thanks in advance,
Vanessa