What's this? (Photo)

might could be a staph infection.  some times they clear up with typcial cleaning etc at home, some times not.

I would have my dog to the vet if it had something that looked like that...

I agree that it looks like a staph infection.  The one Sassy had on her tummy last winter became serious very quickly, so I think I'd get into the vet and get it checked out.

Thanks all! I'll take her to the vet this afternoon.

Yes, I would go to the vet. Let us know what is wrong
 

Wellll I put some (diluted) tea tree oil on the irritated patches last night, and it seemed to have helped a little, so by the time we got to the vet this afternoon it didnt even look half as bad as it did when I originally posted!
 
Anyhoo, the vet didn't say it was staph- just said it looked like a scratch that'd gotten a little infected. He gave me some fuciderm (antibacterial stuff) to put on it. She also has a few cysty acne looking stuff in areas around it too.
 
Is there any supplements/home remedy stuff that I can do to help her skin? She seems to have some minor skin issues- her coat is really soft and shiny but she has dandruff, and earlier in the year she had another bald patch/bacterial infection that looked like ringworm, but wasn't.
 Would vitamine E/fish oil work? Could this be diet related? At the mo she's on Canidae ALS.
 
Sorry about the long-ish post...
 

ORIGINAL: Vinia



Is there any supplements/home remedy stuff that I can do to help her skin? She seems to have some minor skin issues- her coat is really soft and shiny but she has dandruff, and earlier in the year she had another bald patch/bacterial infection that looked like ringworm, but wasn't.
Would vitamine E/fish oil work? Could this be diet related? At the mo she's on Canidae ALS.

Pyry used to have very dry and dandruffy skin as well as a grimey, gritty coat. We put him onto Penny's homecooked diet and his coat really improved, but he was still dandruffy. We then took grains out of his diet completely and he has improved out of sight. The vet was looking at him yesterday and commented on how nice his skin and fur was. Which was really saying something considering that when I came home from overseas a couple of months ago his skin and fur were both in pretty poor condition.

Pyry's problem I think was an overload of yeast which may have stemmed from an allergy to grains or something like that. He's still got a yeast problem in his ears, but the rest of his body has never looked better as a result of the diet change. I don't know much about commercial dog foods, but it could be worth trying something grain free if Canidae ALS has grains in it.

Thanks for that- I've been thinking about switching to a pre-made raw, but have storage issues because my freezer is tiny. Though, since going grain-free helped for Pyry, it probably is worth a shot (and would be a lot easier on my wallet).

Yeah, I hear you on the storage issue. When I was doing it for just Penny, I'd make up a couple of kilos and then bag it up in small portions and you can kind of poke them into all sorts of nooks and crannies in the freezer. But Penny doesn't eat much and with all three of our dogs on it, now, we had to go buy a small additional freezer. [:'(]

It might help, you never know. I was pretty surprised that it helped Pyry because he'd had chronically dry skin forever, really. We noticed a difference within about 2 weeks, so it's not really a big deal to give it a go. Hope you find something that helps, anyway. []