Rash

Oh wow. It's good thats it not bothering her though. Keep us posted on what it is please!!

*sending healing vibes*

Oh, poor sweet Kenya!  I hope she feels better soon!

As inflamed as that is you may need antibiotics for this one Liesje -- infected skin doesn't heal so you likely will need to take her to be seen.

Flea allergy dermatitis starts at the base of the tail and works forward -- it doesn't start on the belly.  I can promise you that's not flea allergy

That could be atopic allergy, or it could easily be a contact allergy (altho since it's where there IS hair that lessens the possiblity of contact allergy ALTHO if skin is already irritated by something then contact allergy will flare up worse because the skin is already sensitive). 

A couple of thots -- and both of these from my regular vet. 

First -- can you get hold of an aloe plant?  Harvesting the goo from inside the leaves is goopy but nothing is better for sore inflamed skin -- it's almost instant relief.  OR you can go to a health store -- get PURE 100% aloe -- either juice or gel.  (NOT NOT NOT an aloe 'cream' -- avoid it, it will have perfume in it and it will hurt).  But just aloe juice like you drink -- that's FINE and very very very soothing. 

Both staph and yeast infection (do you smell yeast? the underside of the body can be really prone to yeast skin infection that goes hand in hand with allergies) respond really well to Selsun Blue.

Yeah -- Selsun Blue dandruff shampoo and no, not any dandruff shampoo works.  Selsun Blue works the best, Denordex isn't bad but the Selsun really works incredibly well on yeast and staph particularly.

Warm bath -- dilute the Selsun Blue before you even get it TO the skin (it's thick and likes to glop).  Don't linger over the bath -- but get ALL her skin because you'll find she's broken out in places you can't see because of the coat.  But spray rinse really well with warm water.

If you can find those ex-foliating gloves I talked about they are AWESOME.  Walgreens carries them and most any drug store has them now.  Usually under $5 or so.  But man, they make dog bathing awesome -- they make the lather work better and it carries soap far more easily than your hands. 

Then -- after rinsing well -- if you drop just a few drops of tea tree oil on the gloves, then go over her wet body again and rinse again -- it will help fight the staph and take some of the sting away and help it heal.  Or if you can get lavender essential oil from a health store -- that too is great to help fight staph and it's very soothing.

Do you know which antibiotic?  I have a round they gave to me for Coke's hotspot and I didn't use it b/c he was fine once they shaved the hotspot for me.  It's not expired and the dogs are the same weight.  Would that work?

ETA:  the rash looks super inflammed in the pics b/c of the flash.  It's red and inflammed but not THAT bad.  Still, it looks itchy and painful but she's not really bothered by it other than scratching her underside with a hind foot a few times a day.

I'm taking her to the vet at 5.  It's really grossing me out.  I don't know how long it's been there since she's not fussing at it and has never been a belly rub dog.  If it's allergies, I'll probably go through MSU.  A friend had a dog with severe, severe allergies (some of the worst MSU has seen) and said it ended up being cheaper to go through them than the vets in town.  She told me not to let my vet give her steroids.

Let us know what they say. I really hope its nothing serious.

Poor Kenya!  I wonder what the hec it is.  Has she seemed stressed out since bringing Nikon home.  Sometimes when they are stressed, their immune system weakens.  In the meantime, since your vet is late this afternoon...can you get some of the 100% aloe gel.  That will sooth it...she may not be acting like it bothers her but you know their tolerance is greater than ours.

Keep us posted...poor girl.

CoBuHe

Poor Kenya!  I wonder what the hec it is.  Has she seemed stressed out since bringing Nikon home.  Sometimes when they are stressed, their immune system weakens.

Not really, she doesn't seem to care either way.  Right before we got him I noticed a few little blisters on her belly but nothing like this rash.  Sometimes she gets a bug bit or irritation here or there so I thought nothing of it but perhaps it was the beginnings of this rash. 

 Another thought, is that it could be stress related. Her immune system may be a tad under the weather with Nikon coming home. (Rosco is sensitive and his skin is the first sign to us that he is stressing.) It may be something that, once treated, you can keep at bay with immune boosters for the next few months while the family/pack adjust to the new addition.

It probably wouldn't hurt to put her on Echinacea drops either way.  Its an immune booster; and whatever she has she could probably benefit right now.

Good news and bad news.  Good news is the vet knew right away, said it's a staph infection of normal bacteria that are a bit out of control and her body is reacting to them.  So that's good b/c it's not super serious and not a food allergy, thank God.  The bad news is the meds were expensive and humans get them for free at Meijer, and if they don't work she needs expensive shots, but we'll see...

Hmm -- cephalexyn should clear up staph.  I would likely have asked **why** an expensive med -- why not try something simpler first?

Your MSU thot was a very good one -- SOMETHING initially caused the staph infection .. that's the cycle with allergies.  The allergies cause the initial inflammation and then staph (which is as common as grass and dirt) has a heyday.

DO try the baths I suggested.  I know that sounds crazy but it truly helps SOOOOO much and so fast.

I'd have to say Lies -- beware -- staph is SO common.  Why he jumped to something expensive?  I'd have been asking why (that's me with my experience -- not something you should have known).  And I didn't see this earlier to say anything about the cephalexyn dose.  Ceph is typically THE#1 choice for staph skin infection.  Human or dog.

Casey had a pretty nasty staph infection last year, we didn't do the antibiotics - just medicated baths. It cleared up immediatly - and I was much happier doing that than meds (Casey wasn't, but he got over it).

Grass allergies are REALLY bad right now - mine and the dogs. I would wipe her belly down when she comes in from being outside.

Callie the ceph. is the expensive thing, I'm just complaining b/c if MY Dr. prescribed it I can get it for FREE at the local grocery store (all common antibiotics are free), but for a dog it costs nearly $100.  She is on 500mg three times a day for two weeks.  If that does not work then he wants to try injections that build up the dog's immunity to staph.  He said those are even more expensive and hopefully will not be necessary.

I asked about bathing and he said to do the meds.  Moisture and dampness could make it worse he said, and her being a large breed with a double coat I can't just bathe her and towel her down, she needs a full back blow which takes a long time.  He said just go on as usual, don't do anything new or unusual to stress her.  She is not itching now and we want to keep it that way so we aren't making any changes to food, environment, etc that could stress her or make her start to itch.  He also said he wouldn't do a bordetella even though she was due b/c he didn't want her immune system to work any harder, it would react worse against the staph.

As for the grass, I can wipe her but it's been rainy and my grass is saturated, she is often running through water and muck.  The rain will be turning to snow in a few days.