Since our visit to the vet last week, Dudley is doing splendidly. He hasn’t scratched once. He’s taking two different internal meds, and I have to bathe him three times a week with special shampoo and rinse. The problem is a combination of certain malicious bacteria and fungus that are found on all dogs and cats but which are dangerous on certain canine skin like that of many Westies. The germs eat away at the epidermis creating deep redness, and the need to scratch almost endlessly until the fur actually falls out, and the skin becomes tough and wrinkled as a body defense. Those areas look and feel like elephant skin. Healing has begun, but there is much more treatment necessary to keep the bugs at bay.
I knew that Dr. Parker was good when she walked into the room, where Duds and I were. Her manner won over Dudley immediately. Also, it’s obvious that she knows her stuff. She addressed every issue and possible treatment from top to bottom. At LAST I have found somebody, who really knows what she’s doing! Dudley is going to be all right in six to eight weeks and is already a much happier dog. The dark, scaly, irritated skin where he was scratching so fiercely is already turning a healthy pink again. I’m sleeping better and enjoying my dog once again.
It turns out that his allergies weren’t even food-based. I’m able to hide his pills in pieces of Swiss cheese now. Another issues was that I was using organic, special oatmeal shampoos and rinses, which weren’t killing any of the microbes. Dr. Parker said it might have been better just to use Dawn Dishwashing Liquid! His shampoo is now a medicated one I must leave on him for ten minutes before the rinse. At any rate, everything seems to be working. Hooray! I need to publicize this, as many people with Westies give up and have their dogs taken to shelters or even put down. My point is that there is hope for dogs suffering from this affliction, the medical term for which is Malassezia Dermatitis. There are medications and treatments that can relieve and eliminate this problem, making your pets happy again. JB
About John
About John
John Bolinger was born and raised in Northwest Indiana, where he attended Ball State University and Purdue University, receiving his BS and MA from those schools. Then he taught English and French for thirty-five years at Morton High School in Hammond, Indiana before moving to Colorado, where he resided for ten years before moving to Florida. Besides COME SEPTEMBER, Journey of a High School Teacher, John's other books are ALL MY LAZY RIVERS, an Indiana Childhood, and COME ON, FLUFFY, THIS AIN'T NO BALLET, a Novel on Coming of Age, all available on Amazon.com as paperbacks and Kindle books. Alternately funny and touching, COME SEPTEMBER, conveys the story of every high school teacher’s struggle to enlighten both himself and his pupils, encountering along the way, battles with colleagues, administrators, and parents through a parade of characters that include a freshman boy for whom the faculty code name is “Spawn of Satan,” to a senior girl whose water breaks during a pop-quiz over THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. Through social change and the relentless march of technology, the human element remains constant in the book’s personal, entertaining, and sympathetic portraits of faculty, students, parents, and others. The audience for this book will certainly include school teachers everywhere, teenagers, parents of teens, as well as anyone who appreciates that blend of humor and pathos with which the world of public education is drenched. The drive of the story is the narrator's struggle to become the best teacher he can be. The book is filled with advice for young teachers based upon experience of the writer, advice that will never be found in college methods classes.
Another of John's recent books is Mum's the Word: Secrets of a Family. It is the story of his alcoholic father and the family's efforts to deal with or hide the fact. Though a serious treatment of the horrors of alcoholism, the book also entertains in its descriptions of the father during his best times and the humor of the family's attempts to create a façade for the outside world. All John's books are available as paperbacks and Kindle readers on Amazon, and also as paperbacks at Barnes & Noble. John's sixth book is, Growing Old in America: Notes from a Codger was released on June 15, 2014. John’s most recent book is a novel titled Resisting Gravity, A Ghost Story, published the summer of 2018
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Since our visit to the vet last week, Dudley is doing splendidly. He hasn’t scratched once. He’s taking two different internal meds, and I have to bathe him three times a week with special shampoo and rinse. The problem is a combination of certain malicious bacteria and fungus that are found on all dogs and cats but which are dangerous on certain canine skin like that of many Westies. The germs eat away at the epidermis creating deep redness, and the need to scratch almost endlessly until the fur actually falls out, and the skin becomes tough and wrinkled as a body defense. Those areas look and feel like elephant skin. Healing has begun, but there is much more treatment necessary to keep the bugs at bay.
I knew that Dr. Parker was good when she walked into the room, where Duds and I were. Her manner won over Dudley immediately. Also, it’s obvious that she knows her stuff. She addressed every issue and possible treatment from top to bottom. At LAST I have found somebody, who really knows what she’s doing! Dudley is going to be all right in six to eight weeks and is already a much happier dog. The dark, scaly, irritated skin where he was scratching so fiercely is already turning a healthy pink again. I’m sleeping better and enjoying my dog once again.
It turns out that his allergies weren’t even food-based. I’m able to hide his pills in pieces of Swiss cheese now. Another issues was that I was using organic, special oatmeal shampoos and rinses, which weren’t killing any of the microbes. Dr. Parker said it might have been better just to use Dawn Dishwashing Liquid! His shampoo is now a medicated one I must leave on him for ten minutes before the rinse. At any rate, everything seems to be working. Hooray! I need to publicize this, as many people with Westies give up and have their dogs taken to shelters or even put down. My point is that there is hope for dogs suffering from this affliction, the medical term for which is Malassezia Dermatitis. There are medications and treatments that can relieve and eliminate this problem, making your pets happy again. JB
I am glad that Dudley is doing well
Thanks, Steve!