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Old January 5th, 2017, 12:38 AM
Shazanne Shazanne is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 73
Suspect a Yeast Infection - Advice Needed

Hi Everyone,
Happy New Year to all and to all your precious pets.
I suspect my 12+ years old girl has a yeast infection on her skin. She is a terrier mix and her coat is primarily black on the body and tan on her tummy, head and legs.
She began losing hair on her ears and had some small nodules on the edges of her ear flaps some months ago. Her vet suspected vasculitis but testing ruled that out thankfully.
However I have noticed that her hair is thinning on her muzzle and the skin underneath seems to have a black colour to it - sort of like tiny dots so close together that it looks all black. She has the same on her outer ears and some on her inner ear flap, on her elbows and also quite a bit on her tummy.
She also does not smell as she used to. There is a strong smell from her, despite the fact that we bathe her although not too often as she hates it! It's hard to describe the smell - its like a musty unclean smell. Her breath has also become very strong and foul smelling - I can even smell her breath if she is barking up at me from the floor.
She seems to be sleeping very heavily as well and is difficult to waken. I don't know if this is related but I do know her hearing has deteriorated, but even when she is roused she is slow to waken full - she used to leap out of bed.
She eats a food called Vital Pet - which is a 5 star food that is fresh and comes in a chubb that must be kept chilled. She eats the chicken, beef, turkey and beef/chicken/salmon nuggets. She loves it and, as a picky eater, I am loathe to change it.
Google searches have thrown up a condition called Malassezia Pachydermatis, which seems to match her symptoms but I'm wondering if other pet parents have a dog with similar symptoms and what they suggest. Taking her to the vet is not a problem (I work in veterinary clinic) but I don't want her simply put on a medication if there is something I can do to help her that doesn't involve giving her drugs.
Thanks in advance for any help and apologies for the lengthy post!
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