I’ve had a few people contact me saying they found that post while searching for similar symptoms in their own dogs. I thought I’d run it down and give an update.

Here’s what I sent in one email:

When George developed his skin problem, he had been on Prednisone for almost a year, at a dose of 20mg/day (a 10mg pill twice a day), which he was taking for an autoimmune disease affecting his nose (it had started to enlarge, turning red as the tissue sort of ripped apart, not good, I know!). It was a long-named disease, three words, one of which I think was ‘subcutaneous’. Our vet had never seen this problem before, and I think was consulting with some folks here at Purdue in the vet school.

With the prednisone his nose got better.

But then we noticed the rolls on his back and near his head, which were akin to fat rolls. We had taken him to the groomers and once his hair was short we were able to see the skin better, and it was rather flakey and crusty, and the rolls/his back seemed warm to the touch. We scheduled a vet appointment, and by the time we got him in (maybe two days later on emergency), the rolls had developed a pus-mucus film. The vet shaved an area of his back (as much as he could tolerate) and brought him back into the room and my gosh it was awful! It was red and pussy and very much like the photos on my site, and it had a smell to it. The vet took some skin samples to have analyzed. It came back with two infections, one of which was E. coli and the other a Staph infection. The vet thought that the E. coli was just a secondary infection, due to George’s immune system being susceptible because of the prednisone.

We started George on antibiotics and pain killers and weened him off the prednisone. It was a very slow recovery and the skin issue spread before it got better (it went the entire length of his back, onto his tail, the insides of his ears, and the top parts of his legs—starting with the rolls and then hair/skin loss and pus). For at least a week we gave him lukewarm baths (but no rubbing or soaps) to rinse and calm the areas, which helped to clean off the dead skin and hair. We also had him wear socks on his paws to keep him from scratching himself raw. He lost all of the hair from the affected areas.

Eventually, maybe close to week three, his skin dried up, scabbed over, and healed—although he has a lot of scar tissue around his neck and a smattering on his back. He has since regrown all of his hair, though his skin is now black in those areas (he had pink skin) and the hair is noticeably thinner. The vet was surprised at his hair growing back and said he made a much better recovery than she expected.

I just wanted to let folks know how it went for our dog. Feel free to contact me for our vet’s contact info, so your vet can do a consult as they can better speak veterinarianese with each other regarding George’s case.

Hey, it’s not cancer! Which is what I was worried the results would show.

The vet is having us wean him off of the steroids for the next two weeks and afterward we will switch him to another immunosuppressant for the nose disease (which is this long string of words I can’t even pronounce yet). Hopefully the new meds will not kick his ass the way the current one did.

Minus the crusties still on his neck, and the calcium-hardened areas of the rest of his body, and the two hot spots on his front legs, George is perkier in spirits and almost back to normal.

All I can say is, it’s really fucking gross y’all. And the smell—have you ever had teeth pulled or know someone who has? You ever smell your/their breath after day three, where they can’t really rinse well and the blood is congealing and there’s just this major putrid funk? Yeah, George’s neck smells just like that.

Expand if you want to see the hurt/nasty (NOT for the squeamish).

This all started as weird rolls (sort of like fat rolls) on his back, and they began to develop pus.

You can read about it here.

We went to the vet and they shaved his back as much as he would tolerate and here is what was found:

Open sores and more pus. Gross, right? He also has sores on the inside of his ears.

So we took him home and did some hydrotherapy on him until the sores began to crust-over and develop scabs. Now it’s pretty scabby and we’re waiting for the swelling to go down more.

So here’s how E. coli and a staph infection work in dogs.

He should be okay; at least the vet hasn’t told us differently or to “prepare” for anything.

We’ve put little socks on his back legs; in case he does get a few scratches in, it shouldn’t cut him up.

You should smell it.

Work is super-crazy. Not in a ‘I’m always so busy my head isn’t on straight’ way, just that it’s totally insane the stuff we deal with at work. It’s like the underbelly of education and I had no idea it was this fucked-up.

Two

George isn’t doing so well. He’s developed some sort of skin infection and we had to rush him to the vet yesterday. We noticed his skin on his back was red and had a visit scheduled for later today, but when The Partner came home yesterday for lunch he sent me a message that we had to get George to the vet ASAP. They shaved part of his neck and back and holy fuck is it awful—red, puffy, open wounds, puss. I’ll spare y’all the photos of that. Instead, here are some from earlier in the week, after he had been to the groomers but before it got too bad. He’s wearing the cone because by this time he had started scratching his ears like crazy, often to bleeding. We’re not sure what’s wrong, but the vet did use the word “gnarly” at least five times, mentioned hospitalization, and something about health authorities. I don’t know.

You’ll notice (kind of) that we had the groomer leave some head hair. When I asked her to give him his regular cut but leave some head hair, she was all, “Leave the head hair?” And I was all, “Yeah, his head hair. We’d like for him to have some longer hair on his head.” It’s the cutest thing ever. Although George Harrison was a Beatle, we call him Ringo.

We’re hoping he pulls through okay. I’m home with him today—he’s on a lot of meds and pain killers and we have to keep him from scratching himself. A few times a day we have to put him in the bathtub and rinse his neck and back with cool water (“hydrotherapy” the vet called it). He’s seriously so pitiful right now, passed out in a Tramadol coma with socks on his back feet so he won’t hurt himself if he does get a few scratches in before we get to him. Oh, dogchildren.

Three

I’ve been messing around with Tumblr more. My opinion on it is somewhere between afraid and ambivalent. Afraid because this shit isn’t on my own server (they don’t even have native comments) and ambivalent because it is really easy to share what you find online and there’s a good community around it.

Four

Drag Show photos. Oh my god fuck I know. You have no idea the photo backlog on my computer right now. I’ll try to get to them today and this weekend. Don’t feel too bad: there’s a Christlessmas gift I knit for my aunt that I STILL haven’t mailed to her.

Five

The economy. What the fuck is up, y’all? Every day the news reports on something or another that scares the shit out of me. I hope you’re floating.

Then she asked, “Would puppy like a rawhide?”

And that rather caught me off guard. She pulled from her other hand one of several flat rawhides. I said, “Uh, he has allergies, but thank you!”

It was the damnedest thing and I felt awful for not taking the rawhide, but a stranger was offering my dogchild candy and I got protective.

Maybe she was missing a dog she once loved and was simply looking to spread joy to a neighbor dog.

We start to clean it up and I pick up a little fluff and when I get to look at it close up, I realize it’s more like a fluff of cotton. “Did you throw a cotton ball in the basket?”

The Partner answers in the negative and it is then that I remember that before we left for the coffee shop Vicki and I had talked about our cycles being in sync and then I remembered how she took care of her female duty and HOLY SHIT SHE PUT HER PAD IN THE BATHROOM WASTE BASKET. I tell The Partner, “Oh, then this is Vic’s pad. Her bloody pad.”

Our dog is fucking gross.

Guilty.

“The rope-ball thing? George tore up the ball, but there’s some left. It’s in the toy box.”

“Ah. It isn’t his.”

“I was wondering about that. I thought maybe you had gone to Giant Pet Store earlier and bought a new toy. But hey, George sort-of played tug with me.”

George sort-of played tug.

After dinner we went outside and I was flopping the toy around on the ground while George pretended to be a cat, pouncing on it and smacking it with his paws. Then he picked it up with his mouth and started backing away, while I was still holding it. I gave him some resistance, and he still held on to the toy.

This is major.

After two years George is finally playing tug, albeit in a kinda, sort-of way. He doesn’t growl and won’t tug too hard, but he’s definitely playing. Hopefully I can get him to play tomorrow so I can take a few shots of him seeming more like a dog who isn’t afraid of humans.

He’s making progress!

At 11am yesterday, my university decided it wasn’t that bad, only a little bit bad, so they called a “snow recess” from noon Tuesday to noon today.

My only problem with this recess — okay, my second problem with this recess, the first being the university calling it a “recess” — is this:

My university actually expects me to venture out of my home and find my way to campus this afternoon.

UPDATE: While composing this post, my university came to their senses and at 10am has decided to cancel all classes today. I think the fact the county has requested no one leave their homes had something to do with it.

Here are some shots taken yesterday, last night, and this morning of the effects of this so-called blizzard.

By 11:10am the snow was beginning to drift in our backyard.

By 1pm our neighbors came out with their dog, Dice, looking for The Canadian’s dog, Zoe. The Partner joined them with George, while I stayed inside the door and took pictures because I’m still sick from last Thursday. I hate being sick.

Because of the drifting snow, some parts of our backyard were waist-deep — or chest-deep on Zoe, a lab.

Poor George with his little legs had to take flying leaps to get over the drift. He’s so cute.

Zoe could just manage the drift.

Around 3:30pm an idiot was trying to get into his parking spot, got stuck, and some neighbors were kind enough to help him.

And here’s evidence of how mean The Partner and I are: we see this commotion and notice something special. Instead of averting our eyes, we look at each other and The Partner yells, “Get your camera!”

If those guys had turned around, they would have seen us both standing in front of the window, fighting to get the best shot of this dude’s ass hanging out of his pants.

Try as he did, they kept falling.

Here’s a shot of the snow building up at our front door by 3:36pm:

By 10:40pm the snow/drifting snow had trapped us and our cars.

Here’s George coming back from a pee after braving the backyard

At 8:45am this is what we awoke to:

Here’s George being cute again.

I hope you are all safe and warm.

EDITED 07-24-08: Link to WLFI article expired.