Chima's Trip to the Vet

Chima love to hunt and she doesn't let anything stand between her and her prey - not even a hedge or shrub. Nope, Chima just dives right in. Well she ends up with the occasional scrape because of this and one of those scrapes just wouldn't go away. It is on her side and she licked it and bothered it but I really didn't want to put a cone on her because she's so touch sensitive that I figured it would really irritate her.

Chima at Browns Point Vet Clinic

I got the idea to give her a trachea chip to chew on after I put the hot spot salve on to keep her from licking it off. It worked wonderfully and after we used that tactic the spot finally seemed to heal. I figured we'd just wait and the fur would grow back. But we waited and waited and it didn't grow back. And then I noticed a few other thin spots near the first one and another thin spot on her forehead. Time to get some help from our vet.

I have a wonderful holistic vet who I love to use because her first response to every ailment isn't either antibiotics or Prednisone. She was pretty sure that it was demodex, and a skin scrape let us know that she was right.

The spot - a little raw today from the skin scrape

Both her and I are both a bit perplexed. Typically you see demodex in immune suppressed dogs - puppies, dogs with a bad diet, or dogs under high stress. But Chima is super healthy, her coat (other than those spots) is beautiful and she's been more relaxed than ever before at our house. Oh well. For now it will be a mystery.

Dr. Sperlich wants us to first try to treat the demodex without the drug Ivermectin. Instead I will continue with the high powered probiotics I've been giving her, some coconut oil, and an immune building herb that I can't remember the name of right now. Then topically I will apply a neem oil based hot spot treatment twice a day. Hoping we'll start to see some hair growth soon.

Chima did great at the vet, though. She did NOT want that skin scrape and I totally can't blame her. She got some high value treats once she lived through that and that seemed to change her focus. Then when I was paying I gave her a trachea chip to keep her busy and she totally forgot the ordeal and laid down on the rug to chew her chip. In fact, she didn't want to leave the office because she wasn't done chewing yet. Good girl Chima!