[Dailydrool] bacterial infection?

[Menzie Campbell]

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Debbie - I second whoever it was that mentioned a bacterial infection
of the skin as a cause for odor.  I would actually suggest that your
vet do a skin scraping and check for any number of things:

1. skin mites (this would be a form of mange, when mites that normally
live on the skin with no problem get out of control growth-wise,
usually because of a compromised immune system)
2. yeast of other fungal infection on the skin - these can also
sometimes be asymptomatic except for odor;
3.  bacterial infection of the skin.  Both this and fungal infections
can cause terrible lingering odors.

For all of these though, a skin scraping and culture should show it if
it's there.   If there is a bacterial infection, it might be worth the
extra $50-60 to send it out to a lab to be cultured and tested to see
which antibiotic would work best against it (often, infections of
long-standing are resistant to one or more antibiotics).

 Other possibilities are stress-related odor, as someone else
mentioned about their pit/basset mix, and/or a food allergy that's
causing her body to smell as she works to process that food it comes
out through her skin.  It sounds like you are feeding her an
excellent-quality food, so I would put that possibility pretty low on
the scale.  But if you've tried the skin scraping, etc. and it all
comes up clean, you might consider a food elimination diet with her at
a last resort.  If that time comes, several people here on the Drool
can help you with that.

I sure hope you can find the problem.  That poor girl, she's had
enough trouble in her life.  As to one fo the boys not liking her- you
know, I've fostered tons and tons of dogs over the years, and
sometimes, a dog is giving off the wrong body language, and sometimes
a dog smells "weird" to another dog, and sometimes it's a
challenge-for-hierarchy thing... and sometimes two dogs jsut flat
don't like each other.  Just like humans sometimes clash, I suppose.
At any rate, the Brudder is just going to have to understand that he
at least has to be civil to her.
-- 
Menzie Campbell
Save a Life - Don't Shop, ADOPT!
Owned by Pw. Annabelle ATB, Hector TVL, Barney, Bozlee, Millie and now
Pippa and Bonnie (the sisters)