Poor Revan

My poor baby.  Revan has had summer skin problems since we got him.  The first year, we didn't clip him and discovered it under there, to our horror about mid-way through summer.  It had gotten so bad that it had turned into a staph infection.  Since he's part husky and it gets so hot here in the summer, we decided to clip him after that, hoping that it would help his skin breathe and keep it healthier.

No dice.  We have tried everything as he's apparently allergic to just about everything.  We tried specialized food.  No change.  We tried different shampoos, flea preparations, brushing and combing, steroids...  You name it, we've tried it.  And without fail, every summer his skin just falls apart. 

This year, I clipped him (not shaved - he's got fair skin and needs some sun protection, so I just shorten his hair) and things were good for a little while.  Then the fleas began their season and his flea dermatitis flared up worse than ever.  Frontline didn't work.  Advantage helped a little but not enough.  Comfortis won't even get past his lips.  And spraying him stings too much.  His back end pretty much went bald, his skin fiery red with raw and bleeding patches.  You wanted to cry just to look at him.

I've been all over the internet, to the vet (hence the steroids), and perused shelves at PetSmart in search of help for my poor doggie. 

Then I remembered.  We had another dog, Nikki, who had horrible skin.  It wasn't as bad as Revan's but still pretty bad.  Visiting the Ace Hardware where we lived, I saw some horse shampoo that looked like it addressed all my DOG'S problems.  I bought it and we washed Nikki with it twice a week.  And after a while, her skin got better.  In fact, it was darned near miraculous how much better she was.

So I went out in search of Eqyss Micro-Tek Medicated Horse Shampoo and could not find it in town.  Darling Man rode his bike past our old Ace Hardware when he rides the trail, so the next time he went, he stopped in and bought a bottle.  He also got a bottle of Equine Gel, which "neutralizes skin problems, minimizes scars, helps with scratches, rainrot and girth itch."  And it helps tame his lobster skin to a barely pink.  It can be used on the raw spots because it doesn't contain alcohol so it won't sting.  The difference is amazing - as long as we can keep Revan from licking and chewing, which seems to have become a habit now.  Hence the cone.

One night after a bath, a gel application and the cone, the improvement was amazing.  He looks goofy and he gets hung up in the strangest places because he doesn't know how to maneuver around in the cone, but it's definitely worth it.

Last night he caught the edge of it on the ottoman and froze.  He stood there and stood there and it wasn't until he snored that I realized he was stuck.  I went and lifted the edge of the cone from the corner of the ottoman and he woke up, looked at me blearily and went upstairs to sleep.  Then, in the middle of the night, I heard his feet shuffling in the hallway.  Normally, he starts the night out in the master bedroom, then moves to sleep in my son's room.  I got up to investigate and he'd caught the edge on the latchplate of my son's doorway.  I unhooked him and he went in to lie down.  He'll get the hang of it soon...  because he's going to be in the cone for a while.  Even with his skin looking better, he needs to break the habit of licking and chewing or he'll just wind up back in the same place.