Colleen’s former family reached out to Westie and Scottie Rescue Houston when they decided they had their hands full. They told us that they had been struggling with Colleen’s allergy issues, but now they had a new baby and were overwhelmed. They loved Colleen and wanted the best for her, and they realized that turning her over to someone else to help her would be the best thing to do.
When our volunteers picked Colleen up, they described her as stinky and scabby, with black crusty skin and missing hair. We immediately assessed everything she was being fed and all the medications she was taking. We initially changed Colleen’s diet to the grain-free, chicken-free formula we feed most of the Westies who come into our care and, along with frequent medicated baths, she began to improve over the next few months, but she still had itchy skin. Another visit to the vet included doing a skin culture to determine whether different medications were needed. The vet also recommended doing a diet trial with a hydrolyzed diet. We knew that her previous owners had fed her a traditional hydrolyzed diet made with soy and that her skin worsened on it, so we started Colleen on Hydrolyzed Salmon diet recommended by a veterinary dermatologist for another dog in our program. When the skin culture results came back, they showed that the bacteria on Colleen’s skin was resistant to the antibiotics she had been prescribed, so we started her on a course of a new antibiotic that the bacteria was sensitive to. Meanwhile, we scheduled an echocardiogram with a cardiologist because the vet had noted hearing an unusual heart murmur, and we had bloodwork done because she had been on some of the medications a long time and we wanted to make sure they were not causing damage to her organs. Both the echocardiogram and bloodwork showed normal results, so the vets said they had no issues resuming focus on treating Colleen’s skin.
Colleen has been on the Hydrolyzed Salmon diet for about a month now and is showing major improvements. Her skin is getting soft and pink and she is growing hair on her neck and legs, which previously had thick, black, scaly skin. The plan is to keep Colleen on this diet for the foreseeable future and reassess as needed. When she is adopted, her furever home will need to commit to maintaining her special diet.
Thank you for helping us help Colleen get comfortable in her own skin!
Kind regards,
Maggie
Volunteer, Intake Coordinator
Westie and Scottie Rescue Houston