PET of the MONTH

Rocsi

Rocsi is a 5-year-old, Golden Retriever mix. Rocsi presented to us at OMVS on Dec.20/2006 with symptoms of itchy skin, foul odour from entire dog and scabs/crusts through her groin area and along her abdomen.

After a thorough examination and a simple ear swab it was determined Rocsi had a terrible yeast overgrowth.
She was sent home on Anti-inflammatory's as well as Anti-biotics.

Rocsi returned on Jan.31/2007 with the same symptoms as previously. At this time it was decided to try another approach. Rocsi was sent home with a Vegetarian diet and a skin supplement, as well as still being on her previous medications.

Scabs and Crusts covering Rosci's chest, abdomen, and groin.

On Feb.15/2007 Rocsi had a sudden flare up with large scabs/crusts but no itchy skin. It was decided at this time that Rocsi would need to undergo a general anesthetic to obtain skin biopsies. The biopsies were sent to a lab for examination and blood was taken to test Rocsi's thyroid levels.

Within days the results had returned for both the biopsies and her thyroid levels. There was no definite answer from the skin biopsies, but Rosci's thyroid levels were too low for her age. So she was sent home with a thyroid supplement called "ThyroTabs" and asked to have her blood retested in 4 to 6 months.

Rocsi has since been taken off the skin supplement and the vegetarian diet, and to this day has had only a few flare up's with her skin due to swimming and is maintaining nicely!