shaving stomach

J

JacqueZ

Forums Enthusiast
Thats it, I'm shaving down Honey's stomach in the summer. I was brushing her and noticed that she seemed extra sensitive on her lower stomach, rolled her over and her whole left side is raw with scabs.

All the animals are on flea medications, and after a close inspection they've come out clean, I can't see any signs anywhere else on her body to indicate it's an issue either, it's entirely concentrated on one side of her belly. I'm convinced she does it because of shedding, she had problems with her stomach last year too, and it's been so humid these past few weeks. And I have medicated shampoo and lotion that I put on her, but until she gets to this point where it is so raw the hairs gone, I don't feel like I'm getting enough worked through her fur to have an effect!

I don't even know how it got so far! She's with me all day in view sight. A few weeks ago when her shedding picked up (she's at the stage where all the little tufts are coming out instead of the looser and longer part of the undercoat) I noticed her biting at night, but I started keeping her by my head so it'd wake me up and I could rub it gently instead of having her bite it, and she hasn't had that issue since I started using the lotion again to help. :gaah

I hate seeing her in pain! So screw it, she's not a show dog, and she doesn't need fluffy belly hair if it's going to lead to her being uncomfortable!:cry:
 
I trimmed my Aussie bellies for years. It's comfortable for them.

Is there anything else that may have happened? Maybe she laid down near ants or something?
 
That's a good thought, she's very sensitive to bug bites and she's outside with me a lot. Last year it started because her frontline wasn't working, it's how she ended up with vector, which is so strong I wouldn't use it except as a last resort.

She must have been super bothered by it, she was an angel while I trimmed her belly down with scissors, normally she hates being on her back for grooming, and the minute I go near her back end or her legs for trimming she starts fidgeting like crazy.

It was so much easier to bath her stomach with it clipped down, I did all the lower belly, and a little bit down the inside thighs, and I feel like the lotion is actually on her skin now. (And again, she was such an angel in the bath she had to be feeling better as soon as the water splashed against it.)

If anyone can give me a quick recommendation on a decent clipper I can buy off amazon I'd appreciate it.

*Sigh* It's so easy to get so worked up over their health.
 
That's just what my husband looked like when he kneeled on a nest of red (fire) ants a couple weeks ago. He said he felt like he had taken a bath in salsa and enjoyed me smearing aloe goop all over his back.

Let's hope it all heals up quickly and was a freak happening.
 
Gavin had a nasty reaction to something last year.
I had him on steroids twice to clear it up. It was all down his groin/thigh :(
It was so red and hot to the touch, but i probably wouldnt have noticed as quickly is it was under his furry bits (ok, most of him!)
 
How old is she?

There could be other reasons for what are you seeing. Allergies is an obvious one to consider. Either food or environmental.

The other is hypothyroid. One of the first noticeable symptoms is the skin funk that goes along with it. What do the scabs look like? Are they individual like bites, or more spread out and kindly oily in texture. You mentioned shedding. Is she shedding more than normal?

I'm not saying that shaving her is wrong. Just check her out medically first.
 
BarbV said:
How old is she?

There could be other reasons for what are you seeing. Allergies is an obvious one to consider. Either food or environmental.

The other is hypothyroid. One of the first noticeable symptoms is the skin funk that goes along with it. What do the scabs look like? Are they individual like bites, or more spread out and kindly oily in texture. You mentioned shedding. Is she shedding more than normal?

I'm not saying that shaving her is wrong. Just check her out medically first.
Click to expand...

Always good advice Barb, and she did switch food last month... If this doesn't clear up in a few days, I'll get her into the doctor and look into her food.

She is shedding heavier than she has in previous years, but it doesn't seem to be an abnormal shedding. Her coat everywhere other than her stomach where the reaction is localized, is heavy and thick, even with the shedding she's doing.

The scabs look like...well flea droppings really, except that they don't wash off. The skin around them is slightly...inflamed looking I guess, I maybe see a few spots that could be bites, but if they are they're already going away and it might be my imagination. The skins not oily; The skin itself isn't scaly, the scabs are spread out with tighter clusters near her thigh crease and in a few heavy groupings toward the rib cage, the size varies, some are pin pricks (that tends to be the case in the groupings) a few are about the size of a small ant. There's no smell that goes along with it. Because it's localized I would lean towards an environmental issue... Actually I've tending to blame it on the coat shedding every year because it's around that time and she gets sensitive when that happens, but the more you guys talk about the various options the more sense it makes that it could be a plant, or a bug thats in our yard, maybe the shedding just exposes more of her skin to it and that's why I've seemed to see a correlation. Our house sat empty with the yard growing wild for three years before we bought it, plenty of time for bad things to settle in.

She's seen the vet about this each time it happens too. The first two years the vet insisted the itching was because she was infected with fleas, despite the fact that she was on flea medication and had no visible signs of fleas even after he took out the flea combs and searched for their leavings. :gaah

I told him both times that from what I could see it seemed to be that she has sensitive skin/and or an allergy to flea bites. But he had no interest in changing his perceptions. I ended up switching away from him, because he wasn't willing to get her a different brand of flea protection, let alone the stronger stuff that repels and kills the bugs without them having to bite her first, to see if that would help. He also didn't give me anything to help the staph infection she got from scratching so much. When his brilliant method of ignoring the issue and hoping it would clear up wasn't effective I switched to a new one.

My new vet got me the medicated shampoo and and lotion, an antibiotic and got Honey steroids to take while the infection was ongoing. It cleared up very quickly. If this persists, I know she'll be careful to explore every avenue for what could be the problem.

Even if this was from her sitting on an ant hill or something, I think I'm going to stick with the idea of shaving her stomach in the summer. If nothing else, since I know she tends to have problems in that area, it'll let me keep a better eye on it, so I know when I need to apply lotion and wash it more frequently.

Barb, outside of a skin funk, what else would I look for if it was something like hyperthyroidism?

Oh! also, she's three...
 
Ok doesn't sound like hypothyroid. If it was, you would be seeing it all over and oily patches, not red scabs

One piece of advice....vets generally know little about food. They just aren't trained in it. Though there are many that go the extra mile to learn (with apologies in advance to dr. Mac and dr. Shelli. :o)

I would conisider allergens of some kind. The fact that they are localized on the belly implies environmental......ie lying in something. Has there being ant weed or pesticide spraying in your area?

I'm not sure that shaving the belly would help. It might make it worse as there would be no protection at all.

One product you could try is Vetricyn. It's awesome for wounds and hot spots.

I'm not sure what else to suggest.
 
I trimmed her belly almost as soon as I first started the post.... we'll see if she has more or less problems this year with it like that...

It seems to be clearing up and I like that I'm actually getting the lotion directly applied to the skin.

I'm still leaning towards shaving it in the summer in general, because she's pulled almost all the hair out each year anyway. I'd rather just trim it than have her yanking it out while scratching, it seems like it'd save her some pain. I'll look into getting some weed control and put more cornmeal out in the yard to try to limit the irritants she's exposed to. Previous to this I haven't bothered to much with the ants around our trees...I figured the more ants the less fleas...

I'm also planning to line the inside of our fence with lavender once it's up. Lavender is supposed to repel fleas and a few other insects...

I'll check out the Vetricyn if she keeps scratching the area, and I'll definitely recommend it to my mom. She has bichons, which are awful for hotspots!
 
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