Treating Skin Infections in Dogs, Herbs, Oils, & Extracts
Diagnosing & treating yeasty skin infections
In general, yeasty skin infections have a strong odour and develop in moist skin folds, such as the armpit (axilla), deep face wrinkles, around the tail. If yeast infections include the nails, a brown material develops at the junction of the nail and the toe. If yeast infections include the external ear canals, a waxy brown (not black) cerumen debris collects in the external canals.
Many shampoos help control yeasts, including Miconazole & Nizoral. They are used twice a week and left on for 10 min before being rinsed off. Then, a very dilute vinegar & water solution can be used as a rinse and allowed to dry on the skin. To help prevent yeast from developing between shampoos, products containing tea tree oil or lavender oil can be applied twice a day.
Diagnosing & treating bacterial skin infections
If the problem is bacterial, often there are tiny red swellings like little pimples that develop at hair follicles. These can increase in size and become large and bright red or remain tiny and faintly pink. Some skin bacteria cause moist circular red areas surrounded by a ring of flaking or peeling skin. These are called collarets. Because bacteria loves moisture, skin folds are often the first places to show bacterial infections: areas around the vulva and anus, axilla, lip folds. The belly and lower abdomen are also good place to look for bacterial skin infections.
If your pet has a bacterial skin infection, bathing with an antibacterial shampoos or solutions, such as Pyoben and Chlorhexadine, will physically remove the organisms so that the immune system can come in and clean up the infection. We can help the immune system by applying herbs & oils to the skin, such as yucca, dilute lavender oil, and yucca.
Herbs, extracts, oils that help the skin
• Aloe vera
• Arnica
• Bromelain
• Calendula
• Curcumin (turmeric)
• German chamomile
• Grape seed extract
• Lanolin
• Lavender oil
• Green tea
• Pomegranate
• Rosemary
• Tea tree oil
0 Response to "Treating Skin Infections in Dogs, Herbs, Oils, & Extracts"
Post a Comment