Expert: Christine Puetz - 5/26/2009

Question
Hi. I have a 1 year old English bulldog here in Guangzhou, China. I assume because it is so hot and humid here that it is causing Mambo to have ongoing skin problems. The more I wash him, the more he stinks. The vets here are not professional and I have taken him to two. They fill him with adrenaline and feed him all kinds of medicine because they don't know what the problem is. He has even been very sick from this. I have shaved him, which makes him more itchy. My neighbours are threatening me and think I am unclean. I will be forced to find him a new home soon, but with his smell it will be hard.

Answer
Sarah,

Sounds like your bulldog has demodectic mange.  You need to have a vet take a skin scrape to know for sure.  It is very easy do to.

Treatment for demodectic mange is ivermectin.  It works very well.

If it is something else, a skin scrape should help determine what the problem is.

Christine Puetz