[TracyJo]

I've used listerine in a spray bottle diluted 1 part listerine to 3 parts water. Just spray her down (don't get in the eyes) and wipe off. Make sure you use the regular listering - not the blue stuff.

That is weird about the smell. Most Dobermans have little to no smell. I wonder if anyone else can shed any light on that. If she gets bumps it is most likely a staph infection - has she been on antibiotics? Most people will recommend a 30 day series of keflex ( I think) for staph. It is really hard to get rid of and a week to 10 days will normally not get rid of it.

Her bumps (I guess I should have explained this in the original post) are more like hives. Only once, when they got really bad (last year) did the doc put her on keflex - Storm had the exact same problem. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a dog over here that didn't have the problem. 1/2 the dogs in our neighborhood are bald and fat due to allergies and (IMO) the overuse of steroids - I'll have to try to get a pic of Buddy (my friends mix) he should be around 25 lbs or so, but he's pushing 40 - waiting for the "roid rages" to start any day now. Storm cleared up immediately after returning to the US - I've heard many people attribute the dog's problems to the coral dust. But Storm never had the stink that Chi does.
She gets bumpy mostly when we have a lot of rain and generally they don't last long. I've brought her in and noticed her almost completely covered with them but they dissapear within an hour most of the time. When we expect much rain (like now) I give her benadryl and that helps quite a bit.
She's been on Canidae for 6 months or so now at least - but like I've said before, occassionally, I have to switch her over to Nutro (the only other food I can find -and afford- on the island that doesn't have corn).
She goes in next week for her annual, I'll talk to the vet again. I agree that it sounds like an infection - I am happy to report that 12 hours after her initial listerine spray, she still doesn't stink

 

[Kratty]

You might be on to something about the coral dust. I guess a good test would be to send Chi to Brum for a month or so and lets see what happens. No alot of info on the net I can find about the effects of coral dust, but for dog allergies of dust, the skin odor falls into that with a whole list of other symptoms that I don't think Chi has....
To be on the safe side, send her to Brum....

 

[TracyJo]

You might be on to something about the coral dust. I guess a good test would be to send Chi to Brum for a month or so and lets see what happens. No alot of info on the net I can find about the effects of coral dust, but for dog allergies of dust, the skin odor falls into that with a whole list of other symptoms that I don't think Chi has....
To be on the safe side, send her to Brum....

If I have to pry another shrew chip out of her mouth, I will!!!!

 

[BackInBlack]

For some reason the bumps during moist periods, and smell, make me think of a horse with rain rot. I wonder if dogs can get something simular? Maybe a dumb question, but who knows... I agree I would make sure it isnt a bacterial infection.

 

[CoAl-s-Mom]

I've never seen so many people with stinky Dobes! I've never run into one.
Tracy, if it smells like cocker ears, that makes me think yeast. But if she doesn't have any sores on her I'm at a lose.

Is she greasy at all?

 

[TracyJo]

Nope, no grease. I'm with you on being at a loss. I just read over on DPDF someone else posting about a stinky Dobe - glad to know it's not just me! But OTOH, would love to get to the root of the problem. I'm sure it's something other than a "stink gene". I've smelled her all over a few minutes ago, her feet smell like fritos, her ears have no odor and appear healthy (I even cleaned them and they were pretty clean, so it's not them), her breath is okay (not sweet but not stinky) - there is a touch of the stink surfacing but it's her whole body, not any one particular part.
If an infection was causing this wouldn't it be manifesting in forms other than stink and occassional bumps at this point? We're talking almost a year and a half of stink... Wouldn't she have fever or the bumps wouldn't go away or super gross ears or something?

 

[CoAl-s-Mom]

She would probably have sores and hairloss if it was a yeast or a bacterial infection.

I wonder if a skin scraping would be helpful if you didn't bath her for like a week and then took her in? Maybe she does have an over growth of yeast, but since you bath her so frequently it hasn't progressed much.

Just throwing out ideas!

 

[TracyJo]

Could be - will try very hard to not bathe her between now and her appt next week - Can't hurt to try Thanks for the suggestions btw

 

[CoAl-s-Mom]

Yeah, let her get good and stinky so your vet will know what you are talking about.

 

[les strat]

TracyJo, has she had a thyroid panel recently?

 

[PeeWeesMama]

Nope, no grease. I'm with you on being at a loss. I just read over on DPDF someone else posting about a stinky Dobe - glad to know it's not just me! But OTOH, would love to get to the root of the problem. I'm sure it's something other than a "stink gene". I've smelled her all over a few minutes ago, her feet smell like fritos, her ears have no odor and appear healthy (I even cleaned them and they were pretty clean, so it's not them), her breath is okay (not sweet but not stinky) - there is a touch of the stink surfacing but it's her whole body, not any one particular part.
If an infection was causing this wouldn't it be manifesting in forms other than stink and occassional bumps at this point? We're talking almost a year and a half of stink... Wouldn't she have fever or the bumps wouldn't go away or super gross ears or something?

Not to make light of the situation, but I would've paid to see the look on her face when you were "smelling" her!!!

 

[TracyJo]

TracyJo, has she had a thyroid panel recently?

Yup - had her thyroid tested in July or August - took forever to get the results but they came back perfect.

 

[frznbuns]

when Raven feet were smelly it turned out to be yeast also.. we found out when we took her in to have the nails trimmed.. I use Listerine Mix on my dogs maybe once a month.. if that..

 

[Riagogogo]

New to the forum....I have a stinky dobe, too! This is one of the reasons I joined this forum. I wanted to see who else had the stinky problem! Read the intoductions thread and you'll get a little bit of our history.......One lady I have met a the local dog park told me her two dobes had "the smell" and she finally took them to an allergist and come to find out, some dobes tend to carry some sort of low grade staph or yeast infection that won't necessarily make their coats fall out. She had to put her dogs on an antibiotic for several months and it finally cleared up. I can give Rudi a bath with oatmeal shampoo and in a few days he is back to his smelly self. We call him "stinky weiner" LOL because it seems to come from under his groins and armpits. I still love my stinky baby! Glad to be here!

 

[wolfgirl1987]

I am sorry to go off topic tracy but when i saw this post on the home page with the title Listerine i thought "how the heck do you get Chi to gargle with Listerine" doh! stupid me.
:largegr: :help_up_2 :help_up_2 :emo11:

LOL I so thought the exact same thing when I read this post

 

[Pippinislove]

Okay, I missed this thread when it was originally started, but can I get any more information on spraying dogs with Listerine? Are you not supposed to rinse it off, just towel them?

I have a dog with allergies who gets skin infections and we're currently trying to find a way to stop them. We've tried food switches and it didn't help, daily Benadryl and it helped but not enough, baths every three days (with a very very very gentle tear-free hypoallergenic shampoo that doesn't strip the oils off the fur), bathing of bedding every once a week with no fabric softener or bleach and a scentless detergent...

Most of these have helped but not ELIMINATED the rashes/bumps/infections, and I'm wondering if maybe Listerine could do the trick, or at least help some more... I see that the main consensus is to mix it with two or three parts water, and spray it into the coat... Do you rinse, air dry, towel dry? Can you use an off-brand (Scope?), can it be a different flavor, or does it have to be the generic green Listerine?

 

[DaKari]

Someone told me it needed to be the plain "golden" colored listerine.

Once a week I clean their faces with WetOnes and then I spray the listerine mix on their body and wipe over their bodies with the wetone. It helps so that I don't have to bathe them so often.

Nash had an order problem bad until I changed his food.

 

[TracyJo]

Pippin-
I use the generic version of the original brownish colored listerine. I towel dry her just enough so she's not dripping and then let her air dry the rest. A vet tech told me once that stridex acne pads work well for cleaning bumpy skin too and that they can be used daily. This may very well help you - Since listerine is an antiseptic it will at least keep his skin and irritated areas clean and help prevent infection...

 

[Codysmom]

TracyJo - I know you changed Chi regular food, but what about her treats? could there be something in her treats that is keeping this going? It sounds to me like a staph infection (we're fighting one with MOlly, but she doesn't stink - she doesn't smell as good as Apollo, but isn't stinky) we changed food and that seems to have helped a bit.

but I know folks who changed kbble or even went to raw and then kept using same old dog treats and until those were change the problem didn't go away.so you may want to take a good look at the treat box and see what's in that.

cc