Neo skin issues

[Grizzysmom]

I have a 11 month old Neapolitan mastiff and he has been having skin issues for about 6 months. He has bumps that started appearing on his skin, mostly concentrated on his back. They are swollen up bumps that have a pus head on them and as they got worse he started losing his hair in those areas causing his coat to look spotted((some one even commented how they had never seen a dappled mastiff before )) I have been back and forth to the vet and done tons of research online and nothing I have tried has helped. The vet thought it was skin mites so he’s done 2 skin scrapings and said no mites so then we started on antibiotics saying it was a bacterial skin infection. He’s been on 2 long cycles (30 days each) of antibiotics and yes it does help a lot but once he comes off the antibiotics the sores are back within a couple day!!! He is now on apoquel (anti inflammatory) everyday and it seems to keep the problem under control but it is not healed completely I can still feel bumps on his skin when I pet him and if I mess with those spots he acts like they hurt but doesn’t itch them.. and I feel like this medicine isn’t really curing the problem it’s just keeping it abay. I head back to the vet again next week... so I’m pretty much looking for any advise from anybody who has dealt with this?? I have also thought maybe it could be his food so I have changed that 3 different times. I started him on Blue Buffalo large breed puppy then to Diamond naturals large breed pup and now he is on Nutro Ultra large breed pup. I saw another thread on here today about someone’s dog being allergic to chicken? And I think every food I’ve tried has chicken, so maybe I’ll try changing again. Suggestions please!!!... thank you in advance for any info you can provide me I just want my Grizzly to be healthy!!

 

[marke]

you can try either cooking his food for him or feeding him raw ...... sometimes it works , for some reason some dogs just can't eat dog food .........

 

[TWW]

you can try either cooking his food for him or feeding him raw ...... sometimes it works , for some reason some dogs just can't eat dog food .........

Agree 100% with this.

Concerning the chicken, it seems to have something to do with whatever they use as a preservative for chicken in dog food. raw or cooked chicken seems to be perfectly fine, in most cases.

 

[Nik]

Yes! Chicken very well could be the culprit (it was for Diesel). But, here is the trick most foods have chicken fat as a flavoring even if chicken is not the main protein. What you need to do is find a limited ingredient food and make sure that chicken and chicken fat aren't on the list of ingredients. Beef is another common one they are allergic to so I recommend finding either lamb or salmon. Diesel's skin has done much better since we got him on limited ingredient with no chicken or no beef. And TWW is correct Diesel is perfectly fine with boiled chicken but there is something about how chicken is processed in dog food that he can't tolerate... Also this applies for any poultry so we can't do turkey for him either.

The food we are currently using is Canidae limited ingredient salmon.

 

[Belmas]

I have had 2 Neos in the past and have one right now. I have always fed grain free food that was not chicken based. Right now I use Wellness Core and go between the Ocean white fish and the Game formulas. I do add pressure cooked chicken to the evening meal. I also have an English Bulldog who also does well on the Wellness Grain free. I have never fed raw, have often thought about trying it but always afraid to try because of time and knowledge. Years ago my female Neo also looked like she was molting and I called my breeder and he recommended grain free food with pressure cooked chicken and I have done this with all my dogs since and have never had any skin issues with any of my dogs since.

 

[7121548]

Don’t rule out environmental allergies either. My neo has confirmed allergies to certain grasses, fungi, and mites. I also suspected food allergies and started feeding Zignature, which is designed for dogs with allergies. None of their formulas have chicken. I don’t like keeping my dog on Apoquel since it suppresses the immune system.

 

[DennasMom]

Denna just had irritating itchies as a puppy, not full blow skin problems... but I added about a 4x human dose of fish oil (human capsules) to her daily diet, and that seemed to help. We also went chicken & grain-free for her kibble, then moved her to a raw diet when she was about 6 months old.

I thought it was chicken, too... and avoided even raw chicken for her, but now - 5 years later - she seems to be able to eat anything without any more itchies. So, could have just been a developing immune system issue. Adding a good probiotic can be helpful, if it's immune system related - get those gut bugs working for you!

 

[Michelle310]

View attachment 59891 View attachment 59892 I have a 11 month old Neapolitan mastiff and he has been having skin issues for about 6 months. He has bumps that started appearing on his skin, mostly concentrated on his back. They are swollen up bumps that have a pus head on them and as they got worse he started losing his hair in those areas causing his coat to look spotted((some one even commented how they had never seen a dappled mastiff before )) I have been back and forth to the vet and done tons of research online and nothing I have tried has helped. The vet thought it was skin mites so he’s done 2 skin scrapings and said no mites so then we started on antibiotics saying it was a bacterial skin infection. He’s been on 2 long cycles (30 days each) of antibiotics and yes it does help a lot but once he comes off the antibiotics the sores are back within a couple day!!! He is now on apoquel (anti inflammatory) everyday and it seems to keep the problem under control but it is not healed completely I can still feel bumps on his skin when I pet him and if I mess with those spots he acts like they hurt but doesn’t itch them.. and I feel like this medicine isn’t really curing the problem it’s just keeping it abay. I head back to the vet again next week... so I’m pretty much looking for any advise from anybody who has dealt with this?? I have also thought maybe it could be his food so I have changed that 3 different times. I started him on Blue Buffalo large breed puppy then to Diamond naturals large breed pup and now he is on Nutro Ultra large breed pup. I saw another thread on here today about someone’s dog being allergic to chicken? And I think every food I’ve tried has chicken, so maybe I’ll try changing again. Suggestions please!!!... thank you in advance for any info you can provide me I just want my Grizzly to be healthy!!

Hi! Were you able to find a treatment plan for your Neo? I have a Cane Corso with the exact same issue and would love to hear from you!

 

[Joao M]

I believe you should have your Neo tested for food allergies.

In the past I had a similar problem with my bullmastiff. bad coat, smell, bumps on skin, etc. We had him extensively tested and found out he is allergic to ...well... almost everything being very allergic to chicken, lamb, tuna and fish in generall (except for salmon). Of the main ingredients of dog kibble he tolerates salmon and is ok with rabbit.
After trying out several types of food for allergic dogs, we found out that he does ok with hipoallergenic food and does really well with anallergenic food (we use royal canin anallergenic).
The anallergenic food processes all protein in a way that the organism does not recognize its presence anymore.
He has been doing extremely well with this food: no allergies whatsoever, no smell, no bumps on skin, nothing.

It is an expensive solution (anallergenic kibble is more expensive) but it was THE solution for our dog.