27. The crocodiled-skinned Maltese muzzle and paws

"Did you use iodine on his backside?" I asked the young couple. The Maltese back end was stained yellow whre the hairs had been snipped off. Matted hairs. Crocodile skin wrinkled the muzzle and the four paws of this young dog.

"No," the owner said. "I used Chinese lotion."

He had completed medication. Put on an Elizabeth collar on the neck to prevent the dog from scratching. Not effective. In fact, the dog rubbed his muzzle onto some plastic area and now had a rough wrinkled old-dog muzzle. Possibly allergy to dog food. He had switched to home-cooked food recently. Yet the dog itches. So, he sought a second opinion.



I had to advise him about following up. "The problem is that you do not go for regular reviews 2-3 weeks after the treatment. So, after the medication was stopped, the same problem of itchiness came back. You wait till the dog cannot stand the itchiness anymore."

Surprisingly, he nodded his head.

For such cases, I asked him to get his groomer to shave the dog bald so that we knew which areas were infected. It was a busy Saturday for his groomer. So, I recommended him one who could do the job.

After shaving, I was surpised to see multiple red dots on the body. All over.

What could these red spots be? Very itchy circling ones, some 1 mm in diameter and others bigger than 3 cm. Could they be ringworm?

I took out the ultraviolet light to scan the back area. Switched off the consultation room lights. Incredible. All red spots showed fluorescent hairs. Some dog ringworm species do shine under the ultraviolet light. I just did not expect all the red spots to shine.

So, was this primarily a ringworm infestation of the skin or was ringworm just one result of the skin problem? I told him that it needed at least 1 month to know the answer as time is needed for drugs to work.

I hope he will follow up. Otherwise a 3rd opinion would be needed or the dog would become a real crocodile-skinned Maltese.