★★★★★
I have dogs who have seasonal allergies and other allergies that show up on their skin. They get hives, or crusty lesions on their skin; sometimes the skin is very reactive and they will rub on furniture to relieve their itching and cause the hives to raise. Sometimes they just get small, black looking spots that give way to round areas that would make you think 'ring worm' but they are not. I have taken them to the vet when the itching is beyond what I can manage and gotten the steroid shot and in some cases antibiotics if the skin has gotten infected. I have bathed in the medicated shampoos to no avail; nothing really seems to *work* and I end up down the same road - cortisone shot and antibiotics.
This year I discovered Ted's Anti-fungal and Anti-staph solution. Since I have a quantity of dogs, I was able to do some side by side testing. I had one dog I used the cortisone shot and Sulfadene medicated shampoo, and other dog I used only Ted's Anti-fungal and Anti-staph solution. While neither the shampoo or Ted's solution outright stopped the inflammatory state of the skin, Ted's solution stopped any topical infection from starting and spreading. In the dog I used the sulfadene on, it looked as if it was turning into a greasy seborrhea; when I used Ted's solution on that dog the condition resolved immediately.
Dogs with allergy skin are work -no question. In my case it means I bathe my dogs weekly, sometimes oftener if needed, in Ted's solution. While it is not perfect -again, I need to find a way to halt the inflammatory state - at least it allows me to keep the skin healthy to avoid a secondary infection and the antibiotics that are required to resolve it.
I gleaned this recipe from Ted's the feedback in the pet section; since I tend to have a quantity of dog to be bathed at any given time, I usually make a quadrupple batch. The only possible side effect may be that a black coated dog will suffer peroxide bleaching which will turn a black coat red with multiple uses over time.
Ted's Anti-fungal/Anti-staph solution
Ingredients:
- 1 - 16 oz bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide
- 1 bottle Milk of Magnesia
- 1 box Epsom salts
- 1 box Borax
- Filtered or distilled water
Method:
Dilute the 16 oz brown bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide to a 1% solution by dumping the bottle into a jug and adding 32 oz of filtered or distilled water; I just fill up the empty brown bottle with water and dump it in the jug twice. Now you have 48 ounces of a 1% solution of hydrogen peroxide.
Add 4 table spoons EACH:
Borax, Epsom salts, and Milk of Magnesia.
Shake the dickens out of the solution. I usually run a tub full of hot water and set the jug in the tub, and then when the tub cools where I can bathe my dog the solution is by then an agreeable temperature for the dog. Bathe the dog in doggy shampoo or what have you, get all the crusty lesions gently scrubbed up and loose skin and scabs off and rinse well. Now drain the tub and when empty plug it up again and now pour the jug of prepared solution over the dog. I use a plastic cup to scoop up the solution and keep pouring over the dog. I try to keep this up for 10 minutes. If you have multiple dogs with skin issues you may be able to do two at a time depending on the size of your dogs. After 10 minutes I pull the plug and let the dog drip a bit in the tub, and then I take the wet dog with bare hands and put her in a crate with no bedding. Do not towel the dog off - you want as much of the solution to stay on the dog as possible, so it can 'work'. I allow the dog to drip dry in the crate with no bedding. It helps to have the house heat ON, and a nice tasty bone or high value chewy in the crate to distract the dog for a bit. After half an hour I let the dog out and towel dry as best I can and then let them work themselves dry by running all about the house. You do NOT rinse the solution off - you let it dry completely and that is it, until the next bath.
If you have a tiny dog, if you do not wish to make up such a large quantity of solution, the single batch is as follows:
- 1-1/2 cups of 1% hydrogen peroxide
- 1 tbsp MOM
- 1 tbsp Epsom salts
- 1 tbsp Borax
You may be able to put this into a spritzer bottle and spritz problem areas on your dog, but I find it best to tackle the entire dog with a full body treatment first, before using the spritz bottle for a spot treatment approach.
