Hi there, I found this forum purely by searching for a hopeful answer to my 7 month old black labs skin problem. I am pretty sure I know the answer as to what is causing it but my vet is insisting it isnt and near forcing me to use their vet food. Now I have worked with many animals and know full well that a vet is a sponsor for quite a few brands and this one she wants me to put my dog onto is an expensive choice and she will get paid extra for having him put on it!!
I guess I should tell u a little more....
Well, Harvey was hard to understand, diet wise, as a young pup and my old vet and I tried a few different things from a pedigree chum, nature diet, chicken & rice... ect but none of these suited him at all. The last choice recommended by my old vet was to try him on Chappie Complete. Hey presto... it has worked! no more upset tummy, smelly stools, he has a lovely cold wet nose, bright eyes, shiny coat and bouncy as anything! So we know he is well suited and he loves it. He has been on it now since he was 4 months old and it is only recent his problem started.
We had to move vets due to it simply being too far away for me to travel in case we needed a vet urgently and there is one up the road from me. To be honest my first impressions havent been overly great.
My husband took Harvey for a walk about a month ago and he jumped into a stagnent ditch (as labs do!). 2-3 days later we found he had sores on his "hot points" - by this I mean arm pits and inner thighs. These looked as though they were inflamed and itchy so I took him to our new vet and explained about the ditch and she said... "no, sorry, this is a dietry problem" even though it wasnt there before! She put him on Piriton tablets and antibiotics for 10 days and said she wanred me back within the week to put him on her vet food. I declined the offer and just said "we will see".
The course of piriton and antibiotics worked so I didnt take him back.
2 days ago, I took him into the same field and again he jumped into the stagnent ditch and low and behold! the sores are back in the EXACT same places! So now I will have to take him to the vet again but I am worried in case she starts on about the diet again. To me, if it was dietry surely the sores would have continued? Could it be that his skin just is not tolerant to that water?
Also, before I do take him to the vet, does any one have any ideas on how to get rid of the sores ourselves? This is going to work out extremely expensive if its going to happen each time he comes into contact with water?

[pjp1199]

Is it possible for you to make an appointment with your old vet just to get a second opinion on what is wrong with your dog. It may end up being dietary, like the first vet said, but at least you will have another opinion on the problem.

I am going into this with eyes wide open but I was instantly curious as to why she straight away insisted he go onto this particular food when she does not know for definate that its dietry and also there are no guarantees that this food would have worked anyway?! Not only that, it would upset his stomach doing a straight change and caused yet another problem.
I am not overly convinced with there being absolutely no sores in between him starting the food and jumping in that ditch. It seems to be happening when he jumps into ditches. Is there any homeopathic remedies that may help get rid of them before he ends up having to take another 10 days of antibiotics and piriton after such a short space of time?
(please note that our vet had said if it was dietry then the sores prob would spread all over body and not just stay on hot points where the dirt rubs into the skin more)