The Armadillo Dog

I still remember when a staff member told me, "You need to see this dog! She has nearly no hair left!"



She came to us in desperate need of help. By just looking at her, one may question her ability to recover from such severe neglect. Her skin was thickened and rough, and she was covered in flakes and scabs - it was evident she had been suffering from a severe skin infection for a VERY long time. Her nails were very long, and her thickened skin was harboring bacteria and yeast giving her a very bad odor. Her appearance earned her the nickname "Armadillo dog".

There was no question about whether we were going to treat her. Having been so wronged by the people that were supposed to keep her happy and healthy, we had no choice but to try and make it right.

As a new veterinarian, a few things popped into my head about what could have caused this to happen. Mange... Allergies... Endocrine disorders...

Knowing that she needed to start on a treatment regiment right away, I went with what diagnosis I thought was most likely due to the way she looked - demodectic mange.

A few days after having her in our care and being on treatments, her attitude started to improve and she became pretty active and friendly with us! But, then we noticed she started getting goopy eyes, and she had an indention on her right cornea. I was worried she might be developing an ulcer! At the shelter, we don't have very many diagnostic tools yet. So, it was off to a local veterinarian to stain her eye, do some skin scrapes and some blood work to see if we could get a diagnosis.

Staining revealed no ulcer - yay!
Skin scraps were negative for mites - hmmm...
Blood work was not definitive for any endocrine disorders - extra confusing...

Taking all this into consideration, it was decided that as long as she was continuing to improve, we would keep her on her antibiotics, her eye medications (to keep her eyes from drying out), start a special shampoo regiment, and get her into a foster home so she could receive consistent treatments in a less stressful environment...

3 weeks later I see this kid in our front office:



She looked so good! Her skin was returning to normal and she was starting to grow some hair back!

We don't know if her hair will ever grow back completely, but as long as her skin is healthy, I don't think either of us will care :)

To date she has completed almost 1 month of antibiotics and shampoos. Pretty soon she will be ready for adoption!!!