Anal Furunculosis

One of my lovely local clients, Gerri Nolan, has a lovely white German Shepherd girl she rescued a few years ago and has nursed back to health, who suffers with  Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency  aswell as  Anal Furunculosis.
Gerri is a wonderful, caring owner, who is open to natural methods if that is what seems best, and so when she found out about us, having tried allopathic medicene for the AF and had no luck, she asked us and we were able to give her the protocol from holistic vet David Urch, which has helped, and more recently she has tweaked that with some new and very promising products we have just got in, and is seeing further improvements with them.
 
Here is part 1 of Sheba's journey with Anal Furunculosis in Gerri's own words:
 
"We first found out that Sheba had Anal Furunculosis when she was speyed  in January of this year.
She was first prescribed, by the Vet, with majorly expensive tablets Atopica, which over the course of the time that she was on them did not help but actually made her condition worse.
The Vet also advised that we keep Sheba on one type of food, for example just chicken or fish. As Sheba also has EPI, I decided that the fish diet was the best option as Salmon is good for the colon, well the salmon oil is best, plus she has the fish varieties of Arden Grange. I did try her on all raw fish, but she didn't really take to it, so she has half and half, with berries, cous cous and eggs.

 As I was getting my minces and chunks from Julie, I spoke to her about
 Sheba's condition, Julie suggested that we look at the Aloe Vera
 approach, so out came the Aloe Vera - Nature's Gift book, written by Vet David Urch.
In this book he states that this condition is more so found in German Shepherd's and cannot always be totally healed, but can be managed very well and improved with the use of Aloe Vera, as the two areas where it excels in healing is the gut, and the skin.
 
 He recommends the following treatment:-
 
*Wash the area with Aloe Vera Soap or Aloe Vera Shampoo, and dry  
  the area well [bear in mind that depending on how far this
  condition has got, the area can become sore and sensitive].
 
* Spray the area with Aloe Vera spray solution, pay particular attention
   to the discharging sinuses, it's these areas that the Aloe Vera Spray
   has to penetrate.
 
* Apply generous amounts of Aloe Vera Gelly and alternate using Aloe
   Vera Propolis creme. I have found that using both, Gelly followed by
   the creme works well.
 
* This application should be, where possible, be given 4 times a day.
   [If you're like me and work full time, it's pretty impossible, so I  took
   2 weeks off and gave her the intensive treatment over this
   time period].
* On top of this Sheba has Aloe Vera Gel drink, 30 mls, the   
   Cranberry & Apple one, in her breakfast and evening meal, along with  
   1 crushed tablet of Bee Propolis, this attacks the condition from the   
   inside.
 
 Sheba responded well to this, with the amount of pus, and the smell being greatly reduced 'very' quickly, but we do recognise this will be a long and slow road, as it has to heal from the inside out.
She did get fed up on the pure fish diet, so knowing my dog, I put her back on the meat in the evening, which has worked well, and she has all the green veg that she needs for her EPI/immune system too.
 
She's certainly a happier dog now.
 
 I've been following the above program for some months, and her
condition is more stabilized, but was not improving, and on one of my
weekly visits to Julie's, [coz I don't have a big freezer and Julie
lives just down the road from me] she told me about this new stuff
that she was getting in, T.L.C Transdermal Colloidal Silver and Neem products.
 
 After listening to what conditions this has been used on, I had to give it
ago along with the Neem Capsules, and Julie also found out that a dog
with this condition had been successfully treated with it, so we incorporated the Transdermal Silver and Neem/Turmeric capsules into her regime.
  I still use the Aloe Vera Gel in her food, along with the Gelly on occasions, and still use the Bee Propolis Creme, especially on the base of her tail, and the aloe vet spray but use the silver more to get right up inside.
Her ears also often flare up also because of this condition, and then I find the Bee Prpolis creme a real godsend, and if it's really bad the Silver helps there too.
It is early days yet but these changes have brought us added improvements already, further reducing the amount of pus, and eliminating the smell altogether now.
 
 She does get fed up with me washing her bottom every day, but it's for
her benefit, whilst the weather has been nice, she's been having her
bottom showered as well.
 
If you're going down this route of treatment, whether it's the Aloe Vera or the Silver, remember that the bacteria is inside and so treatment with the Neem or the Bee Propolis is an important part of this treatment.
 
We're really pleased with the progress thus far, and although it is a slow road, all progress so far, and signs lead us to be hopeful that one day she may be able to have as minimal discomfort from this as possible, if not totally heal.
Sheba is unfortunately no longer with us now, but subsequent to helping her, we now find that the dogs which come to us with this issue do best with the above cleaning methods and products, and on a completely fish-based diet, raw for food, dried fish for treats.
Some respond very well to Atopica, and others have had their AF totally healed over time using a natural remedy formulated by Holistic Vet, Alan Slater, of Athena Holistics Ltd:
http://www.athenaholisticsltd.co.uk/
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