Over the last couple weeks the rain has been unrelenting.  And with rain comes scratches (Pastern Dermatitis).  In a previous entry I spoke about an amazing treatment for scratches that actually worked…however, when it rains like it has recently, once again the scratches got out of control.

A handful of months ago I got a skin scrape on Chance’s hind legs to determine the bacteria that was causing the scratches.  Sure enough there were three types of bacteria growing which was why I was having so much difficulty getting them under control.

Below are the results:

As you can see above, the bacteria shows resistance or no interpretation to all but 7 antibiotics.  I spoke to my vet and she suggested beginning with Gentamicin and go from there if he does not respond to the medication.  Chance has been receiving an injection of 30 mls of Gentamicin in his muscle once a day for about a week now.  He obviously does not enjoy this, nor do I for that matter, but his scratches are showing improvements!  He is also on the topical cream, Silver Sulfadiazine, once a day.

Fingers crossed that I will get ahead of the scratches and they will go away forever!