If this is typical Westie skin, god help Westies...

I bought my West Highland Terrier, Connor McLeod, from a breeder in Kent, over six years ago, when he was eight weeks old. He always had a very delicate stomach and was sickly until I found a dry food that he got on with and the vets recommended… this was James Wellbeloved.
By the time Connor was eight months old he developed very itchy skin on his feet and began to chew and scratch and his temperament became a little aggravated. I took him to his vet in Kent and they said it was ‘typical Westie skin’ and I was advised to bathe his feet after every walk and to change his diet.
They recommended Science Plan. This didn’t seem to make much difference, but his skin didn’t get any worse and I continued to bathe his feet in salt water after every walk. By the time Connor was 18 months old (reached adulthood) his skin and mood were perfect, I couldn’t have asked for a happier and better behaved little dog! I thought perhaps his male hormones kicking in or the move to Brighton had cured him.
But by the time Connor was a year and a half something very strange happened. He developed an insatiable appetite for water. It was a very extreme case of constant binge drinking. He began wetting himself and drinking anything he could get to… drinks off tables, puddles, even the sea!
He was so obsessed he would lick the windows if it was raining and cry to go out, so he could lick the ground. He was tested for everything from diabetes to kidney failure, all of which came back negative. I wasn’t allowed to limit his water intake until they had an answer, which made life unbearable for both of us. Eventually he was taken into the vets for a 48 hour, water deprivation test and the outcome was ridiculous. They said that he was in perfect health and was just a little neurotic and had an obsessive-compulsive disorder! This was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard! 
I questioned the food he was eating, but they insisted that it had nothing to do with it and to keep him on the food they had recommended. I then had to measure his water and slowly decrease the amount he was drinking, every week to try and trick him into drinking less. This didn’t work and I doubted he would be drinking so much unless he was genuinely dying of thirst. So I tried changing his diet to wet food, but unfortunately all the food on the market just upset his stomach and made him ill. I tried a raw food diet but the vets didn’t advise it and said it didn’t have enough nutrients and he didn’t like my homemade food anyway. I put up with this for nearly two years and it just became our way of life.
I always looked on the internet and read books/magazines, even asked a couple of editors of dog magazines to see if someone would be interested in doing a story and helping me find an answer. I never gave up.
Then I saw a new food called Naturediet and thought I would give it a go, it was natural, had added nutrients and had to taste better than my attempt! And miracle… it didn’t upset his stomach and he stopped drinking water almost immediately! Naturally this destroyed my faith in this particular vet. Occasionally Connor would have short relapses, where I had to stop him drinking seawater or puddles, but it was just a habit that was easily broken in time. So he must have some allergy/sensitivity to dry dog food – if I give him even a small handful he immediately resorts to binge drinking again, so I don’t let him near it at all anymore.
Unfortunately the whole binge drinking and wetting himself cycle had left Connor with a weakened bladder and he was constantly marking his territory, so I spoke to the vet about getting him done. I wasn’t too keen, as I had heard that in older dogs it could cause some unwanted temperament changes or illness. But I was assured that this wasn’t the case. We went ahead with the opp. Connor was five when this was done.

Within a couple of months Connor began to chew his feet again, only this time it was very severe… he began clawing, biting and scratching and made himself bleed. Boredom was never a factor as Connor was lucky enough to be an office dog, having three decent walks a day and surrounded by people he loved. He was always a bit naughty and vocal at times – but that’s Westies!
Anyway… back to the vet…
I was given the diagnosis ‘Typical Westie skin’ again. Well it’s obviously an allergy to something that has always been there, but I feared that his lack of male hormones after his operation had left him with the inability to fight the condition. When I questioned the vet on my theory he shrugged his shoulders and said it may be a possibility. I was devastated – what had I done? Why don’t vets know about this? Everyone should be made aware of this if it’s a ‘possibility’!

I turned into an Internet monkey and bookworm again, trying anything, from aloe vera to talc… I tried bathing him in Marceleb, which the vet swore by, but he hated it and would cry and kick, to the point where I would break down in tears at the horror of how much pain it was causing him.
Eventually I took him to another vet to get a second opinion (my dad took his cats there and recommended him). Connor was put on Atopica… within a few weeks his skin was perfect and his fur had grown back, but he was being sick every day, which wouldn’t be good long term and the cost was astronomical! I kept him on the tablets for at least three months and then I had to stop… within two months the skin problem had returned. So Connor was put on steroids – this relieved most of the itching but his toes remained bald. A year ago Connor started to get reoccurring bladder infections, to the point where he was crippled in pain and peeing blood and even after treatment he was slightly incontinent. This happened three times and a couple of months back I decided it couldn’t go on. So back to the vet…

In desperation they talked me back onto Atopica… but after two months he has got steadily worse and is the worst he has ever been, he hasn’t been sick on them this time, so I’m guessing they just won’t work for him anymore. I can’t leave him for a second without him wanted to chew his feet and it has now spread to his belly and is very bad under his chin. I am sick of pumping my poor little dog full of chemicals that have all these terrible side effects and after a while don’t seem to work anyway! He is now on a course of antibiotics as his skin looks infected and piriton allergy tablets to ease the itching. I have him on a new raw food diet, that I buy frozen at the pet shop and add supplements of aloe vera and primrose oil. I bath his feet in salt water every evening and have purchased something new called Dermacton off the Internet which is totally natural and supposed to ease the itching and encourage fur regrowth. This is a soap bar and a spray. I only bathe him when he gets really filthy, but I am using the spray three times a day. It doesn’t seem to bother him, which is a good sign. The vet was disappointed that I didn’t want to continue with the Atopica, but I have decided to go for the blood test to test for allergies, for which he has to be free of these drugs for one month. I have heard nothing positive about this testing and found no one that it has worked for it is also extremely expensive, but I am willing to try anything.
He has already been tested for Demodex mites/mange and the result was negative. Connor will be seven in January and spent most of his life suffering, one way or another… But I do everything I can. He keeps his cone on his head at home or he will tear at his skin straight away causing himself to bleed, but on his walks he bounds around happy as ever as long as I keep him playing with his favourite toy. I have to keep his attention on anything but his skin.
Any advice or details of anything I haven’t tried or any success stories would be greatly appreciated. It’s breaking my heart and not a minute goes by that I’m not wracking my brain for something I may have missed.
Donna James, by email


I came across Donna’s plight on Twitter while on holiday and promised we’d try to help via Think Tank. Regular readers may remember the case of Lewis the Labrador with terrible skin problems that we featured in the magazine for many years – until at last he received some respite. Poor Lewis’s owner received terrible abuse when she walked him as people would see the state he was in and blame his poor owner who literally was doing everything possible to put him right!
I know the readers were fantastic in supporting Lewis’s owner and I’m hoping you’ll step up to the plate and help Donna and Connor. Eventually there was something suggested that helped ease the symptoms, let’s hope the key to putting Connor back together is out there, too.
Twitter only gives you 140 characters so initially I had no idea of the extent of Connor’s problems. My first instincts were to suggest Connor try Yumega Plus, but I’m still digesting this full case history.
Anyone got any other bright ideas?
Please share your thoughts here.
Good luck Donna and well done for never giving up hope.
Beverley Cuddy, Editor