Spring is for superbugs: New perspectives on managing canine chronic MRSI skin infections

It seems so obvious now, but for the last year or so I've been in a state of despair trying to figure out why my Borzoi Kyrie kept getting these terrible skin infections with MRSI, the canine version of human MRSA -- a nasty multi-drug resistant staph. (If you haven't been following her story, you'll find it here, here, here, and here.) But although we still struggle with the problem, I think I understand the big picture now.



First, a few words about this strain of staph. As much as I'd like to eradicate it from her body and, while I'm at it, from the planet, that's a task not all the working dogs of all working breeds in all the world could accomplish, with or without human help. We created these superbugs and we're stuck with them.



From thinking about "wiping out" or "curing" her resistant staph infection, I've simply accepted that a certain percentage of the staph bugs that are present on her skin will contain genes for varying degrees of drug resistance. After all, there is staph all over our skin, dogs' skin, and just about everywhere in the environment. The fact that some of those bugs (and more every year) have acquired genes for drug resistance doesn't change them into voracious eaters of canine skin; they're still just staph, albeit one we can't easily beat back if it it has a population explosion and starts causing symptoms.



In other words, staph infections are opportunistic. They take advantage of a disruption in the normal immune system and defenses of the dog (and person, and cat... etc.) to increase their numbers. Increasing numbers cause symptoms such as irritation, redness, broken skin, and other signs of staph infection or, more correctly, staph overgrowth.



When that staph gets into the bloodstream, deeper tissues, organs, or other systems of the body, things are even worse. Fortunately, that hasn't happened with Kyrie. This has been, so far, "just" a skin problem. A severe skin problem.



Which brings us to the question: what's causing the immune disorder that's allowing the staph to do its thing all over Kyrie's skin?



Allergies are apparently the culprit. We've tested Kyrie for a zillion different immune and endocrine disorders, done x-rays, ultrasounds, and blood work. Everything comes back rock-solid normal. Not "low normal" or "borderline" or "technically normal"; even her thyroid levels, often low in sighthounds, are in the middle of the normal range -- and yes, I did the expensive multi-panel test.



But she does have allergies. She always did, but they were so slight I literally never thought about them. Twice a year, spring and fall, Kyrie would get a little bit itchy on her tummy and have some eye and ear discharge and redness. It would last a day or two. I'd give her a bath, clean her ears, flush her eyes with saline, and that was the end of it for the next 6 months.



I don't know why, at the age of 9, her immune system suddenly decided to go insane and take her allergies along for the ride. I'm sure she has some kind of underlying disorder, because allergies themselves are a symptom of an immune problem. But we're at the limit of what we can test for, and certainly no one has a cure for allergies -- which won't stop a lot of people from telling you they do.



Since so many people are struggling with similar problems, I'm going to share what's worked with Kyrie.



Although I've gone through thousands of dollars of drugs trying to kill the resistant staph, I've given up on the scorched earth approach. The more we treated her staph, the more resistant it became. The last time we checked its resistance profile, it had become resistant to every drug she's been on so far. All we have left are some very toxic and expensive drugs, most of which have to be given in the vet's office daily for weeks.



So instead of treating her skin, I decided first to re-define the problem. It's not that some of the staph on Kyrie's body have genes for drug resistance. It's that her immune system can't keep the staph from getting out of balance with the other bugs and critters on the skin.



Instead of bombarding my dog with ever-harsher and more expensive antibiotics, I've simply accepted that she's got resistant staph bugs and looked deeper for a reason why they find her skin such a hospitable environment for their population explosion.



To figure that out, I tested Kyrie for underlying causes of staph overgrowth: thyroid disease, endocrine disorders like Cushing's or Addison's; other immune disfunctions. Those conditions can be treated, and treatment will likely bring the staph overgrowth under control. But Kyrie didn't have any of those.



I became very interested then in topical therapies, an approach in human medicine that's been equally or more effective than oral antibiotics for skin MRSA infections. I tried many different topical treatments, from the medical grade honey that had finally cleared up her first infection to tea tree oil, antibiotic creams and gels, vinegar rinses and a variety of shampoos.



I'm quite sure that every dog will respond to different things, but for Kyrie, the best results have been from Aveeno Oatmeal Bodywash as a shampoo. Most rinses seemed to leave her irritated, and other shampoos dried her skin -- which can lead to itching, chewing, and a flare-up.



The second step of management is hyper-vigilance. I check her several times a day for "damp spots" that tell me she's licking or chewing, and react instantly to them, or to any patch of redness.



First, I saturate the spot with Desert Essence Relief Spray, a topical containing 5 percent tea tree oil, which has been shown to have efficacy against human skin MRSA.



Next, I apply Neosporin + Pain, an over-the-counter human antibiotic and anesthetic combination ointment that worked better than anything my vet gave me, and which I'm using with her blessing.



I rarely have to do this twice, as long as I catch it right away.



The warm spring weather has made her symptoms appear more frequently, but has not made them more severe. I'm bathing her every 3-4 days right now and have only treated her topically twice in the last two weeks. Her eyes are a bit goopy, but overall she's doing very well.



I also took her off every food she'd been eating up until now and am feeding her mostly rabbit and venison, with some bison and lamb now and then. This costs nearly as much as the antibiotics (kidding), and may not be necessary. But I've tried her back on chicken, turkey, or beef a few times now, and every time she flares up within a couple of hours. It looks like food allergies are part of her problem.



I hear from a lot of people who own dogs with skin MRSI, and while in no way do I want to interfere with their relationships with their veterinarians, I have to stress one last time that thinking you're going to get rid of the resistant bugs once and for all, or that the staph itself is the problem, is a dead end.



I'm also not saying to skip antibiotics altogether. Kyrie's first infection was so bad by the time we diagnosed the problem that I doubt it would have cleared up without them. And dogs who have systemic and internal forms of staph infection absolutely require effective antibiotics.



But I no longer think there's any benefit, and may be quite a bit of harm, in treating an asymptomatic dog with a goal of eliminating resistant staph. We can't eliminate it from our environments, from our own bodies, or from hospitals, for that matter. We really aren't going to be able to eliminate it from our dogs' skin.

Comments

[Phyllis DeGioia]

Christie, Fred picked up MRSA, and he had terrible life-long allergies to dust mites and fleas. He never had anywhere near the trouble that Kyrie did. Fascinating thought process here that makes sense to me.

[Pai]

Does Kyrie get annual vaccinations? I've heard of chronic autoimmune diseases being caused in some dogs by overvaccination. There is either an allergy to the adjuvant ingredients or preservatives in the vaccine mixture that ends up constantly getting aggravated by the shots until the immune system finally breaks down.



On another forum I go to, a person with a dog who had chronic itchiness had to twist arms at the vaccine company to finally get them to tell her that there was gelatin in their product -- which she knew her dog was highly allergic to.



The vet didn't even know that, and the company itself was very hesitant to even talk about their 'secret ingredients'.

[Christie Keith]

No, she hasn't been vaccinated since she was 7 weeks old other than a couple of rabies boosters, three years apart. And she's not getting those anymore, due to her health condition.

[Susan]

Thursday it will be a year since I lost my bulldog. She suffered from severe allergies and staph infections all her life. At the very end, she had an unshakable UTI. If I knew then the things I've learned since, maybe she'd have had a better quality of life. Not for lack of trying, just looking in the wrong places. Among other things, from sharing in the experiences of people like you, I am learning better health strategies for the new dogs in my family. Thanks.

[Colorado Transplant]

Did you ever think about interferon to boost the immune system? It has been used for humans and also for my kittycats.



I commend you for being so watchful for new outbreaks.

[Original Lori]

I have great faith in the Aveeno products. When I was five I had to have surgery on one of my three (yes, three!) ureters and the surgeon told my mom if I didn't want to have UTIs frequently for the rest of my life that I should only ever use Aveeno oatmeal soap. I'm still using it at 32.

[EmilyS]

wow. There's great info.

Have you tried any of the ideas for building up the immune system itself?

Various "holistic" approaches I've read about include bovine colestrum, astragalus., echinacea and vitamin C.

[Charllene]

Christie,

I too have been searching for answers to MRSI. My dog contracted it this summer. I believe the fact that she had a severe ulcerated ear infection, prednizone, antibiotics and vacination reaction all lead to this demise. I also think being a therapy dog did not help. Although she did not have any open sores, I think she may have gotten it at a visit with a supressed immune system, and developed a bladder infection.



What I do not hear is whether humans are being tested as well their pets. I have read the humans are becoming reinfected and they find that the pet is colonizing the staph. So why would it not be the other way around? I agree with your comments that antibiotics are not the answer. In fact I think they are the most likely doing more harm than good. I also agree that I believe allergies are a big reason why dogs are getting it. So is food the underlying issue? I do think it is the very likely one of the problems.



I also think that while vets try to find the cause of a condition the dog is suffering, they have contributed to the problem by suppressing the immune system with lots of antibiotics. If they would start immediately by taking a culture, they would alieviate animals being subjected to so many different antibiotics.



I also think that for some animals, the damage to their immune system is done in at an early age by vacinations. My dog suffered two reactions to her vacinations this spring. A very good indication that her immune system was suppressed. She experienced lumps at the injection site. One about the size of half a tennis ball and the other the size of a golf ball. I am looking into limited vacinations as well as looking at dead vacines and individual ones rather then the multiple combinations. I think they are too hard on our pets.



I think our pets are also becoming more sensitive to environmental exposures. Lawn fertilizers and pesticides can also be contributing to the problem as well as household products. They lay on floors and walk on lawns that may be treated causing constant exposure to these chemicals.



I am glad that you and others are persuing answers to this problem. I don't think we are going to find the solution through conventional medicine. And as long as our vets are not willing to explore other solutions, our pets are doomed to a life sentence of suffering.