My English bulldog, Ribeye, is beloved in his neighborhood for his distinctive looks: a figure like a propane tank, with short legs, a pushed-in face, and many wrinkles. Those classic wrinkles are quite the issue with this breed and several other breeds of dog. Deep wrinkles often mean dealing with yeast infection. Ketoconazole has been the answer for maintaining Ribeye’s wrinkles, on top of the daily cleaning and drying of said wrinkles. If you’re running into smell, itch and goop, chances are, your dog too has a yeast infection raging in those wrinkles. Ketoconazole may be the solution to your dog’s problem too.
What Does Ketoconazole Do?
Ketoconazole is an antifungal prescription drug used to treat and prevent fungal infections, like yeast infection and ring worm. For dogs, it’s usually prescribed in pill form. For people, the typical use is in Nizoral shampoo for dandruff. Some find it creepy to know that dandruff and a yeast infection are so closely related, but I find my dog wiping his yeast infection on my carpet a creepier thought. If your dog tends to have allergic reactions to every passing pollen and spore, check those wrinkles for goop. From Ribeye’s experience and what I’ve heard from other dog owners, I’d say that it works particularly well for a dog with a sensitive immune system. Dosing your dog on a daily basis will tamp down the natural enzyme that encourages the fungi that cause a yeast infection, dandruff, and ringworm.
How does Ketoconazole Work?
Ketoconazole damages the structure of fungal cell walls. It works by either killing the fungus, or by slowing its ability to reproduce. Fungi are short lived, but famous for their prolific reproductive abilities; so if you stop the reproduction, you take care of the problem.
What Doesn’t Ketoconazole Do?
Ketoconazole isn’t effective in treating or preventing all types of fungus infections, like Fusarium, zygomycetes and Aspergillus. Your vet will need to test that goop with a swipe test before prescribing Ketoconazole.
What I like about Ketoconazole
In the past, my dog would spend his afternoons rubbing his face against the couch, trying in vain to scratch the yeast infection inside the wrinkles above his nose. You can guess how well that worked. He got not relief, and I got a stinky, yeast infection smudged couch. You can guess how the days when his tail wrinkle was inflamed worked out. Now, my dog rarely experiences a day with red, inflamed wrinkles. And I feel that getting the carpet and the couch professionally cleaned is a well timed investment.
I still need to check his wrinkles, wipe ’em and keep ’em dry, but the days with mysterious inflammations and stinky goop are gone.
Price
Fortunately, Ketoconazole is a generic drug available through several different manufacturers. That keeps the price down to .95 – 1.35 per 200 mg tablet. Shop around for the best price; my allergy vet turned out to be cheaper than any online sources. It’s less expensive than Atopica, but more than some other drugs. Still, it’s a small price to pay for my dog’s comfort.
Tips On Using this Drug
The most common side effects of dosing with Ketoconazole are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Some vets recommend giving this prescription with food to avoid irritating the GI tract. Ribeye hasn’t experienced any of these symptoms, and I dose him just before bedtime, 2-3 hours after dinner.
Yeast infections aside, Ketoconazole also enhances the affects of Atopica, which is used for atopic dermatitis — aka chronically irritated skin — and many veterinarians will prescribe both at the same time. Since Atopica is quite pricey at $3.50 per pill, Ketoconazole may be worth exploring as a supplemental prescription for dogs with chronic skin issues.
Although I’ve highlighted the most common fugal infection, yeast, Ketoconazole is also quite effective for ringworm, which looks like circular red lesions. Your vet will need to diagnose ringworm, but know that if it’s a reddish rash with a patch of clear skin in the center, chances are that it’s a fungal infection that’s simple to treat with Ketoconazole or another anti-fungal treatment.
For more info on the quest to relieve Ribeye’s allergy symptoms, click on this article.
Get the details on Atopica here.
