Hi, Joyce,

If continuing medication is keeping the anal furunculosis pretty well under control ,and he still has a good qualiyty of life, and you are willing and able to continue to pay for the treatment ( a lot of ifs) I see no reason to have your dog put down.

W

Thank you for your reply Walter, it was very reassuring. I don't want to cause Jaygo any more unneccessary suffering but most days he seems to cope very well. The worst part is when he's constipated, he's never happy. We go to the Vets every 2 weeks so any changes are quickly noted as he won't let even me check him. But we will persevere. I'm not ready to give in yet but hopefully I'll know when Jaygo's had enough.
Thanks again

Joyce

Hi
I have a 15 year old mongrel (he was a stray, so don't know his parentage), who has just been diagnosed with anal furunculosis. He is healthy in every other way, especially for his age. The vet has given antibiotics and low dose steroids for the last couple of weeks. These haven't made any difference, so the vet has given us options to consider. These are higher dose steroids, cyclosporin, or surgery. Given our dogs age, we are unsure which option to choose, as we realise neither option is guaranteed to work. Can anyone advise as we are are also wandering if any of these carry any side effects which might do more harm than good in such an elderly dog.
Thanks eva so much!!
Susan.

Hi, Susan,

Unless your 'mongrel' has a lot of GSD in him, I would ask to get the diagnosis confirmed by a biopsy - it just could be malignant.
If it is indeed anal furunculosis there are very good reports on Cyclosporin as a treatment. Surgery is rarely successful.

W

we have a 9 year old jack russell being treated for AF.He will always be on steroids and antibiotics and like you ,we have asked ourselves when do you say enough is enough.Some days his rear looks okay but after any excertion it bleeds from 1 or all 4 holes.

Hi,
Can you be more specific about the antibiotic and steroid treatment?

W

Hi Walter,

My 5 yo GSD has had sugery last year for AF. He was placed on cyclosporin for a couple of months post sugery. Everything went well and he has been off medication for 4/5 months. Then 2 days ago he became distressed. Visit to the vet revealed a hole the size of the average small finger top left of his sphincter. Have only seen locum as Calum is on holiday. Could this hole recover with further medication or is futher sugery likely? Our vet (Calum) is very good with this illness as he has a distinct interest in it. I am trying to help him as much as I can as Max is my dearest friend and I owe him as much help as I can give him...I am not used to losing and I do not intend to start now!
Can you offer any advice please.

Thanks,
Kevin

Hi, Kevin,

Anal furunculosis is a very distressing and persistent condition, common to GSD's and GSD crosses.

The combination ot surgery, cryosurgery and cyclosporin does produce good results, but rarely a permanent cure. I would certainly go along with your vet about putting him back on cyclosporin immediately, and seein hio it responds before going for further surgery.

W

Hello, I have a 7 year old white german shepherd (elsie), she has been diagnosed with furunculosis. She had a sinus track on one of her hind legs, and a lump on her front paw, my vet prescribed atopica 200mg once daily. It appears that she is responding well to this treatment as the sinus track is healing up, however I have just noticed today she has an open sore/wound/track?? on her upper hind leg like to the rump of her bottom, but not near her anus. We are going to the vet again tonight so I do hope that this is not the start of this anal furunculosis.

Hi,

Perianal furunculosis in GSDs does tend to recur. I am please that your found Atopica useful.

W

Dear Vet,

My wonderful 7 years old German Shepherd Wizard has today been diagnosed with this horrible Anal Furunculosis. He has been put on Ceporex 500 mg two a day. He was too sore to be examined today, and returns in two weeks for a review and at least two more weeks of Ceporex.

I am trying to find out more about this condition, treatment, diet and anything else that may help him. He has a very full coat - although not long haired - very nearly. We have clipped his coat very short around the tail area and I am considering trying to thin the underside of the top of the tail maybe. He has a buster collar on while the meds start working, but he is crafty and can still reach to lick. Hard to stop at night when I am asleep.

I have been advised to try him on James Wellbeloved Fish Flavoured Food - hypo-allergenic and all that. Expensive food but must be worth a try.
Can you advise of anything and everything else I can try. I want to know more things to ask about when I have that next vet visit. My dog is well insured and I want to try absolutely anything I can.
Thanks

Hi, Bev,

I am sorry to hear that your GSD has developed anal furunculosis - truly a very nasty condition which is difficult to clear.
In most vets' experience antibiotics such as Ceporex are not very effective at treating it except for helping to clear up any local secondary infection.
The treatment of choice today seems to be surgical cleansing of the affected area, followed by a long course of Cyclosporine, a treatment which is producing excellent results in most cases.
You might ask your vet if he will prescribe this medication for your dog.

W

hi i have yorkshire terror (toby) with furnculosis its terribale condition,he has been on antibiotics for 5 weeks and painkillers with no improvement,now he has been put on atopica and pain relief.he has lost alot of weight and does not use his leg on that side where infection is.i hope these tablets work.has anyone elses pets stoped useig there leg on the side where anal sore. from mags in scotland

Hi,
I am surprised and sorry to hear that your Yorkie has anal furunculosis - it is very rare in such breeds. The carrying of the leg may not be related - Yorkies and JRTS are prone to a hip condition called Von Perthe's disease which makes them limp.

W

Hi,
With regards to Bev's letter I have found Royal Canin German Shepherd 24 Adult to be an excellent food for settling dietary problems. My dog is slowly recovering from anal furunculosis, four months on Atopica (3 x 100 mg capsules daily) and removal of anal glands with cryosurgery on the affected area. A month after surgery he has just been put back on the Atopica as the area that had the cryosurgery does not seem to be healing as quickly as it should be and my dog is experiencing difficulty going to the toilet again (not stool related),
Dave.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2008 04:12PM by Walter Beswick.

Hi, Dave,

Thank you for that contribution. At least, there is now a reasonably satisfactory treatment for anal furunculosis.
I reacll the time when there was very little we could do about it.

W

Hi Walter,
Sorry but got dosage wrong yesterday, my dog is on 3 x 100mg capsules daily and his weight is 39 kilos. Can you change it for me,
Regards, Dave.

Message changed as requested.
Other readers please note.

Hi me again,
Wizard is now on the cyclosporine 2x 100mg once a day. He does not yet seem to be improving. He is full of life, eating and drinking well, enjoying his exercise and his mad runs with his ball on a rope, but I am getting down-hearted.

He has been on the anti-biotics for about 6 weeks, and now we have been on the cyclosporine for three weeks. We have to go back to the vet next week after a further week of cyclosporine. She is talking about having the anal glands removed. I know this cannot be an easy answer. Is this the right decision? What are the side effects? What risk in the operation? and will Wizard be well afterwards or does it just slow down the problem for a short while?

I want to do what is best, but everyone seems to think different things are best. I had to fight in the last year of my previous German Shepherd life against CDRM, and I don't want to have to fight this now for Wizard. I feel I need to know as much as I can, I trust my vet but feel I must have some knowledge too, after all the vet is not as involved with the dog as the owner is.

THanks
Bev

Hi Bev,

It is such a difficult condition to treat, I wonder if 200mg a day is sufficient. The problem is not primarily with the anal glands and unless your vet intends to debridethe whole area at the same time I would not pin too much hope on this helping very much. By all means let your vet proceed. It may take weeks to get this cleared up.
W

Hi!

My vet diagnosed our GSD Kaiser (6 in November) with AF two weeks ago - he has been on antibiotics and rymadil (for 1 week only) and is scheduled for a general anaesthetic on Wednesday to perform a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.

We do not have insurance and our vet, although has said he has seen it muh worse, has said it very serious and we can discuss options after the biopsy. I think he is being very pessimistic as although we do not have insurance and far from being millionaires want to give Kaiser the best chance possible - and I have read great things about atopica and ketoconazole used together to treat AF and keep the cost more affordable.

I am very worried about Wednesday, and after the vet showing me Kaiser's bum (he was very tail shy with myself and my husband since we saw the licking symptom develop) it looked like a large raw flesh horizontal fissure at the base of his tail

Hi, Layla,

Anal furunculosis is a very nasty condition, quite often seen in GSDs.
The modern treatment of choice is Cyclosporin ( Atopica) with or without keratoconizole and surgical cleansing. I am afraid that he will need medication for the rest of his life.

W

Hi,
I thought an update on my dog (Ringo) was in order. He has finally healed up externally but still has a gooseberry sized internal area of furunculosis that does not appear to be responding to the Atopica which he is still on. My vet thinks he will need another operation in a couple of months unless the Atopica finally clears it. As for the ketoconazole my vet does not want to prescribe it as he says there are too many possible side effects so Ringo is staying on a full dose of the Atopica. My insurance is about to reach its limit so I will have to pay for a months treatment myself before it starts again, it's a pity they make it so awkward to claim for a prescription as I could have saved at least a quarter of the cost against my vet ordering it, but at least I am not paying it all and it gives my dog a fighting chance even if he needs a maintenance dose the rest of his life.
I hope this is of interest and help to all who are in the same position and having to make very difficult decisions,
Regards, Dave.

Hi, Dave,

Thank you for that.
I hope that Ringo's improvement is maintained.

W

I have a 5 year old long haired German Shepard, he was diagnosed last year with anal furunculosis. He started a treatment of Atopica with antibiotics which didn't work, the vet then recommended for him to have his anal glands and liaisons removed which we decided against. After long deliberation of what to do we decided to change his diet to a gluten free biscuit with added tinned tuna in spring water with any vegetables or cooked liver. Also we wash his bottom everyday with cold boiled water and a sprinkling of salt as well as keeping his bed clean and dust free. After a few months we started to see a slight improvement in his bottom, we have therefore carried on the treatment for 6-8 months which has made a good improvement! He still has anal furunculosis but it seems to be under control.
I hope this can be of any help to you. Sally

We rescued a German Shepherd that we found dumped in February.

He's about 7 years old and he was licking his rear end so I took him to the vets in the summer. The vet treated him for a bout 8 weeks with antibiotics as they suspected a blocked anal gland and now has given me some cream called Protopic as its AF.

It's not having any effect as yet (2 weeks in) and I'm wondering what I should do. Also I took out insurance on him when we decided to keep him but didnt put it through the insurance when he was just on antibiotics and it looked like just an anal gland infection. Do I need to notify the insurance in case he ends up needing an operation? Any advise gratefully recieved!

Hi,

If he had this condition when you insured him, and did not declare it, any claim would be fraudulent.
If it only developed after taking out the insurance, you should have a legitimate claim for cost oftreatment.

W

Your posts have been very informtive about this deadly disease, just thought I'd let you know that I have a Bullmastiff x Rottie who is in advance stages just now, Ive been battling this condition with him for the past 3yrs and its really getting bad just now, Atopica just isn't working anymore and I'm at my wits end as to what to do.

Regards

Bev

Hi,

Has a biopsy been taken, or was the diagnosis of anal furunulosis made just on visual examination?

W

Dear Walter

I wrote to you last year about our GSD Jaygo who had severe AF and to ask advise about whether to carry on treatment. Well I am glad to say that we did. The AF never fully healed but he was able to come off medication for short periods ttreatment we were able to nip them in the bud before it became too serious. Over the last year his arthritis got worse and he became more lame. He that had a relapse after a short stay in kennels and he became incontinent. We got him to the vet on Monday and were given oxycare which had worked before when he had a flareup. The vet this time said he had to see a great improvement in 2-3 days. Unfortunately this didn't happen and on Thursday 4th June Jaygo had his last journey to the vet surgery. I said before that I hoped I would know when the time was right, I still asked repeatedly if the vet was sure nothing could be done. I didn't want to face the decision that had to be made. However we knew that it was best for Jaygo and he was put to sleep that evening. the past couple of days have been very strange and sad without him but he is not in pain anymore. Only we are and in time it will heal. I found the best diet for Jaygo was salmon and potato. Thank you for letting me tell you about Jaygo it has helped and good luck to everyone out there whose pets are struggling with AF. Jaygo had an extra 2 years he might not have had.