Dog with Open Boils
We have two Dalmatian dogs, one female 11 years old, and one Male 8 years old. The female has a severe boil (back and behind the high side of the neck area) which has grown in size from a small marble to the size of a golf ball over a year's period. I would have liked to take her to the vet, but like we have observed on your website, the vet we have gone to appears to rely more on pushing expensive drugs that don't seem to work very well. I would like to see if we can get this problem under control before we take her back to him or any other vet if possible. We keep her as clean as possible, fleas are inevitable in the Houston, Texas area, and we have been successful in reducing their severity year round. This boil has erupted, and bleeds to excess sometimes, we keep it clean and covered when it does over the last month since it broke open and began bleeding. I can only give you what we see, and from her "few" past medical issues, this is the most severe condition we have encountered with her. I believe from what I have read on the earth clinic website you describe boils in two causes. Staph and or Yeast infections. I read that there are a few holistic remedies you have recommended to others on that website. Those include a Apple Cider Vinegar, Borax, "copper" sulfates and others that I don't recall at this moment. We currently have them both on a dry food diet, plenty of fresh water everyday, a cool, indoor environment and plenty of opportunities to relieve themselves when needed. They are eating Science Diet Lamb and Rice (small bites), and the occasional reward treats of Pedigree "Marrow Bones". I would like to see if you could be more specific on the use of these products either topically or internally and if I have the right products to begin with. I intend on keeping the area (boil) clean, washing it every morning and evening warm water rags and applying a solution of Hydrogen Peroxide to additionally keep the area clean and try and kill any bacterial infections that may arise while this boil is open like this. There are a few small holes on and around the boil that weep either blood or a clear fluid if the boil is disturbed. And one large open break on the top of the boil which is obviously the main source of concern.
A boil appears usually as a staph more so than a yeast as it is flesh eating, based on your feedback of a huge open boils. You can make a mixture of any of the formulas, which would generally do fine, assuming it is a staph. A yeast will require a different formula which emphasize more on the borax and peroxide. Generally for a dog, try a relatively concentrate solution of 20% Magnesium chloride (or lesser effective magnesium sulfate epsom salt), plus add Lugol's iodine solution (commonly called povidone iodine) until the solution becomes light or dark brown. Then apply to the area of infection. Dogs will instinctively lick the wounds so it need to be covered in a cotton gauze and well covered from air exposure. Turmeric can be added as an optional and maybe a 5% solution. I have compiled other additional information to help the treatment. The staph are most sensitive to salts of magnesium, but perhaps adding only an addition 5% solution of salt may be too painful for the dog, but do have some killing power. Humic acid added at 1%-10% can also help, but then so can even a 5% solution of tannic acid topically in addition to above formula helps too. The issues is not the problem of formulating the remedy. That's easy. The problem is getting the needed chemicals. If you can't find it you get the other, and vice versa. The dog should drink a fairly salty solution so it can kill the staph from the inside out, such as only one day should at least be not too painful, perhaps 1 teaspoon of sea salt in one liter of water may help which is fairly dilute concentration, but can help. Green tea can be added to the drinking water which can also kill the staph when added together with the sea salt solution.
By the way, I always add some baking soda to get the pH high enough. Usually it is about 5%-10% solution. If that is so, I usually reduce the magnesium chloride from 20% to only 10% solution, so that the solution is not so concentrated. Staph will not grow if pH goes over 8, but get totally inhibited in pH of 10 or 11. Actually I used a stronger sodium carbonate (washing soda) or potassium carbonate, but most people really have problems finding that, and those don't require a lot to get a pH to 10 or 11.
Ted
NaHCO3 is baking soda, by the way!
Below is to support my claims:
Brazilian Journal of Microbiology (2005) 36:151-156 ISSN 1517-8382 151 ACTION OF NISIN AND HIGH PH ON GROWTH OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS AND SALMONELLA SP. IN PURE CULTURE AND IN THE MEAT OF LAND CRAB (UCIDES CORDATUS) Teresa Cristina S. de Lima Grisi 1 ; Krystyna Gorlach-Lira 2 * 1 Universidade Federal da Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil; 2 Departamento de Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal da Paraiba, João Pessoa, PB, Brasil. Submitted: March 16, 2004; Returned to authors for corrections: December 08, 2004; Approved: June 02, 2005 ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of nisin and high pH to inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella sp. in broth culture and when inoculated into meat of land crab. In pure cultures, the growth of S. aureus was strongly inhibited by nisin and the growth of Salmonella sp. was inhibited by nisin- EDTA (20 mM). The inhibition of S. aureus lasted for eight hours and Salmonella sp. growth was inhibited throughout the experiment (24 h). The high pH (pH 10.0 and 11.0 with NaHCO 3 -NaOH buffer) was very effective for in vitro inhibition of S. aureus and Salmonellasp. Nisin and high pH, when applied to the contaminated meat, did not yield the same effect. Nisin was not effective in preventing growth of both pathogens in the crab meat, while pH 10.0 showed significant inhibitory effect on Salmonella sp. The results suggest that high pH has a potential as antibacterial agent, and may be useful in chemical preservation of crab meat.
