It's Always Something - November 2014 - calcinosis cutis???

I was petting Shasta and felt something like a scab on her skin. I checked it out and it definitely looked like a scab at first. Then it kind of looked like a rash. Her skin looked dry. The next day when I checked it out it had spread pretty rapidly on her back close to her spine area. I was freaking out. I put Animin Clay on her back for about a week and by this time it had spread all down her back.

It didn't bother her at all, she didn't lick or scratch at it. But I was freaking out trying figure out what this was. I sent pics to Dr. Plechner and he had his ideas as to what it was, but sent me to my local vet who confirmed it was calcinosis cutis, which can be caused by steroids. The vet said the skin would not heal and would always be rough. I had shaved Shasta's back so I could clean it better and keep it from getting infected. The vet said her hair would not grow back in those areas and there is no treatment for the calcinosis, but advised to lower the dosage of Medrol presribed by Dr. Plechner. Instead I got another blood panel done (EI-1 panel) and sent the results to Dr. P. Shasta's thyroid had significanly lowered in the past month so we did not decrease her Medrol dose, but increased her Thyroxine by just a little bit and she started acting like a spring chicken immediately after. Dr. P also prescribed DMSO as a topical treatment for the calcinosis. I couldn't find this anywhere in local stores so I bought the gel from Amazon online. This stuff worked like a charm! It does stink pretty bad and the dogs will try to lick it so I had to put Shasta's water vest on her to prevent that. : ) I then had to bath her every coupld of days and get all the dead skin that peels off her from the DMSO, but she didn't mind at all. After a few weeks her back has cleared up and her fur has grown back where I shaved her as well. It is rare that calcinosis cutis occurs in a patient that has been shown to be cortisol imbalanced, but if it does happen, the cortisol replacement definitely needs to be continued so the original disease does not reoccur. The local areas of calcinosis cutis, need to be treated daily with DMSO topically,.until the lesion is no longer present. Again, I really do love my local vet and I know they have Shasta's best interest, but I will always go to Dr. Plechner for final advice and opinion as this man knows his stuff and would never suggest anything that would harm animals.