Does my dog suffer from fungal infection?

Skin fungus is an incredibly contagious disease that occurs especially in humid weather and in the autumn and winter months. In dogs, you call skin fungus dermatophytosis  or mycosis. This is a collective name for fungal infections such as  Trichophyton,  metagrophytes  and microsporum  canis. Skin fungi are more common in long-haired, young or sick dogs.

Zoonosis

Zoonosis is a name for contracting a fungus from a pet in humans, also called ringworm. If you suffer from round and red spots on the skin, contact your doctor.

Ringworm in dogs

Ringworms can be recognized by scaly spots with upright hairs and scabs. You can easily pull the crusts off-  look powdery and flaky-  and hairs fall out easily. The coat will look greasy, irritated and inflamed. The dog suffers from itching and bald or thinly haired spots.  If you don't treat a fungal infection, it can spread all over the  body. The fungi place in the corneal layer and can infect  the nails in addition to the coat and skin.

The development of fungal infections of the skin also depends on the resistance of the dog. Dogs can have skin fungus without noticing, it is also not visible. However, these dogs can infect other dogs.

Skin fungus in dogs is highly contagious

 The fungus spreads through the spores that the fungus transmits. This can happen because dogs have contact with each other, but also through contact with, for example, people and cats. Also through indirect contact such as brushes, collars and dog cushions. Fungal spores have a good protective layer. Due to the protective layer, the spores are difficult to fight. The spores place on the skin and fur of the dog and enter through the hair follicles.

The treatment of ringworm

The first thing that needs to be done to get rid of ringworms is to wash the dog with means that kill the ringworm, think of Imaverol. By doing this, the fungi are killed, but traces remain. It only takes a few days for these spores to grow into fungi. Once the spores have grown like fungi, it can be killed again. It works best if you wash the fungus 4 times with a time of 3 days in between. Also clean all the items that the dog has touched, because there may also be traces on this. If no new fungus develops, you can fight the fungus in about 14 days.

Furthermore, it is important that you prevent stress in the dog and support and improve the resistance and condition of the skin and coat. You can buy food for this in which extra vitamins and / or important fatty acids contain that increase the defenses.

If the treatment against the fungus does not work well enough, it is recommended to ask your veterinarian to grow some hairs (with scabs). After 10 days you give this a reliable result. It is also possible that the dog suffers from another skin condition.

Prevention of mould in dogs

Good resistance is the most important thing to prevent a fungus. Dogs that have a poor contraction of the skin suffer from fungal spores more quickly. Make sure that the dog cannot come into contact with mold. This also means that you have to pay attention to your own clothes. Factors that cause a fungal infection are heat, humidity, dirt, and poor ventilation.