Treating dogs with Sebaceous Adenitis

commonly known as SA

For a good description of SA as a disease, please see the following sites:
Sebaceous Adenitis by Judy King
Sebaceous Adenitis Survey Results

We have a beautiful Akita boy named Jordan, born December 1998.  Here he is right before any of this happened:

 


When he was around four years old, his skin and coat started changing.  His undercoat didn't want to grow back after a bath, and we noticed a little dandruff.  We attributed it to a strange shedding cycle, and didn't much worry about it.  A few months later, he had his annual vet visit, and we casually mentioned the coat change.  By that time, his undercoat was really thin, the fur was dull, and he had elbow calluses which had never happened before.  We still weren't too concerned, and decided to change his food to see what would happen.  Two months later, when the new food was supposed to kick in, things were beginning to look worrisome.  The elbow calluses broke and were infected, the coat was really thin, with some bald patches, and he had sores all over the body.  This time, the vet was visibly concerned, and we were pretty panicked.  We ran a full thyroid panel on him (it came back normal), and were referred to a dermatologist.  By this time, we had done a little Internet research, and we were suspecting SA.  We still, however, were hoping we were overreacting, and it'd be something else.  The dermatologist took one look at Jordan, and said, yep, it's SA.  A skin biopsy confirmed sebaceous adenitis in advanced stage.  Jordan stayed on antibiotics for six weeks to clear up the sores, and we started on a life-long regiment of oil bath treatments. 
This is Jordan looking his worst.  If you look closely, you can see the sores by his toes.  He had sores like this all over his body. 



A year later, we can say that we have had amazing luck treating him with a simple weekly bathing regimen.  We have decided to describe the process that works for us, in hopes that it will be of assistance to other owners of dogs with SA.  Briefly, we rub him down all over with an oil/water mixture, then wash it out with a sulfate based shampoo.  Tho whole process takes under an hour, and in the summer time can be done outdoors.  In winter, we move it to a shower in the basement, which happens to be big enough for me and a 120lb Akita.

A broken down recipe looks like this:

1.  Prepare bath oil/water solution (1:1)  in a spray bottle.



2.  Spray dog all over. 

3.  Wait for a few minutes to rub the oil in and let the oil soak.



4.  Rinse out as much oil as you can with water.



5.  Shampoo dog all over with sulfate based antibiotic non-drying shampoo (we use SebaLyt, and buy it in bulk on Internet).



6.  Wait for 5-10 minutes to let the antibacterial action take place (otherwise, it's like any other shampoo). 

7.  Rinse dog thoroughly, and make sure there are no residues of oil or shampoo left.  These can cause nasty hot spots.

8.  And this is the result (the attached chow is not the result of the treatment!)

crimewarm butts!




He'll never have his entire undercoat back, and he always has a few sores here and there (sometimes bad enough that we have go on  long-term antibiotics regiment), but he is happy and healthy, and as a bonus still a stunning dog! 

A few notes:

We used to use baby oil, but we don't any more, as it's very greasy and hard to get out.  Bath oil works just as well, and it's a whole lot more water-soluble.  We use Vaseline brand Moisturizing Bath and Body Oil.  It is the least expensive bath oil we could find in Wal-mart (takes two bottles per wash).  We compared the ingredients, and it's basically the same stuff as Alpha Keri, which is about four times as expensive.   I also once read that someone did away with oil all together, and went with the shampoo alone.  We tried that one time, and that did not work for us at all!  Jordan got very dry and itchy--he definitely needs oil. 
It appears that some dogs require being soaked in oil for longer periods of time.  With Jordan, the oil action is immediate.  The crust softens right away.
We plug his ears with cotton balls before the water rinse.  Residual water in ears can cause yeast, which, in turn, can cause hot spots. 
After he is done, we rinse his ears with an ear cleansing solution to make sure the yeast doesn't grow. 
We don't blow dry him, as SA is a super-dry skin condition and with Colorado dry climate, we don't want to add to it.  This was recommended by his doctor. 
We have to do this about every 7-10 days.  Any longer than that causes him to start developing waxy crust, and subsequently, sores.  Gentaved spray works great on the sores.  We also buy it in bulk on Internet. 
We are also very lucky with Jordan's very great and competent doctors (his regular vet and the skin specialist).  Compared to other SA cases we read about, Jordan got diagnosed and got help very quickly.  It is still a rare disease, and has symptoms of many other skin problems, so many doctors may never suspect it.

Food/Supplements:

We don't believe that unless a dog has other issues, food matters at all with this condition.  Jordan is on ProPlan Sensitive Skin and Stomach, but we are probably overpaying, and should switch to something cheaper. 
He also get a tablespoon of Missing Link per day.  It probably doesn't do anything either.
He is on Vitamin A, which acts as a retinoid, with SA being a hair loss condition.  He used to be on 16,000 units per day (20,000 is the recommended dose), but a few months ago, we slashed it by half.  We noticed no difference.  At some point, we'll get brave, and do away with Vitamin A all together.
In other words, none of the food/supplements probably make any difference, but we are paranoid, and don't want to fix what ain't broke.