Facial Fold Dermatitis in Dogs

Hey guys. Dr. Lara here today. I am here with Mugsy. Muggsy is an English bulldog. And the topic of the video today is going to be facial fold dermatitis. That is ffd. No, I just made that up. Don't worry. Stay tuned and we'll get into what that is and how to treat it and what happens with it all. Hey, guys. So don't worry. Mugsy did not try to jump off the table. She was just trying to get her angles. If you guys know anything about ig, it's all about the angles. So facial pulled dermatitis, what that is. So it's something that's most commonly seen in dogs with brachycephalic syndrome. So smash face. And it is something that has to do with one of the things that really makes those breeds and this breed super cute when they're little and even as adults. The only thing is that it is super high maintenance, depending on how bad or how severe the face fold is. So if you take a look over here, this thing right here, Mugsy has a facial fold. And when we look under the facial fold, you'll notice that the facial fold is going to be very, very inflamed. And so the reason that that happens is because it's just dogs are not set up to have or animals are not set up to have those kinds of folds. And so it doesn't allow that fold, you know, doesn't allow the tissue or the skin underneath for it to breathe. And it ends up leading into a really, you know, severe infection. It leads to a lot of humidity and it also leads to me moving around just to make sure that Mugsy isn't going to do anything crazy. But. I know, I know. Yeah, you're a good girl. Yes, you are. So what ends up happening is this is something that one of the things that makes these breeds very high knee. So typically what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to go ahead and you're going to need to get a wipe. Whether it's a medicated wipe, whether it's a non medicated wipe. You want to make sure. For the maintenance stuff, I would try to use non medicated wipes. I recommend the water wipes for babies. It is something that has almost no chemicals in it. So it's not really going to be irritating, shouldn't really cause too much problems or irritation for your bully breed or your brachycephalic dog. And it's something depending on how severe the, the fold is, you're going to have to wipe it once a day or three or four times a day. It just depends. It also depends on whether or not your dog has allergies. If your dog has allergies, that's something that's going to complicate the factor because it's something that will go ahead and make that fold more likely to develop an infection. Where you live is something else if you live in a super humid climate. We live down here in South Florida. I live in Miami. She lives in Broward county, which is where my office is based out of. It is extremely humid down here. It's almost like your people who come from places where it's very dry, say it's like you're trying to breathe a milkshake, versus if you live in a place like Nevada or somewhere where there's very, very low humidity, then it's not going to be as bad. It's still going to be a problem. And so that's something that you need to take into consideration. If your dog does have allergies, you will notice that the facial fold will most likely get worse during the times of the seasons, the times of the year when the allergies are flaring. And then it may get better when you don't have those allergies going. Also may get worse if your dog's allergies don't necessarily tie up to the rainy season where you live. But I think that's. There's a decent chance that that's going to be the case where you're going to have the rainy season and the allergies actually tying up to be at the same time. That being said, one of the more dramatic treatments is to actually remove the facial fold. In my 13 years, I have yet to have a client who has elected to surgically remove the facial fold. It is something that is an option, but it would remove one of the trademarks of this particular breed. And so I anticipate that's one of the reasons why people most likely don't end up removing that. Depending on how severe it is, you can use some powders in there. We use something called the neopred F powder that initially will help to keep that area dry. But it will be crucial for you to go in there and wipe it out every time you put it in, because you do not want that stuff just crusting and caking on top of each other because then you're just going to create another problem. So that being said, if you guys found this video helpful, please give us a thumbs up. Subscribe and Share if you have any questions about this particular topic, please leave it in the comment box. Thanks for watching. Have a great day and be safe. Sam.