Dogs Licking Plaques
We all love our fur babies. I am no exception. I have three dogs and three cats. At one point we had a small farm that included goats, chickens, ducks and the other six animals I just mentioned, but I digress. This story is about letting your precious dog lick on your psoriasis. I knew it was something that dogs do when you have a sore on your legs or arms. I took it as it is their way of saying you have a sore that I want to make better in my own doggie way. I never thought about it until it happened to me. What is it that happened to me you ask? Glad you asked that question. I got a nasty fungal infection from my dog licking on my leg. Although at first, I did not think it was such, I just thought it was my psoriasis flaring.
My dogs licking my plaques
Because I thought it was my psoriasis flaring I really did not do anything about it. It wasn't until a couple of months later when the rash was about halfway up my leg that I decided I better go see my doctor. I did notice it didn't quite look the same as my other plaque psoriasis patches. So I go into my dermatologist office, see his nurse and tell her that I thought my psoriasis was flaring. However, when the doctor came, he suddenly got extremely excited. I had no idea why. He told me he didn't think my psoriasis was flaring at all. He had a good idea of what was going on and wanted to scrape my leg to look at the flakes under a microscope. I sat there wondering what it could be while the doctor was out looking at whatever under the microscope.
A diagnosis of a fungal infection
My doctor came back in the room still all excited. He even brought a colleague in to show him my leg. The conversation between the two of them went like this. Doctor Romero stated that he had only seen one other case like mine before when dealing with psoriasis. The other doctor whose name I do not know stated that he would be looking up all the information on the subject and be more diligent with his patients. All this time I am sitting there listening to this conversation dumbfounded as to what they were talking about. It wasn't until I spoke up to say "excuse me patient sitting here." That brought Dr. Romero back to dealing with me. He told me that it was a fungal infection. Of course, came my standard question anyone would ask. How in the world did I get a fungal infection?
Was this infection from my dog?
After a long round of questions about what I had been doing when the fungal infection started the doctor determined that it was letting my dog lick on my plaques that had created the problem. It was the only thing that had been going on at the time it started. As I stated I had never thought that getting a fungal infection from my dog was even a possibility. Now I will not let any dog lick on my leg although they always try.
Treating the fungal infection
It took three rounds of anti-fungal medication to get the fungus gone from my leg. The anti-fungal medicine is a huge horse pill that you have to take. Swallowing it is hard. Then, of course, is the mental aspect of thinking about you having a fungal infection that has crawled halfway up your leg. That notion still sticks with me to this day. I am telling my story about it in the hope that it will be a warning to others about letting those cute fur babies lick on any open plaques that you may have. Take it from me a fungal infection is not something that you want to have to deal with on top of psoriasis. Psoriasis by itself is hard enough to live with. Adding a fungal infection on top of it makes it so much worse. Please do not let your pets lick on your plaques or the result could be the same.
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