Case Studies

Sweet Lily Pig

Sweet Lily Pig

Amy is a Dog Mom.
She oozes resilience, is stubborn and has a massive heart. Her mantra is a resounding,
‘Never give-up on Lily.’

 

I met Amy via IG Video (a referral from one of our US Ambassadogs), her ‘passion and fight’ for Lily a powerful introduction. In the background of the video, I could see Lily pacing back and forth… trying not to be noticed. It was April 23, 2021.

I asked Amy if she would tell me a little bit about Lily, and she quickly replied, ‘Oh God, where do I begin!’

Lily is a white Pitt Bull, a Rescue with a heart-breaking back-story. If I was to tell you what she’s allergic too… well... perhaps it’d be easier to tell you what she’s NOT allergic too.

Looking at your immunology report, there are only two things I can see that scored a zero: Liver (Beef), and Fleas. Now let's think about that for a moment!

Lily’s immunology report was as-long-as your arm, and although the results vary in some degree (some excruciatingly high), in essence she's allergic to everything! Food and environment. She also suffers from major separation anxiety; this leading her to break out severely whereby she scratches, bleeds and an entire allergic episode writes her off for several weeks.

Now, have I mention Amy's 'never give-up' attitude? 

Amy’s as tough as they come, what I’d call a warrior woman. She protects her family at all odds, pointing out to me that she would go to the end of the earth to help Lily… Her sweet, sweet Lily. That she’d tried just about everything. That companies continually approached her to try their products, but that nothing had worked. She was at the end of her tether, and quite understandably more than a little sceptical.

I explained that my passion had stemmed from working with fine professional haircare products (for humans), and that my philosophy was simple... That although I couldn’t make Lily’s allergies go away, I could try to help her build skin health; to make her skin strong and supple again, which would then help in combatting the varying degrees of reaction she was suffering; both allergy and stress related.

Amy & I spoke about helping to build Lily’s skin health with Underwater Dogs shampoos & leave-in conditioning treatment. Like anything it would be a process, and while there were no magic potions, if she was willing to trust in me, we might just make the difference she'd been looking for.

My goal would be to cleanse away the dead skin cells and prepare the skin to absorb our leave-in conditioning treatment, building hydration levels, elasticity, and skin strength. If Lily didn’t react to the products, something we would know after a small patch test).

So, what was the likelihood of Lily not reacting? The patch test would help give us an idea, but moving forward given all the variables with her allergies and anxiety, we needed to be thorough AND patient.

We put a program together for Lily. Most importantly, this would include Lily coming off ALL other topical remedies, creams, and potions during the trial. To know if the products were working, we couldn’t cross pollinate with other products for several months, so this was a really important decision for Amy to make.

Amy agreed to give Underwater Dogs haircare products a go🥰

Note* Cleansing and moisturising the skin is a process that takes both a Shampoo and a Conditioner. Shampoo is negatively charged and a conditioner positive, therefore one will neutralise while the other balances. Working together, these two products help to restore your dog's natural canine pH balance (acid mantel), which in turn, protects the hair and skin.

Understandably it was going to take time, and no doubt Amy had her fingers crossed the entire time – who could blame her! For me, being so far away in Sydney Australia meant that all I could do, was wait.

  

 Picture taken before Lily's first bath with Underwater Dogs.

 

Below are excerpts from Amy’s feed-back (as received) - as the weeks progressed. 

AMY - April 29, First Bath: "Lily’s doing good! She got her first bath today and NO adverse reactions. Hopefully it stays that way!"

UWDOGS - Amazing news to hear the above. Reach out if you need anything🤞

AMY - May 5, Second Bath (one week later): "It’s been going great, I washed her again yesterday and she still hasn’t had a reaction! I’m watching her skin like a hawk & her spots seem to be filling in a bit??😌

UWDOGS - Fantastic! After another couple of baths her skin should start to feel more supple and the fur softer. Keep checking her underbelly too... and her face where she has tended to get very raw in the past. The conditioner will be her best friend. Eventually we hope her fur will  grow back and fill in all the gaps, but remain patient as this would be a huge turn around. Remember if at all possible... don't use anything else on her (anywhere externally) other than UWDOGS products for the next 6 weeks.

AMY - May 12, Third Bath: "Hi Gayle, Lily’s really doing great! It even looks like her bald spots are filling in. I’ll be really interested to see how these look in a few weeks. Yes, and I’m only using what you gave me."

UWDOGS - Truly fantastic! All going to plan. I appreciate you not using anything else at the moment. Will give Lily's skin a good chance to breathe and repair🤞💚

AMY - June 3: "Lily’s doing much better with her skin & hair patches filling in, but she’s having a strange breakout. It may not be from the products, nevertheless, she's having issues right now.

"On the other hand, she’s actually not smelling too bad at all! I had to skip one of her baths (unforeseen circumstances), but she doesn’t smell like a complete cheese block which is nice!"




AMY - June 6:  "It feels like something is definitely trying to make its way out. She’s detoxing (or something)? I’m taking her in for bloodwork to see how her levels are going, so we’ll soon see if everything’s functioning properly. It's looking better though already."



UWDOGS
 - Nothing too unusual here. It does look like she's detoxing. It's very localised so I would encourage you to keep going with the routine. Yes, she's had a set back, but we always knew it wouldn't be a straight forward fix. The rest of her skin and fur is really starting to look amazing. Really proud of the job you're both doing, and look how fast she's healing.

AMY - June 17: Overall she’s most definitely doing well, I’m going to take her to the vet tomorrow and I’d like to try weening her off of the steroids (if possible). This Wednesday she’ll have been using the shampoo and conditioner for 6 weeks so if we hit 8 weeks and we are issue free, this will be the true teller … and then you may be stuck with us for life!😂

UWDOGS - OK! ... It'd be amazing to ween her off the steroids! Fingers crossed for you both... Let me know what they say, and keep the conditioning process up. It will be integral to continuing her recovery process. I'm really proud of you both... and with only 2 more weeks to hit a 2 month trial... I'm feeling like we might be on the right track. One step at a time!

AMY - July 22: She smells amazing, and I’ll know tomorrow if those sores are from the steroids. She’s not had much in the way of reactions recently other than the sores and ear infections which are internal.

I will say we are all absolutely shocked that she doesn’t smell like🧀 We didn’t ever imagine she would ever lose that horrendous smell!😆 I’m also floored that her bald spots are filling in."

AMY - July 27: "Gayle, we are still seeing more improvement! I hope we ride this wave for a while. I’ll let you know!"

AMY - August 12: "Hi! So Lily is doing really well! Her skin is completely turning around! We got her blood work back and she’s doing great! A perfectly white pig belly! Hooray!!!!

I’m very happy she’s doing so well. I feel like her skin has detoxed. There’s been so much going on over here this past year and I’m not sure I have a picture or video of the scabs that have covered her whole-body, but it was awful. She’s really doing great. It’s such a relief."

 


UWDOGS: Am crying tears of joy for your beautiful girl. I feel humbled and elated all at once. This is truly AMAZING!💚

AMY - August 24: "Lily really is doing great! Her fur is coming back slowly but surely on her back. She’s such a happy girl!


AMY - August 30: "Well, her skin is doing great, but the little bugger will always keep us on our toes. This is what she does to herself when I leave her home for an extended period of time without me. I had to take a 500-mile round trip yesterday and I didn’t take her with me, so this is what I came home to. This is separation anxiety.

 


AMY: "But this is her ear now, after clean-up!"

 

 
"Gayle, few people understand the pain endured, in taking care of a special needs dog... Knowing and watching their slow decline is one of the worst feelings imaginable. So, to be able to see the damage being undone like this is an amazing feeling.

Her skin truly looks amazing! We’re absolute believers!! The conditioner is our lifesaver!!!

Thank you so much Gayle & Underwater Dogs. Yes, it’s been almost 5 months but she’s really doing great! THANK YOU!!!"


INSTAGRAM POST - @sweet_lily_pig - 13 September, 2021


"So as most of you know, after 3+ years of ups-and-downs with Lily, there's almost nothing I haven't tried on the quest to heal her skin. From oils and dietary changes to immunotherapy to Sulfur treatments.

Last Spring I was contacted by Gayle, the Founder of Underwater Dogs @uwdogs. She was eager to get me to try Underwater Dogs on Lily, as she thought this might help her. I've been contacted by dozens of product lines over the years and Lily's had adverse reactions to literally all of them. It has taken me months to post this because I haven't wanted to give anyone false hope on a product to help their allergy pups in similar situations without being certain she wouldn't have reactions.

But after nearly 5 months of using Underwater Dogs Haircare I can say with 1,000% certainty that THIS STUFF REALLY IS AMAZING!!!

💚💙THANK YOU @uwdogs💚💙

👉I am not being paid OR receiving any compensation for this. It's simply our experience with this product that I wanted to share to possibly help those of you that often reach out to me for advice or suggestions.👈

Our thanks go to Amy, her family and the extraordinary perseverance applied to our Skin Rejuvenation Program. I must reiterate though, that this is only the beginning for Lily. As the months go by her skin health will hopefully continue to improve, helping to combat any anxiety or infection she suffers along the way. 

Amy reminds me that for her, the real test comes in a couple of months time with the Santa Ana winds - which really kick Lily’s allergies into high gear. I remain hopeful that with continued UWDOGS conditioning treatments, Lily's skin will be looking and feeling well enough to recover quickly from whatever reaction she endures.


Note* Keeping your itchy dog’s skin cleansed and moisturised is the key. For those who say you shouldn’t bath your dog too often, we say… ‘It’s not how often, but rather WHAT you’re using that counts.’


We love dogs and are here to help you too. If you’re worried about your itchy or allergy-prone dog, then please feel free to DM us @uwdogs for a consultation. Or email us directly here: 
Australian Dogs – woof@uwdogs.com  OR  USA Dogs – ralph@uwdogs.com

Again, there are NO magic potions, and our skin health philosophy is simple. It’s the dedication, persistence and consistency required by your dog’s main carer that will help your dog’s skin improve. Your willingness to follow our program and use Underwater Dogs products... will do the rest.

Note* It’s very rare nowadays for everyday dry, itchy skin to be caused by fleas. Flea and Tick prevention medications are easily available and do an amazing job, especially the internal varieties like Bravecto, NexGard and Samparica. Rather its 'dry skin' tightening to such a degree whereby it causes your dog irritation. The irritation/itch then needs scratching, a chew here, a chew there, a bite, a bleed and then hey hey… we’re away… Infection!
 
It’s a vicious cycle because once bacteria are introduced via the skin, we usually need assistance from our vet. Along with the creams or antibiotics usually comes a medicated shampoo, and don’t get me wrong, I’m the first to agree that medicated products have their place; but they also dry the skin. And so, the cycle begins...

 

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Unit 1 / 1 Craig Avenue, MANLY NSW 2095 AUSTRALIA
ABN 43 151 366 273
Copyright @uwdogs 2021

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