Davis Maximum Chlorhexidine Pet Shampoo, 12 oz

Good product

This shampoo contains the one ingredient my vet wants to treat my little dog's pyoderma: Chlorhexidine, in the greatest concentration I can find, 4%. Pyoderma is the scaling, itchy, hot, fast-spreading rash that has my dog licking and biting the area, so miserable she forgets to play or even eat. It looks a lot like "scratches" in horses and acts the same, or like severe "rain rot" in horses, and it has the same causes, bacteria or fungus and a weak immune system. She needs an antibiotic when it gets out of hand, but this shampoo at least prolongs the period between antibiotic rounds. Nothing else comes close to relieving her misery. Fortunately, she has hair vice fur, so I can bathe her every other day if I need to, and for two days she'll have great relief before the scales regrow. It's crucial to leave this on for the full ten minutes though, no cheating! My vet emphasized that, and she's right. The dog's skin needs to absorb the chlorhexidine, but the added benefit is that after 8-10 minutes the scales soften enough so they mostly slide off, leaving new skin. I just bathe my dog using a six-foot shower hose on the floor of my walk-in shower stall, wearing vinyl gloves so I can protect my hands and avoid infecting myself as I scrub her skin continuously while quickly re-wetting her with the hose to warm her and keep up the lather. Most of these bacteria don't cross species, but how do you know it won't? She seems to enjoy the vigorous rubbing--I guess it's nice when I do the scratching! I finish with a medicated conditioner, and her coat is fluffy and soft, not stripped. The added benefit is that she used to have hot spots on her nose because of her big, round, drippy eyes, and those are completely gone since I scrub that area well, too--and weirdly, she loves it! I've tried literally a dozen shampoos, and this is the only one that makes a dent in this poor dog's problems. The vet is satisfied with her progress; that's all I need to know. I received no compensation whatsoever for this review. Good luck to all you pet parents!

I read reviews about this and I used both shampoos and let it sit on the wound for ten mn than rinsed It off. The first time I used my hair blow dryer to dry her. It's kind of hard to blow dry her when I don't have help from my friend. It's been five days and the wound has already healed for the most part and hair is growing back slowly! I have just used it a second time tonight. I dried her off with a towel. My pug mix is 9 months old and she had hot spots so bad she chewed her skin down to the meat. It was horrible to see this wound she inflicted on herself. The last three photos show the improvement of just after two uses. I just gave a second bath she is air drying from it. This will improve again in the next three days. It was far worse five days ago before the first bath was given with both shampoos! I highly recommend this product and the other shampoo too! I read reviews and it says use twice a week! I will continue to use it on my girl twice a week(once every five days) until she has completed healed up !

Works better than shampoo from vet for 1/3 of the price with twice the active ingredient. My cocker spaniel has skin issues & literally stopped scratching after 1st use. Definitely worth trying at this price.

I've tried a lot of shampoos over time, but never a 4% Chlorhexidine shampoo. Finally, this one works! I followed other review's advice with great result! First, I bathed them in Hartz no tears shampoo. Next, I applied Davis Chlorhexidine shampoo. Let it sit 10 minutes, and rinsed it off. The first time I bathed them, I repeated the process. Finally, I rinsed them in a 50% apple cider vinegar rinse and let it dry. When I rinsed them in the vinegar solution, I stood them in the container and gave their feet extra attention. I did this a month ago and there's been very little itching. This shampoo has a nice, mild fragrance. It takes only a small amount for my little dogs. Today, I used it again with the same process. Hope we get the same result. I'm not sure what makes my dogs itch. I used to think it was yeast. I realized recently that if I walk around here barefoot, my feet and ankles itch terribly. We're in Florida where nothing ever really dries out so, I'm thinking maybe that's the problem because they run, play, and roll in the grass everyday. We never had skin issues living in the north east.