Carol heard about the work that Thoughts for Hands, Hooves and Paws through a friend and because she was so upset about her 'baby' Brodie feeling depressed and irritable because of a skin issues which no-one had managed to get to the bottom of.

Brodie heard Judi Gunn's footsteps so there was no need for her to knock on his quaint cottage door. A few moments later Judi heard Carol, the owner, telling Brodie to be quiet and opened the door to welcome her.

Brodie was clearly happy to see a visitor but by the colour and flinching of his skin he was clearly irritated by the redness that could be seen on his shoulders, the side of his Belly and his neck.

Judi, as always, went down to the dogs height and sat on the floor, and watched every single body movement that he made for the next ten to fifteen minutes.

Brodie kept coming across to her but could clearly not settle due to the heat and discomfort of his 'boiling' skin. When Carol returned she asked Brodie to roll over. Being more like a child than a dog, he obliged - but obviously this rolling over had been a regular occurrence because of the amount of times that Carol had been instructed to apply various creams to try an alleviate the issue.

Carol proceeded to tell Judi that she had spent an awful lot of money with the local vets but with out much success. The current suggestion was to take Brodie in to be monitored and to be assessed under an anaesthetic. Carol continued to say that she was rather unhappy about the idea of her 'baby' going in and because of the lack of positive results she asked if there was anything that Judi could do to help the situation.

It was clear that Brodie needed something fairly instant to relieve his roastingly red crawling skin. Judi explained to Carol that there are a selection of things that can irritate skin issues, and once irritated the there can be a roll on effect which in turn irritates the skin even more. It was important to find something to counter react to his 'individual chemical balance'. She also explained that Thoughts for Hands, Hooves and Paws believes that each dog, horse, bull, human or cat has their own individual chemical balance and that no two dogs are going to necessarily have the same reaction to each suggestion given to alleviate the problem in hand.

After a period of 45 minutes Carol was given a list of negative and positive foods, scaled from minus 10 to plus 10 and the higher the plusses the better it was for Brodie.

Not only did Judi create a specific diet sheet for Brodie but she gave the suggestion that the washing powder, the type of material and colour of his collar should be changed and she found an ointment to specifically put on at the start of treatment just until his diet had a chance to bring his chemical balance back to normal.

After a just a matter of a few days emails were freely being posted to Thoughts for Hand, Hooves and Paws showing Carols full appreciation in resolving the problem.

Judi suggested that she would return to see the dog after a period of a month to see if any of the previously diagnosed negative foods could be re-introduced. There were about four difference types of food or chews that he could start having in small quantities.

After a very short period of time of being on his specific diet his whole character changed for the better and healthy hair started to grow back. More to the point he was not having to suffer the dreadfully irritable 'crawling feeling that skin issues can create and he is, till this day one HAPPY dog.

Brodie is now used as a 'Pat-a-dog' in an Old peoples' home and is loved and adored greatly by all and shows no signs of depression or irritability.

Thoughts for Hands, Hooves and Paws is a service that offers Equine and Canine Assisted Therapy for Animals with a variety of behaviour and health problems. For more information, see their website at www.hoovesandpaws.co.uk