So it all started about 3 months ago, when Zelda was 6 months old. She started with some minor scratching. No lesions, no FLEAS, perfectly healthy otherwise. I also noticed that her coat was dull and got oily very quickly after washing her. The she started scratching more incessantly, coat was getting worse, and was starting to scale (dandruff). The situation got progressively worse until she scratched so much she would create lesions on herself. As soon as I saw that, I took her to the vet. She was quite clearly uncomfortable and something had to be done.
Vet figured it was an allergy since my baby was so young. To rule out mange and other bacteria etc, Vet did a skin scraping, and it resulted negative. She also took a sample of Zelda's hair and tested it over a 2 week period for ringworm. Negative. In the meantime we had her on a very strict diet of fish and sweet potato food. High quality dog food, for 4 weeks. Still scratching like crazy, and getting worse. She was now starting to bite herself any time she had the chance and had red bumps, like a rash, on certain parts of her body. I have to keep her covered at all times with a full body coat to prevent her from destroying herself.
With the biting and licking also came hair loss around the areas that Zelda got at most. She has little bald patches behind her ears now (I didn't think of putting socks on her until it was too late! and I thought it would be cruel to put the plastic cone on her) and her trunk has lost a lot of hair. I am pretty sure the hair will grow back eventually, if we get the itching under control.
Went back to the Vet, was quite desperate at that point. It clearly wasn`t the food Zelda was allergic to. Vet gave her a cortisone shampoo to use, which helped a little for the inflammation, and said at that point we could either start with shots of steroids, or do an allergy test with a blood sample, and then proceed with custom made allergy shots. (message me if you want more info)
Since I have to get her spayed and have 2 retained teeth extracted (tomorrow actually!), I told Vet that I thought the best idea would be to do the allergy test and get the blood directly during surgery. That way we would find out once and for all what Zelda was reacting to.
THEN, over the past week or so, before her surgery, I started researching like crazy on the internet. I ended up finding a condition that matched Zelda's PRECISELY. It's called
Seborrhea, or
Seborrheic Dermatitis. There are two types, primary and secondary - primary usually manifests itself in young puppies and is a life long condition and has nothing to do with allergies. You can have
seborrhea sicca, which has only flaking, or
seborrhea oleosa, which is only an oily coat, OR a combination of BOTH, which is
Seborrheic Dermatitis.
A skin biopsy is reccomended to determine if the skin is diseased and afterwards therapy consists mostly in trying to keep the dog's discomfort to a minimum with various methods. Secondary is usually found in older dogs and is called secondary precisely because it can be caused by an allergy, or another factor that triggers the dermatits. I strongly feel that Zelda's case is primary.
So I called the Vet today, the day before surgery and told her that based on the past 3 months I really felt that this was what was afflicting my little dog. She agreed that it was a good idea to do the skin biopsy and then go from there. In any case, an allergy test can always be done at any time, provided that the blood is clean and free from cortisone and other things.
So that's where I am at at this point, if anyone is having the same situation, please don't hestitate to post here or contact me! I will keep you posted.
Thanks everyone, sorry for the length, I really did ramble on! And I did leave a lot of info out too....please ask me if you have any questions!
And here she is!