[cheddy007]

Mickie is a 7-year-old, male Yorkie. Within this past year he has been so miserable and itchy, yet I can't seem to find anyone to explain why. I've searched every forum and have gone to about 5 different vets. He used to be outgoing, but now he just sleeps and chases whatever part of himself that seems to be itching that day. Mostly his backside. He used to have long, thick, beautiful hair, but now it's stringy and greasy from his neck to the middle of his back. The hair around his butt and legs looks brittle and frizzy. Most of his life he had a light blueish gray tint to the fur on his back. Now his backside is more white, and the top half of his back is dark gray. His hair used to be so thick that you couldn't see his skin anywhere, but now he is completely bald underneath his tail and all the way to the middle of his stomach. His hair has also thinned out significantly on his back and legs.

I'll point out his symptoms the best I can.

-He constantly runs in circles chasing his butt without regard to anything else, falling off couches and beds. This also makes him out of breath and unable to enjoy playing like he used to do. In the middle of most activities he'll instantly start biting himself, or chasing his butt, as if something starts biting him out of nowhere.

-He'll bite, lick, and scratch his sides, butt, and feet to the point that he almost bleeds, which may be part of his hair loss.

-His skin looks a little red and irritated, and all over his stomach there are these light brown smudge looking spots that almost look like dirt, but they don't come off and they are not raised from the skin.

-It's as if he's gone crazy in a way. He'll start biting at himself and won't know what do to, but he knows he shouldn't be biting, so he'll jump off his chair, then instantly jump back onto it, over and over again. I'll take him for a walk, and he'll rush up someone else's stairs, as if he's in to much pain to even go for a walk. He'd rather go into a strangers house to lay down and bite at himself than he would use the bathroom.

-Sometimes it seems that it hurts for him to poop. I know he has to, and he'll even fart and run from it like it's going to attack him. I'll sit him down, but he'll sprint right back up our steps to avoid the pain of pooping or something. But once we're back in the house, he'll give me the signal that he needs to go out. It's very confusing.

Those are the symptoms. He has his anal glands drained on a regular basis. I've changed his food a couple of times to try and fix the problem, now using the best I could find, but that didn't seem to help, although he likes it better.

All the vets don't seem to have an answer. They've given him steroids to try and help, but didn't. They gave him allergy medicine, or told me to use over the counter allergy medicine, but neither of them helped.

I've bought several different shampoos, conditioners, and all kinds of other stuff to try and soothe him, but none of those helped.

I've literally tried everything possible. You may think he has fleas, but that's not the case. You may think I over bathe him, but that's not the case. Keep in mind, I've been being smart about this and trying the different shampoos and other stuff in the right increments for about a year now, but he is still suffering. There are very few days that he seems fine. But those days come maybe once a week, and most of those good days only seem to last half a day.

It seems he's allergic to something, but what? And if so, why doesn't any allergy medicine seem to help? I'm beginning to think it's something more serious, but no vet has been able to give me an answer. I've finally picked a vet and stuck with her, but she doesn't seem to be helping much or able to give me a solution. Everyone just says, "Oh, he's just getting old." or "It's just allergies." Do allergies last year round? He's not that old. This all just seemed to happen all of the sudden, but I can't come up with the reason that caused it.

Just writing this is making me cry because his misery has been stressing me out so much and making me miserable. Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Thank you.