Thinning hair and dry skin... my poor little guy has been very slowly getting thinner hair, his whole back side (tip of tail, and the back of his back legs) are practically bald. he also has very dry skin, to the point where it is flaking. and the back of his ears are bald and leathery, his whole body just doesn't have the amount of hair it should have. i am very concerned about him. we brought him into the vet on monday the 20th, they took blood tests and thought maybe it had something to do with his thyroid gland, which would have been ok cause it could have been treated and his hair would grow back and his skin would moisten, if not the thyroid gland then something to do with his sex hormones, which they won't be able to treat. and contrary to what i was hoping, the blood test came back showing that his thyroid was normal. it cost $165.00 for this first test, and to get him tested for the sex hormone will be around $500.00. i am going to start saving so that i can have this test done, and i will know for sure if it is this sex hormone, or if the vet was wrong and it's something else. i want to get to the bottom of this, cause i just feel so bad for my little Brody. what i was wondering is if anyone knows anything i can supplement him to hydrate his skin for the time being until i can get this test done. or if anyone knows anything that might help thicken hair. his hair is probly just over 2 inches long and i usually shave my dogs down to about 1/2 an inch for the summer, but am not going to with Brody cause i don't want to risk him getting sunburned. i can put up pictures of his bad areas when my husband gets home, he has our cell phone, i can email myself the pics from it. anybody have any advice? thanks so much! |
Did they do a skin scraping to determine if he has mites? |
Did the vet do a skin scrape to check for mites or a culture to check for fungal infections? Thats pretty inexpensive to do and would be the first thing I would have done before expensive testing |
Here's a link...read the section under generalized. His symptoms certainly sound like it's a possiblity. Demodectic Mange |
no the vet never did do a skin scrape... that's a very interesting article. i'll have to ask my vet about that. do you think that low blood sugar and a high liver enzyme would have anything to do with it? i took him to a new vet for this, and she didn't really say anything about it, but i almost wonder if i should bring him to a different vet and get second opinion? in that article it says that it will be patchy all over, and very itchy and smelly skin. he doesn't scratch hardly ever, just when he has an itch, and the balding is only on the back of his legs and ears. his hair is just thinner all over. and he's never had a skin infection. but i will definately ask my vet about a skin scrape and about this skin disease. |
Search "Leather Ear"...it sounds like it could be that also..which is treatable with antifungal cream...theres some posts on here about it. It doesnt sound like mange since its only ears and backs of legs...mange would have sores in it ( from the constant scratching) and be large areas of the body. Getting the thyroid checked wouldnt be a bad idea though... |
How old is your baby. My pom had hair loss like that and was first diagnosed with Thyroid and the meds didn't help so we went to a specialist and she was diagnosed with Cushing's. She also had excessive thirst and hunger. It usually affects older dogs. Hope you can get some answers. |
he's only 2 1/2... i thought about cushings cause a friend told me about it and that's the initial thinking i had when i made him his appointment, but then i read about it on the net and read it only happens in older dogs, so i knew that it most likely wasnt that. they did test him for thyroid, and it's not that, i was kinda hoping that's what it would have turned out to be so that he could be treated for it and most likely regrow his hair and have moister skin, but the tests came back that his thyroid was normal and all his bloodwork that they looked at was normal. i have him now on one caplet of microhydren a day, my grandma had a rescue dog that had extremely dry skin and very thin hair, after about 3 months on microhydren, she had nice thick hair and her dry skin went away. so i'm hoping that Brody being on microhydren will solve his problem... i'll give him a few months on it, and if it doesn't clear up, back to the vet for him... :confuse2: |
If you are still looking for something for dry skin, my Vet gave me AllerG-3 for Chloe. It is an Omega-3 fatty acid supplement and you pump a few frops on the food. Must taste good too from the way she acted when I put it on her food in the morning. I think it was about $17.oo from the vet. |
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