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Fur thinning - Guard hairs gone - Help!

5K views 36 replies 11 participants last post by  gowen 
#1 ·
Dolly has been suffering with chronic itching for the past year. We've been to the vet many times and every time they try something new.

We have had her scraped and tested for mange and scabies. All negitive.

We have been told it is an alergy and prednisone was perscribed. She immediately stopped itching until we stopped giving it to her (in smaller doses). The itching returned almost instantly once we stopped giving it to her.

I have no desire to keep her and last time I was at the vet I demanded they do a allergy test, but the vet was 90% sure it was a food allergy.

We've been giving Blue Buffalo for almost 2 years. We decided to go on a diet and give a single sourced protiene diet. We chose Salmon (Wellness Super5?) and pure Salmon only treats (also Wellness). Always been grain free.

Well, 4 weeks later no results and have started noticing her fur thinning out and her guard hairs disapearing. See picture below. The pure white only area used to be a normal sable ring which is now spreading. The fur is very very short (1/4 inch and very hard) and thinning by the week. The guard hair used to cover the area. We aren't sure where to turn now. The vet says to try a new diet as her allergy may be fish and maybe switch to TOTW Lamb?

 
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#2 ·
Contact Dr Dodds and have a thyroid test run. Try to get with an allergy specialist as your vet doesn't seem to be offering any advice other than switch diet. Did you ever do an allergy test? I'd rather know sooner than later, and not play the diet switch game.
 
#6 ·
You can scrape repeatedly and miss mange. I'd treat for mange and see if that helped. I had two dogs that were diagnosed with allergies (the relatively expensive blood test indicated all sorts of things). I put them on shots (and it got so they knew when I was coming with the shots and didn't much like it) and they did little good. Finally the vet thought we should treat them for mange because a visitor's dog came down with mange.... Bingo. However my dogs had gotten very very very bad with mange in the time we were treating for allergies. My wallet had gotten significantly lighter, too.
So I'd be tempted to treat for mange.
 
#7 ·
just an FYI, there is now an oral serum for allergies instead of doing the injections. My dog avoided me too when I had to give her shots...I stopped them before I saw any improvement.
 
#9 ·
Thank you all for your input. I scheduled an appointment for blood to be drawn to send to three places for food allergy, environment allergy, and thyroid testing. I'm told I will know the thyroid results within' a day or two but the allergy test is 1+ week.

One thing that I've noticed is that Dolly gets winded very quickly (5-10 minutes of fetch) and she has to lay down. She is extremely driven and will continue to run but every time she stops running she just plops on the ground. I wonder if that is related? She is not overweight (76 lbs) and gets daily exercise (2-5 miles a day).
 
#10 ·
Before you spend a lot of money on blood and allergy tests, please read the Nutriscan website.
It is a saliva test and it measures sensitivity. A dog can be sensitive and react to a food without having a full-blown allergy.
That test resolved almost 2'years of ongoing problems for us.
 
#11 ·
I did and I really appreciate your help and input, if Dr. Dodd was within' 10 hours of me I'd take a trip with Dolly. I really like my vet and she is highly rated around here, so I've taken her every word as truth which frustrates me as we are still struggling with her allergies and itching. She is miserable. We are going to a new vet recommended by our GSD club (of greater Raleigh)

I just want my girl to be better and/or feel better at any expense. Unless you are telling me that the saliva test is more accurate I'd prefer to just have it done and over with. Dolly does hate needles thanks to a misdiagnosis of mange (some needle in the back that hit something odd and caused her to go into a panic, she had no issues and didn't even make a sound with needles before that) She hates the vet now.

If she has mange it is perfectly destroying her hair on both sides of her body. It almost looks like a pattern growing on both sides. You'd think it's just a natural coat with character, but the hair is stiff, short, and looks as if somebody used a hair trimmer on her in that spot.
 
#12 ·
A lot of vets are a-ok with values in the low normal range but Dr Dodds suggests they need to be higher for GSDs. I would suggest to the vet that given the way the body has feedback mechanisms to run a trial of thyroid medicine if it is below normal at all.
 
#13 ·
Because that is where she has access to scratch it? The hair on her head and other areas that she doesn't scratch looks healthy? Or is her whole coat in poor shape?
 
#15 ·
The rest of the coat is in good shape. Her ears have thin spots on them now. We had them scraped for mites multiple times as I suspected something like scabies.

Fwiw, her coat issues started when I moved her to K9 Advantix on Dec 1st. I've yet to give her a new dose. She was on Front-line until November when we started finding fleas.
 
#16 ·
could be a flea allergy....even one flea bite could cause her to be miserable.
 
#17 ·
Just throwing it out there. 1 month is not long enough for a successful food trial. If it is a food allergy you won't necessarily see results in 4 weeks. She would have to go with her new diet and no other food or treats aside from treats that specifically go with that diet for at least 3 months because it can take that long for any previously eaten food to completely leave her system. Also keep in mind OTC food companies can change the ingredients in their foods and are not required to change the label for something like 6 months. Meaning if they run out of salmon they could throw chicken in and you'd never know.
 
#18 ·
Easiest way to control the diet is feeing raw. You can eliminate all the unnecessary fillers in kibble that could be triggering an allergy reaction.

Does prednisone mask thyroid symptoms? If not and the prednisone helped, it's likely an allergy, so I would start there. It can take a while for their body to settle down too, with allergies, so give it time. Try a novel protein.
 
#23 ·
Thanks for all the input. I will have the blood drawn today and do the test by Dr. Dodd. It can't hurt to have multiple opinions.

Unless the allergy tests are inaccurate I'd prefer to just know off hand then to continue to go months at a time experimenting with brands and types.
 
#24 ·
In my experience, the blood tests for allergies are a total waste of time and money. My dogs (who it turned out had mange) showed a sensitivity to lots and lots of things. All whoey. They had mange. Try some other tests (there is a skin one) or treat for mange before doing anything else. I hate to remember how long my dogs suffered most of all but I spent a ton of money needlessly too.
 
#26 ·
I appreciate your input. Dolly has suffered from mange as a younger dog and we know it well. This is different. As I've said, we have had her scraped more than once. It was my first suspect.
 
#25 ·
Ok, so we had a full panel pulled for thyroid. We could not do the allergy test yet due to the fact she was on prednisone within the past 30-40 days. We should have word back by Friday on the full panel.

Due to the fact that I,nor my wife, have time to commit to raw, we switched her to wellness core ocean from the super5. Not that it will help, I feel it's about the best quality I can get my hands on around here aside from raw.

We scheduled an appointment for feb 12th for the full allergy test.
 
#29 ·
Thyroid Results are in:

Total T4 - "2.2" [Acceptable Range: .8 - 3.5]
Three T4(?) - "19" [Acceptable Range: 8-40]
TSH - .14 [Acceptable Range: 0 - .60]
Thyroid Autoimmune(?) - 1% [Acceptable Range: < 10%]

So, the thyroid looks to be fine.. So, time to allergy test and head to the dermatologist to find out what is going on with the coat..
 
#33 · (Edited)
Dolly just had her blood work done for the full most comprehensive allergy test and we are waiting for the results now.

We've seen no improvement, in-fact, it is worse. She has been on Wellness Ocean since the beginning of January and have seen zero results other than her poop has improved 100 fold, does not smell bad (not that I'm checking just do not notice it anymore) and she has almost zero farts now. :p

We purchased a whole house humidifier and set it to 45% thinking it may be the humidity (was ~15-20% at installation) - no change.

I just snapped a picture of her fur about 10 minutes ago:


Whatever she has is killing her coat :cry:
 
#34 ·
Your vet didn't send thyroid blood work to Dodd's, am I correct? Idexx?

Did I miss your dogs age?

What else are you using on your dog? Spot-on HW/flea tick prevention or oral? What product
 
#35 ·
No Dr. Dodds yet, we had the full panel blood test and everything came back normal and well within range, so opted out of the test.

Dolly is 2 and 1 month.

Heart guard is the only med she is currently on but has been on since she was a puppy.

We used k9 advantix 2 on her in December and have not used since after this happened.
 
#36 ·
So, just went through my receipts for the vet and she is on Ivermectin Max since vet suspected beef or chicken allergy which heart guard has in the chewable.

Secondly, we've had Dolly on Frontline since she was 6 months until late last year when she was overtaken by fleas and that is why we switched to k9 advantix 2.

We also took her to the vet in October due to flea issue and they gave her Comfortis Brown SINGLE which killed all the fleas.

That's it.
 
#37 ·
Allergy results returned. She has some things that are in the "+++"/Extremely allergic to.

I commented on the things I know she is exposed to often and not so often but none the less exposed. I'm wondering if I should change her food to avoid the listed things she is exposed to. Her current diet is Wellness Core Ocean and she is doing so well on it, minus her hair loss and allergy attacks. Thoughts?!

For food: (Numbers are HERBU Allergen-specific IgE detected - =< 10 Negtive =>11 Positive)

+ Allergen-specific IgE detected.
++ High levels of allergen-specific IgE detected
+++ Very high levels of allergen-specific IgE detected.

  1. Barley (50 ++)
  2. Carrot (20 +) (In Dog Food)
  3. Corn (23 +)
  4. Flax (15 +) (In Dog Food)
  5. Pea (15 +) (In Dog Food)
  6. Rice (28 ++)
  7. Soybean (22 +)
  8. Sweet Potato (23 +) (In Dog Food)
  9. White Potato (21 +)

Grasses:
  1. Bahia grass (16 +)
  2. Corn pollen (21 +)
  3. Bermuda grass (12 +) (Mainly Fescue but some Bermuda exists)

Weeds: (Note, we have little to no weeds in our back yard, but we do hike and take nature trails which expose all below. Exposure is mainly in spring to early fall when her allergies are little to non-existent.)

  1. Ragweed Mix (Short,Tall) (29 ++) (Mildly exposed)
  2. Ragweed, False (23 +) (Mildly exposed)
  3. Ragweed, Southern (43 ++) (Mildly exposed)
  4. Ragweed, Western (31 ++) (Mildly exposed?)
  5. Sage, Mugwort Mix (21 +) (Mildly exposed?)
  6. Marsh Elder, Rough (29 ++) (Mildly exposed)
  7. Goldenrod (56 +++) (Mildly exposed)
  8. Dog Fennel (38 ++) (Mildy exposed)
  9. Sorrell, Dock Mix (14 +) (Mildy exposed)
  10. Nettle (12 +) (Mildly exposed)

Trees:
  1. Mulberry (16 +) (Medium sized tree in yard)
  2. Pecan (20 +) (Mild exposure)
  3. Cottonwood (18 +)
  4. Ash, American (18 +)
  5. Ash, Arizona (42 ++)
  6. Olive (18 +)
  7. Privet (32 ++) (Small Privet in yard)
  8. Cypress, Bald (11 +)
  9. Alder (32 ++)
  10. Hazelnut (47 ++)
  11. Sycamore (13 +)
  12. Mesquite (16 +)
  13. Sweetgum (44 ++) (Very large tree in play area)
  14. Bayberry (30 ++)
  15. Palm, Queen (15 +)
  16. Eucalyptus (27 ++) (Mild exposure)
  17. Pine, Australian (29 ++) (Mild exposure)

Mites: (NOTE: Wife keeps house very clean, though I'm sure there is alot of exposure during the week days as dust builds)

  1. [*]Dermatophagoides farinae dust mite (33 ++)
    [*]Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus dust mite (15 +)
    [*]Acarus siro storage mite (16 +)
    [*]Lepidoglyphus storage mite (14 +)

Epithelials:
  1. Cat (50 ++) (Mild exposure, neighborhood cats. We have no cats)

Insects:
  1. Cockroach Mix (17 +) (Massive oak trees plague us with Cockroaches, though we do fight it in the house, they are all over our yard! :eek:)

Fungi:
  1. Fusarium (20 +)
  2. Aspergillus (13 +)
  3. Alternaria (16 +)
  4. Grain Smut Mix (12 +)
 
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