Alopecia (long)

[Angela]

Have any of you breeders come across this?

A year ago Nicholas started losing his fur around his neck and his hip areas. Changed his food from Orijen Fish 6 which he had been on for a year to Fromm Pork and Applesauce which gave him diarrhoea. Went to Eagle Pack Lamb and Rice which he had been on for years before Orijen.

His coat on his back started turning rusty red colour. The fur on his back near his tail feels like SOS pads, wirey and brittle.

Prior to this happening he had the thickest coat, interestingly enough, NEVER blew his coat ever (he is just 7 yrs old now). One couldn't put a comb through it, it was so thick.

Now he has large bald patches on both sides of his neck and on both sides of his hips, about the size of tea plates. His front feather, chest and under his belly is all normal.

Where the rusty colour fur was, it's falling out in clumps, undercoat and guard hairs, almost looks like all the fur is dead.

He has had thyroid tests sent to Jean Dodds, normal.
All bloodwork normal.
9 skin biopsies sent to University of Sask. Vet college came back as hormonal.

The only advice from the vet was try Melatonin (sent him to sleep all the time) or maybe if he were neutered he MIGHT grow the coat again. Don't want to do that as he has mild SAS.

Put him on a homemade glutenfree diet with fish and green beans for about 3 mths thinking maybe an allergy but he started gagging and coughing. Remembering my history of 2 who had LP, and remembering Pooka and Marcus, I decided to take him off that diet hoping that was causing the gagging. Fortunately that has stopped.

Sorry this is long but I just wonder if anyone has seen this before and what they did to help it.

Thanks!

 

[nowhavethreebears]

Could it be some kind of contact allergy?
A few years ago the tzu started losing her hair in the same places. Shoulders, belly, hips mostly.
She is the only one who sleeps with me regularly. Long story short, it took quite awhile to figure out that she was allergic to the laundry detergent I had switched to. Laying on the sheets was causing it.
I switched back and her hair all slowly came back in......
Hope you can find an answer for Nick soon...
Does it seem to be itching or causing him discomfort at all?

 

[Sound Bay Newfs]

The only place I have ever seen anything like this is on a dog's tail around the glad. But usually with medicated shampoo or diet change can help that. But I have not seen it like you show. Have you tried medicated shampoo on the area? Do you see any irritations on the skin? Has your vet done a skin scraping of the area to see if there is a skin infection?

 

[Angela]

I haven't changed the washing soap or anything like that.
Yes, skin scrapings were done prior to skin biopsies, nothing found.
The skin is perfectly normal, no scratching or rash.
The first pic is his butt area and the second his neck.

Before the fur falls out it becomes very frizzy, nothing like normal undercoat.
He is much worse now than in the photos above

 

[janices]

Alopecia X is what more commonly caused.
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_alopecia_x.html

Hypothyroidism was ruled out. Was Cushing's ruled out?

The next step is neutering.

I had a girl with it long ago. Developed in old age. We went through all the tests. One of the tests was borderline which probably caused it. I lost her to tumors which may have been a contributing factor. We didn't have an indication the tumor was there when the testing was all done.

 

[Cascadians]

Hi Angela, empathy to you & Nicholas. Orka has something similar with his vitiligo, but it doesn't go quite as far, with lots of hair falling out leaving that kind of baby short hair in bald spots. But areas of his hair loses the black, gets dull reddish brown, frizzy, white ends, then falls out, but black hair has been growing in with just some odd stiff white hairs. He's going through another de-pigmenting phase, don't know why, black receding, fading, disappearing. It affects his coat.

He did have a full thyroid and hormonal work-up in May and it's genetic so far, pure vitiligo, no other factors they can find, but Jean Dodds said to have him re-tested for thyroid levels since his at 6 months were too early to tell but looked normal then.

Noticed when Orka starts de-pigmenting he gets the runs for a couple days. Wonder if that has anything to do with it, fighting something off which kicks off his immune system into overdrive? Did Nicholas get the runs?

Did they say exactly how hormones are affecting the coat?

 

[Sound Bay Newfs]

Before the fur falls out it becomes very frizzy, nothing like normal undercoat.
He is much worse now than in the photos above

I am wondering if the hair being so frizzy before it falls out is doing something to the skin below. Maybe the skin is not getting enough circulation or air. Just guessing. I wonder if clipping him down would help. It might get rid of the dead hair and allow for healthier skin. If you do clip him, I would bathe him with a good antibacterial shampoo or I love Earth Bath Tea Tree Oil shampoo that is very soothing to the skin and an anti-fungal.

 

[NewfMom]

Where I saw this type of fur loss was on Moose who had Atypical Addison's disease. He lost his fur and then when fur regrew the skin where it regrew was black instead of white. His skin eventually got papery as well. On Moose it started on his hips and spread down his belly to his chest between his front legs.

Atypical Addison's happens when part of the adrenal gland is not working correctly and causes the cortisol level to be too low. It can cause so many different sets of symptoms that Atypical Addison's is called "The Great Pretender".

Cortisol levels go up and down during the course of a day so you can't just look at a normal blood test. However, if you don't have a blood test where Nicholas' cortisol level is in the higher end of the range, and you can't find anything else, it might be worth asking your vet about an ACTH blood test to make sure he doesn't have Atypical Addison's starting.

 

[ozzysma]

alopecia in people can be caused by stress. quite often showing in children, when you think "what would this child have to stress about. but i believe it has more to do with how they handle stress(even when they dont act like they are under stress) this may seem stupid but could this maybe happen to dogs???good luck angela finding answers.

 

[Angela]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

He now has sores on some of the bare patches, so went off to the vet yesterday.
He has a bacterial infection so is on Keflex for 21 days. They did bloodwork as he has lost 8 lb since last November, now down to 127 lb. He acts just fine so his food is now increased to 6 cups a day at the moment. He likes that idea!!!

Interestingly enough, the hair started to grow back at the skin biopsy sites.

He is now bald down one side of his back, seems anywhere the red fur is, becomes frizzy and falls out in chunks. This is in addition to all his bald patches down his neck and over his hip areas.

Patti, interesting thought, will think about that further.

 

[Erika]

hope he is better soon

 

[Murphy]

Not a clue Angela. Just hoping for the best....

 

[lilly06]

I had a lab with major skin/hair and odor issues. We used a product called Nzymes. We loved the product and cleared up her issues pretty quickly. You may just want to check out the website. www.nzymes.com. May be a shot in the dark, but it is a shot worth checking out.

 

[Prdmary]

Wow......poor guy!

 

[Ivoryudx]

Wow, this looks just like what Lu gets when her thyroid goes off. Her hair literally sloths off and the skin looks healthy until a yeast infection takes over. I used to think the yeast infection caused it, but I'm believing its taking advantage of the situation afterwards. Her immune system has been shot for years, so we manage the symptoms. Regular baths in antibacterial shampoo and adjustment to meds, along with antibiotics and she's always come out of it with the hair growing back. At her age I take the conservative approach.

I'm sorry you and Nick are going through this. Have you asked your Vet or anyone if a series of blood tests done randomly, might show if there is something fluctuating? I don't know if thats even something they do, but I always thought it might show a fluctuating thyroid if it didn't just stop working completely. Good idea to talk with your Vet about Addison's as mentioned above.

I hope you find some answers soon! Hugs to Nick!

 

[Sheila B.]

Hope you find and answer soon.

 

[Blacknewfs]

I have no ideas or advice, but am sending good thoughts and hope you have answers soon.

 

[Prdmary]

I have a human friend who had all of her hair fall out within just a couple of months. She doesn't like to talk about it, but apparently it was some sort of autoimmune thing.

 

[Blacknewfs]

Angela -- we just picked up a rescue last night that is in a similar state. First thing I thought of when I saw him was your post about this. We're starting to work on him today.

 

[Angela]

Can you keep me informed of what the vets are doing, thinking etc Sandra?

The latest round of bloodwork this week all came back negative, so that's good although it doesn't solve the nakedness problem