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Please Help My Girl, She's Losing Her Fur :(


Inka3095
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Hi

I need advice on my 9mnth old girl Kenya. I have recently noticed she has been losing a bit of hair around her mouth and just thought she'd rubbed her face along the ground, or got a big vigorous about chewing her bones.

However, she's also losing patches of hair above her eyebrows and she has red, raw looking patches of skin with no hair along her front legs.

I have looked through this forum and google and maybe she has demodectic mange?? I thought only POUND dogs got mange :laugh: It looks like she's neglected and uncared for!! I'm taking her to the Vet on Friday (first appt) but would like some advice before I go. A friend had a look and said it might be fleas? But I can't see any and I de-flea her religiously once a month.

I rang my friend who's studying Vet and she said that maybe Kenya's stressing about something and this has lowered her immune system so the mange mite can go nuts. Now I'm totally worried because I don't want a stressy puppy.. poor thing :D What do dogs stress about? She's alone for about 7 hours a day becasue my bf and I work, but I leave her with toys and Kongs while we're out. She's walked every day and at least once a week is taken out for the day to play with a friend's dog. Do you think she's lonely? Bored? I don't know what else I can do. I'm feeling sooo guilty because she might be miserable and I can't ask her what's wrong :p Anyone talk Dog?

Sorry about all the questions in one post.

I'm going to attach a few photos to show you her skin in case anyone can identify the problem. Thanks so much for your help.

post-22-1138426988.jpg

Edited by Inka3095
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Skin problems can be tricky, because the symptoms in dogs are almost always the same - fur loss and often itchiness, but can be a range of things. Best to take the dog to the vet.

My dog has a contact allergy and is itchy on his tummy, inside of hind legs and tail.

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just so you know there are a few types of mange, while demo mange is more common in pound and stressed dogs there is another type called Sarcoptes which is common in farming areas(or areas where rabbits and foxes frequent), Sascha came off a farming property and had a bout as a pup but is now over it. It is easily treated by spraying them so that they are actually soaking with frontline spray. Definately see your vet and get it checked I just wanted to reassure you that if it is mange it isn't the end of the world, might just be bad luck :laugh:

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I would say that it is an allergy.

It could be enviromental, such as grasses where she goes for walks, or around your yard.

The worst allergy I feel is food allergy.

I do not feed any commercial food to my dogs, all fresh meat veg, and homemade dog bisuits, so I know what is going into them.

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I just had a thought, Beau had a weird rashy thing on his nose not long ago. I think it looked the same, kind of like the whisker/hair follicles were inflamed. He had it for a couple of days and now it's gone. I came to the conclusion that he must have just stuck his nose on a nasty plant while we were out waking. Have a look at your garden and see what's out there.

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Kinda looks like a localised demodex thing to me...best bet it to take her to the vet and get a scraping done and go from there.

Demodex mange is something that can appear at 'puberty' which your girl is hitting as the hormones leap about which can stress her immune system a little...causing the demodex to get overexcited and cause the spots etc.

Demodex is something that naturally occurs on the dog (and us!) but can get out of control when the immune system is stressed etc.

It's not as bad as it looks, lol and the vet should be able to give you a few options, whether it's demodex or something else :laugh:

(If you do a search on demodex in this forum you'll get a number of threads...so you'll see it's not that uncommon :D )

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For Promoting Hair growth, healing sore skin, and anti-itch

1 teaspoon brown apple cider

10ml of Colloidal silver (Can buy here; http://greenpet.com.au/default.php?cPath=60&page=1&sort=4a)

approx 20 drops calendula tincture

put into 1 litre spray bottle and fill with water spray on affected areas 3 times a day.

GREAT SITE:

http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/health/skinremedies.htm

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Demodex mange is something that can appear at 'puberty' which your girl is hitting as the hormones leap about which can stress her immune system a little...causing the demodex to get overexcited and cause the spots etc.

Makes the poor girl sound like she has a case of zits, hehehe! :laugh: Sorry Inka, not laughing at you or your poor pup, couldn't help myself.

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I think you should get the vet to do a skin scraping and check out what it might be. It can be mites or mange or eczma or or or hehehhehe

It is usually good to get in early with these things because they are easier to treat on a smaller scale .

Good luck, i hope it is nothing to worry about.

all my best

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Don't know much about staffy's sorry, but if that was one of my guys I would have them on zinc tablets. Can't hurt to try, sibes commonly get a zinc deffiency that looks very similar to you pics. I give one tab a day and then decrease to about 1 a week......Blackmores ZinVit 250

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Giving an update...

Went to the vet today and he did a skin scraping. Apparently she has Cradle Cap??? Is that something human babies get? The vet nurse tried to say it was like, dandruff but not... hehe..

Just told me to put betadine on the sore spots and it should go away by iteself. Weird..... back to normal diet for her though!

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I am happy that it isnt mange - takes ages to clear. Mia still looks like a unloved pup.

Darn puberty.

Tilll she got it I thought only neglected dogs got it too, how wrong was I :D

Besides Betadine how do you treat it? I thought that would dry the skin more?

But I guess it would stop any bacteria getting in.

Maybe use soemthinglike Aloveen shampoo to ensure her skin is not getting dry.

Till I met a friend at the Vet who worked for the Pyoben/Pyohex company I was using Pyoben on Mia and her poor fur is so dry now. Swapped back to Pyohex which is not as bad.

Just like us there are too many skin things.

Hope your baby clears up quickly :love:

If anyone else in the street looks at me as though I neglect my dog I will snot them.

Karen

Karen

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If anyone else in the street looks at me as though I neglect my dog I will snot them.

Hahaha you poor thing Falgall. It's like those poor mothers whos kids have bumped their heads and have bruises. They can't go anywhere without dirty looks and suspicion of child abuse.

She looks a bit funny because I think the vet shaved a little bit around where she was losing the fur... It's like she has one BIG eyebrow from a distance. Where do you buy those shampoos? Vets or (good) petshops?

Yeah, the vet said Betadine was good for fungal infections, of which cradle cap is meant to be one, but I'm not really up on my knowledge of canine fungus atm. I should do a google search!

I'll see if the betadine works, but I'm going to stick with some of the other suggestions on this thread if that doesn't clear it up. Her fungus stands NO CHANCE!!!

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The very best Cradle Cap shampoo IMO!

Inka, check this stuff out if it is cradle cap. I used this on my second baby from birth and she never developed cradle cap, it controlled it very nicely. It is available from pharmacies but you will have to ring around to try and find it, it can be tough to get. Smells fabulous too. I think, from memory, it contains a very mild salicylic acid solution which normalises skin pH.

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