Allergies????

[Max2005]

I have a 4 four month of BC (Max) who is starting to loose hair around his eyes. It doesn't appear that they are irritated. But, he does, on occasion, bite on his paws (back mostly). The first thing we did was to change his shampoo. Short of having a vet perform numerous test to determine the cause, has anyone experienced this? And if so, what can I do?

 

I am new at this, so, if this question has been asked before, please point me in the right direction to get some info.

 

Thanks!

[Keegan's Mom]

I had the same thing with Keegan as a puppy. They tested him for ringworm. They also said it could be a form of mange...I think this mange was treatable. However, it turned out to be nothing major. I would just keep an eye on it and I"m sure others will know a bit more.

[Olivia]

With a pup that young my first thought would be demodex (demodectic mange). To diagnose for sure would require a skin scraping at the vets. Around the eyes is a common place to lose hair from demodex. It is; however, not itchy. Sarcoptic mange is the itchy one and is zoonotic (you can catch it). The skin scraping can catch this too.

 

It is not necessarily a reflection on care so don't worry. All dogs have the demodex mite in their hair follicles. When a pup, especially, is under stress from weaning, new home, etc then it's immune system is lowered. This immunity is what keeps the mites in check in immunocompetent and non-stressed dogs. The mites are then free to run around and multiply causing hair loss.

 

Sarcoptic mange can be killed by 2 applications of Revolution 2 weeks apart. Demodex has, in the past, been treated with mitaban dips. The dip has been removed from the market by the manufacturer though so I would be wary of using it. The other treatment for demodex is ivermectin, by mouth, every day for around 4 weeks. This option is much less smelly and is easier. Mitaban is bad for humans so you have to wear gloves, eye protection, apron, etc to keep it off you! You also have to do a series of dips (4 I think) a couple of weeks apart, plus it is expensive. I would much rather give a small amount of liquid meds once a day!

 

There is a possiblity that he could be losing puppy fuzz and the slicker adult hair around his eyes is making them look strange. However, if he is really losing hair and developing bald patches I would see my vet.

 

Olivia

[kaos]

Not to hijac your thread but we had an amusing hair loss episode with kaos when she was a pup.

 

We noticed one day that she appeared to be thining/balding... like george on seinfeld or bruce willis. Just the top of her head. She was about 10-12 weeks old... we consulted all of the vet students we used to walk our dogs with at our local unofficial leash free area and decided because there was no sign of infection or sores to just observe for a while.

 

Well a after a few weeks she became completely bald still with no sign of infection or irritaion anything. we had a full work up at the vet and nothing turned up so they began talking about some of the terrible diseases or psychological issues that could cause hair loss and we became understandably freaked out!

 

Long story short... we had a low to the ground futon couch in our living room and our two dogs, sam (1 year old) and kaos (12-13 weeks)loved to play hide and seek with it.

Because Kaos was tiny she would dart underneath and zip out nip sam or chase her around then zip back under to hide and wait to get her again. They loved the game and played as often as we would let them.

As we all know very young puppies grow at an astonishing rate, which kaos was doing and she continued to play the game, so as she grew she would occasionally bonk her head as she flitted in and out from under the couch.

Thats right folks the game was that intense and exciting that she was scalping herself continually!!!

we killed ourselves laughing when we finally realized what was going on (and of course blocked the space under the couch).

Sometimes the answers are just goofy!

Sara

 

I hope you find out quickly because it really sucks not knowing.

[Claire Owen]

Bailey has a bald patch in his front left armpit(it was already there when we got him), I ask my vet about it every time we go but because the patch has been there for over a year now with no change she's given up trying to find a cause for it and said it could be friction wearing the hair away due to its location! So I hope your vet can find out quickly, instead of wasting a year trying to figure it out.

 

Also, slightly different, I suffer from allopecia - I think dogs can get that too, just an idea !

[AK dog doc]

Can't diagnose it without seeing it, but it does SOUND like demodectic mange, which is usually not serious. Most dogs outgrow it (the exceptions are generally obvious, since they go almost totally bald and have terrible skin disease along with it, the poor things.) Demodex is diagnosed with a simple skin scrape, which is not (at least in my clinic) an expensive test. Positionally this dog might be harder to scrape than some, since it's always a little uncomfortable to be contemplating an open blade near the eye of a squirmy puppy, but if the bald patches are large enough that there's some room to work, it shouldn't be a big problem. If it was me, I'd probably also run the Wood's lamp over the pup to look for ringworm (also inexpensive).

 

Claire's right about alopecia showing up in dogs as well, though usually not in a pup this young, at least in my experience. There are several different pattern baldnesses that we see in dogs (not including things like the Chinese crested, which is intentionally bred for baldness).