Hair loss

[picklesforme]

Has anyone had a dog with this??

My little yorkie started loosing her hair about 18 months go, she is now completley bold from her nose to half way down her body....

She's had various tests at the vets ....
No mange, fleas or anything else...
Her blood is fine..

Vet thinks shes got alapicia (sp?)

Anyone got any ideas???

 

[polaris]

Yes....but slightly different. Our dog lost it on the flanks but not the top half...has the vet done a thyroid test? There is so much on this subject. I 'll put up a link for you but do feel free to ask me anything about it.....Our dog did have idiopathic flank alopecia.

http://www.bsava.com/VirtualContent/85340/endo_ch08.pdf

 

[ann-jen]

This sort of problem can sometimes take a lot of work to get to the bottom of it. How old is your dog and is she generally healthy aside from her skin? I am assuming it has never happened before now. Is she itchy or is the hair literally just falling out? Itchy skin conditions - having ruled out parasites as you have would most likely be caused by some sort of allergy - this is very common - something called atopy - an abnormal reaction to something such as pollen or house dust mite perhaps. It could also be a manifestation of food allergy. Atopy requires something called an intradermal skin test to diagnose what sets it off. You could also try a food trial at home to see if eliminating anything from her diet helps.
If its a type of alopecia then she won't be itchy and so not scratching - these problems are usually hormonal. They require specialist blood testing to get to the bottom of. Thyroid disease is one possibility as mentioned but can be difficult to diagnose as thyroid hormone levels go up and down during the day anyway. The best test for it is a thyroid stimulation test. A blood is taken, an injection given to stimulate the thyroid and then a 2nd blood taken a few hours later to see the response.
Another hormonal problem causing alopecia is Cushings disease and this is common in small breed terriers so might be a contender for your dog. Usually you would expect an increase in her drinking and weeing with this too. Dogs can lose all their hair with this problem unlike horses who hang on to theirs. Again it requires specialist blood testing to diagnose - probably an ACTH stimulation test - again a resting blood sample taken and then another taken after an injection this time to stimulate the adrenal gland.
Both thyroid and cushings disease have treatments to control the disease and you should get the hair growing back in but would require lifelong treatment.
One other possibility would be female hormone trouble - if she's not speyed there are some types of tumour that grow on the ovaries that could cause hair loss too - so it might be worth getting her speyed if she is entire (probably you'll then get the opposite problem - a thicker than usual coat).
Finally having exhausted all these possibilities she might have alopecia x which basically means no obvious cause and therefore no treatment sorry - but does sometimes spontaneously resolve - quite rare though.
Good Luck getting to the bottom of it.

 

[polaris]

Our dog had the idiopathic flank alopecia...not that rare and the condition did resolve itself....all the above by ann is very relevant. That document link, although heavy weight explains a lot of it.

 

[picklesforme]

Thanks..

She's healthy in every other way, i haven't changed her food.

It's so strange she's loosing the fur on on of her back paws now. Also if i don't shampoo her every other day she does get very itchy.

 

[polaris]

sounds like an allergy or mite for sure....Get the vet to do a thorough skin scrape.Best of luck.

 

[picklesforme]

Vet has done skin scapes nothing wrong!!!

 

[serena2005]

give her cod liver oil. we feed it to our dog and her coat is fab, talking to someone walking their dog who had no hair on his legs when they rescused him vet said it would never grow back, they fed him cod liver oil and you would even know there was anything wrong

 

[ann-jen]

I agree with polaris that if she is itchy it is likely to be either some sort of parasite or an allergy. If you haven't already I would apply a reputable flea preparation to make sure the biggest cause of itchy dogs is not the cause - I use Frontline on my dogs routinely every 8 weeks. Even if you can't see any fleas or dirt I would still do her because her skin is so sensitive if she got a flea on her now it would cause havoc!
Also some types of mite - sarcoptes or scabies are notoriously difficult to pick up on a skin scrape so can sometimes get a clear scrape even if the little critters are still there. There is a blood test that looks for an immune response to scabies but can only be used in cases that have been going on for longer than 1 mth so isnt infallable either - sometimes the only way of diagnosing scabies is response to treatment.
Assuming there are no fleas or mites then its likely she has an allergy. There are 3 main types of allergy - atopy, food or contact allergy. Atopy is by far the most common and is an abnormal response to something in the environment. There are numerous possibilities what it could be to - if the problem is seasonal it could be an allergy to fleas or pollen for example but if its going on all year round it could be to something like house dust mite which with the best will in the world you are never going to eliminate from your house.
Food allergy isnt as common. As I said before you could try a simple food trial at home. It is usually the protein source of the food that it the problem as opposed to the brand of food - in most petfoods this will be either chicken or beef. To do a food trial you need to feed her on something that contains a completely different food source such as duck or venison for example. The idea is that you feed that strictly for 1 mth and if the skin improves then try introducing the old food - if she has food allergy she'll start itching again as soon as you give her the old food.
Contact allergy is unlikely in your dogs case - usually occurs if they have walked over or got coated in something that disagrees with them - I suppose the washing powder used on bedding or the shampoo you use would be a possibility.
If you decide its neither the food or say the washing powder then its likely to be atopy. You then have 2 choices - either accept you might not know what sets the skin off but treat the symptoms - ie control of irritation and infection or further testing to get to the bottom of it. Treatment options will be either antihistamines or steroids to stop scratching and antibiotics for infection. It will be lifelong I'm afraid if you don't know the cause.
Alternatively an intradermal skin test could be done - in this a small amount of things that commonly cause allergies in dogs are injected into the skin. If the dog is allergic a small dot appears at the injection site and if not allergic nothing happens. You can then find out what sets the allergy off. Its great if its just one thing such as fleas as you can then take the necessary steps to eliminate this but often its numerous things depending on how long the problems been going on. In these cases sometimes a vaccine can be made to help make your dog more tolerant to the things its allergic to - there is varying success - dogs diagnosed early tend to do well but those that have had the problem for years don't always do so well. Skin testing and vaccines are also costly.
As I said originally - its a massive topic and also something that needs lots of investigation to get to the bottom of - so good luck and I hope you get to the bottom of it soon