Bald Spots- yikes!
I shaved Kaytee down to 1/4" today because the weather is starting to get hot and she's extremely active. I found a larger area on her flank where the hair has fallen out. 
I found an interesting website about hairloss but didn't find anything that really matches.  http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... icleid=421
The vet is getting us in tomorrow and I've asked that they do a skin scraping on BOTH of them. Anyone got any info on this? Here's a link to pictures... it's not icky or anything just... BALD!  (I always wondered when that "twitchy" emoticon would come in handy.)
http://www.pomeroys.com/EmmaDarby/KayteePanda-Bald.jpg Jaci |
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| That is pretty weird. Keep us posted.
I know this isn't the problem, but wanted to post this here as well, that I had a dog that had a Sertoli tumor of a crypt orchid, and his hair got very thin apparently from all of the estrogen he was producing, but his skin also developed a mottled color- hyperpigmented yet pink in almost a granite kind of look, and it was all over. Good luck. |
| It doesn't quite look like ringworm, but it wouldn't surprise me if that is what it is since they both have it.
The vet can shine a blacklight on it to diagnose, doesn't cost anything.... though the skin scraping would giv more detail. |
| Not a thyroid problem? |
| There are tons of possiblities, I'm just thinking of anything contagious because 2 dogs have it? |
Are you sure Darby or Emma didn't play a prank with the clippers on their sisters? 
Poor girls. Hopefully it's nothing serious. I know it's a longshot, but they don't regularly squeeze into a tight place that may cause the hair to wear away? The only reason that comes to mind is because my boys are so big, they rub on the dog door so they each have a little breakage on each flank. |
Quote: I'm just thinking of anything contagious because 2 dogs have it?
That's why I want it scraped this time When you have multiples or a pack you've got to stay on top of things.
All of my dogs where tested for low thyroid in March and the results on these two were fine. Kaytee does have IgA deficiency though and Dr. Dodds said... "IgA deficency is most often associated with hypothyroidism but can also be linked to other autoimmune conditions." But they talk about infection for the autoimmune conditions from what I've been able to find online... not simply hairloss. Sigh... I'm going to drive myself nuts. Whatever it is, we'll deal with it.
Wish us luck tomorrow and thanks so much for the thoughts! You guys are great in a time of need... awe heck... and other times too   |
Quote: Are you sure Darby or Emma didn't play a prank with the clippers on their sisters?
Nope... it was just me playing with the clippers today. |
| Yikes - for sure keep us up-dated. I hope the vet can answer some questions! |
| No presence of parasites in the scrapings from 2 areas. The hair follicles look a little odd with not a lot of normal bulb-type roots. Her skin is also thin so we might also be looking at an endocrine problem... we talked about a skin biopsy but I think we'll do some blood tests first. While her thyroid was normal in March, it was just inside the normal range so a months trial of thyroid meds might be in order. Anyway, that's the news with Kaytee... one step at a time.
With Panda we're going to continue to watch her... it is right between the shoulder blades where you would put Frontline if you were to use it. When she first arrived I did use it on her once because she had fleas but I think I always apply it a little higher up on her neck more but I could be wrong. She had stayed in a shelter as a pup for about a month and then belonged to a groomer so maybe it was used a lot and she had a reaction?? I wish I would have been more observant to know for sure if it was or wasn't there when she arrived. |
| Good news that it's not parasitic (and I'm guessing not fungal?)
Hopefully it's nothing serious and that the mystery hair loss is either solved or goes away on it's own quickly  |
| Hoping that's all the problem is with panda, sounds logical, so keeping fingers crossed for you that is all it is.
Hoping too Kaytee is just a simple solution as well and that the meds will help to grow hair on her nudeeee spots. Keeping fingers crossed there too for the sweetie.  |
| What a strange thing to happen...especially in two dogs.
I hope everything turns out ok! |
| Funny I just went through this with our cat Jake. He too had a spot right between his shoulder blades. I took him to the vet since he lost about a loonie size of hair around this wound (scab). She did do the black light to check if it was ring worm.
Inconclusive, but she felt it looked more like a burn mark. Maybe he rub on a hot tail pipe from someone's car. Or another cat scratched him making it infected. So she sent me home with some antibiotic drops to put on it. I had to keep him isolated from everyone just incase it was ringworm. But thankfully it is almost healed, and not ringworm. The wound never got worse, so I did not have to do a scraping. It would have taken 2-3 weeks to diagnose after they scraped it. So I was told to try the medicine, if it gets worse bring him back, if it gets better than it's nothing to worry about. Hopefully you get an answer soon. For me it was a wait and see. |
| Thanks for the replies everyone! Panda went in yesterday and was put under for biopsies. They're sending 4 off to be analyzed... none of the skin scrapings on either girl showed parasites so now we wait to find out for sure from the biopsy.
My vet did say both dogs are in the gray-zone for low thyroid so we may try a 30 day trial of thyroid meds. (Geez Louise... that would be 5 out of 6 on thyroid meds ) I'll write more when we hear back from the lab. |
| Well... the skin biopsy came back and nothing was found. So it at least excludes anything contagious, infections, etc. The vet got the feeling from the description the lab included that they are leaning toward endocrine, possibly thyroid deficiency. We will do a T4 test at the office next week on both Panda and Kaytee to see what the current levels are and we'll go from there. |
| Jaci, I thought I had replied but apparently not. Those pictures are identical to what Luke and Rosco looked like, the thinning hair and bald patches were the only symptoms they had. |
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