Help on skin problem please

Hi

Has anyone any idea what is causing this on Benny? (Sorry its upside down). It is on both his sides and his back.
We have been to the vets and he didnt really know - gave us antibiotics incase an infection and advocate incase it is mites. This was  over 2 weeks ago now and it seems to be getting worse. The vet said he didnt think it was an allergy as it doesnt itch and wouldnt be thyroid or hormonal as he is too young (he is 4).

It isnt red and doesnt itch but is a bit dandruffy.

He eats raw chicken and also has some dry food as he wont eat anything other than chicken so he would not be getting all his vitamins. He only eats it frozen now - turns his nose up if defrosted and will pinch the cats food if he gets the chance! Any suggetsions if diet could be a problem are v welcome.

He is 25 kg and hasnt changed weight in the last year so again vet thought it wasnt thyroid because of this. I am going to give him some more advocate next week as vet said we can repeat in 3 weeks but i dont think it will do much good as it has got worse since the first dose.

Any ideas would be very welcome - am worried he is going to go bald
Thanks
Jo

It could be diet, what dry food does he have?

Seasonal alopeacia starts on the sides and back end. Would say it's unlikely to be demodex mites at that usually starts on the head but you could ask the vet to do a skin scrape to be sure x

As saz says get the vet to carry out a skin scrape, demodex often gets worse once treatment starts so best to rule this out xxx

I'm also thinking it could be alopecia but possibly demodex (although not thinking this is the case here).

Normally chicken can cause skin issues but I'm not thinking so in this case. Food allergies I've seen and experienced in my own dogs resulted in lumps,bumps and sores - not hair loss like this. Maybe try a different meat for a while and see if that makes any difference.

Thank you for your replies. He normally has wainwrights as it is the naturalist one i could find - really dont like the dry foods much but i think he would miss out on some vitamins if he only eats chicken.

Vet wasnt keen to do a skin scrape but will go back and ask for one if nothing else works.

What is seasonal alopecia? Is there treatment or does it just go away as the weather changes?

Thank you

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canine_follicular_dysplasia

Have a read of this, you can give melatonin which you can buy online. I gave it Daisy for a while because she was initially misdiagnosed with this but it turned out to be demodex

Thank you - very interesting article. It does sound like it and images on google look very similar. Only thing i am thinking as it seems like it is caused by lack of sunlight and bennys problem has started recently as it has started getting sunnier. Think i will try some melatonin anyway to see if it helps.

Thanks

Very strange, have you tried fish or coconut oil at all? Bane was prescribed evening primrose oil which he has in his dinners to boost his omega 3 and 6 as some foods can lack in it.

Hi
No i havent tried fish or coconut oil - which is best? Did evening primrose help bane?

Fish oil is good for skin and joints and coconut oil is good for the skin, you can add it to food and rub it on   

We found that the coconut oil made his coat really shiny and smell great when rubbed into him. It may be an option to try along with a daily brush to try and encourage new hair growth and reduce the dry dandruff.
Since the vet gave us the evening primrose oil, his coat has just been getting better and better but I don't know if it was just the oil helping or a mix of other things. He is also fed raw and has fresh sardines, mackeral and eggs a couple of times a week. The fish we get from Tesco are pretty cheap, just depends if Benny would eat them

hi jo
i can help straight away with this as i have gone through exact same thing myself with my blue staffy , i did 2 things the first was her diet , i changed her onto raw diet and the second was buying some dermacton cream. ill post some pics if i can of her before and after. it turns out she has an allergy to chicken protein so she gets beef dog food and all of her bald spots are gone  

and this is her now a few months on no bald spots anywhere.

no emails allow if you got more information please share so when people are just searching you will help them also

sorry will do.

jo i got the dermacton cream from here

http://www.aromesse.com/skin-problem/petnat-itchy-skin-relief-dermacton-cream-spray-shampoo-dog-canine.html

and the raw food i have her on is natures menu which i get from local pet shop but you can buy online, she gets one block a day whith a few veggies thrown in.
https://2img.net/h/i831.photobucket.com/albums/zz236/gammy71/natures-menu-frozen-all-beef-mince-400g-BFin.jpg

my vet was after £1000 pound to do blood tests but i did a lot of reading and figured it out myself within a month , but the first thing you need to take care of is regular flea treatment just to make sure.

I have the dermacton cream it's very good and smells lovely   

it was a miracle cream for us especially summer her itching stopped straight away and her fur started to grow back in about 3 weeks, took around 5-6 months for full recovery.

Daisy gets a hot spot on her mouth I use it on that, have the spray too   

Glad to hear summer made a full recovery by the way   

This Dermacton cream sounds great! Another to keep in mind for any future problems

As for blood tests, we paid £115 ish I think for initial tests to see if he did have an allergy, and then a further £80 odd to have the more in depth tests as he came back positive to environmental allergies...much cheaper than gammy22 not sure why!

The vet also wanted to do skin biopsy as well as the blood tests which she had to be put to sleep for, I would pay anything for my baby but my vet didn't try her on any food trials or anything and I felt that they were just after the money, I plan on changing vets when her monthly pet care runs out at the end of the year., the long and short of it is I done a lot of reading of what it could be and managed to sort her out myself, the dermacton is a miracle cream though ;-)