Oh no, it's Sophie again.

Morning all. You remember back in May we had two problems with Sophie. We didn't know if they were related or not.

Anyway, she was being sick on a daily basis and working with the vet we put her on an exclusion diet of chicken and potato. WE have now increased it to chicken, potato, peas and carrots. She has her stag bar and occasionally a chew on her rawhyde one and absolutely NOTHING else.

No gluten, dairy, wheat, pasta etc. No contraband has passed her lips, not a dog biscuit or snippet of toast even. We have been really disciplined and it has paid off big time. Since the 27th May, she has not been sick once

We are happy to keep her on the diet as she is fit and healthy and enjoying life.

The second problem has got worse. Back in December she started losing fur initially on her tum area, going into her pits. When she was spayed in January we got the vet to do a skin scrape which came back negative for any nasties. She also has Advocate religiously every month.

The baldness is now so bad, she is virtually bald the whole of her tum, right up through to her chest and out to the inner parts of her arms and legs.

She doesn't have any sores or lesions and is not scratching excessively. She is road walked and does not lie on grass, not even the lawn.

I found this webiste with a number of nasties and her baldness is not like any of these.

http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/ss/slideshow-skin-problems-in-dogs

Go to slideshow.

I have spoken with the vet every week and he says he is not worried it is a staffy thing that happens over the summer. He owns a staffy type breed dog himself.

We have taken down to the vets a nuber of photos of her tum as she gets so stressed at the vet we thought that may aggravate the problem if it is stress related.

It may be a staffy thing, but this has been getting steadily worse since January and is really very noticable now. Our original vet left the surgery and this one doesn't seem to be very proactive.

We don't know if it is our imagination but Sophie also seems to have lost a bit of weight, though that could be just coincidence or down to the heat.

She is having a breakfast and an evening meal and scoffing them both down. We have not over pushed her excercise wise until we know what we are dealing with, she has a 45 minute walk in the morning and about a 15 minute leg stretch in the evening.

She seems 100% happy and content but we want to know what the cause is. We are now confident it is not related to her diet which we needed to rule out.

I will phone the vet again with an update, he just doesn't seem concerned.

To get a blood test (or any other) she will have to be sedated which we are reluctant to do as she gets so stressed at the vets to the point of collapse but we are at a loss.

Anyone else experienced this (or similar) and what tests should the vet now be looking at?

I haven't had any experience with a dog losing hair. Since it's not diet or grass it could be a reaction to a type of cleaner that you are using but that's only a guess.

You could try phoning different vets to see what they think and go from there.

Romeo once had hair loss from a tic oil i put on the back of his next, theer is still a tiny spot that is hairless... but i havent heard of such a large amount of hair going missing like that. My friend PitX when she got older started to lose all her belly hair... but we lined that up to her being rather old... i dont think sophie is at that stage yet

My old girl Leyla has been speyed now for over 10 years and is as bald as a coot on her underside.
Sky who is now speyed and has been now for about 2 years her underside is thinning.
My other girls who are not speyed their underside is fine.
Got a feeling that after speying a female can loose some of their underside fur.
It may not happen to all speyed females but the ones it does happen to its perfectly normal for them.
Each dog is different and speying affects each in a different way, so the hair lost i would'nt worry about.
Old girl Leyla has also never put on weight after speying, but Sky has and their both feed the same diet.

Our previous staff, although male, lost all the fur on his belly and halfway up his back. At one stage, we had weekly visist to the vet for almost 3 months and they just couldn't find a reason. We changed vets and they said that it was due to an allergy. We didn't want him on meds, so we tried various creams and herbal remedies. We found an aloe gel (non toxic, and the bitterness was removed), which seemed to help a lot. I used to put it on about 3 times a week and within a month his hair started growing back.
I hope you come right

Have you tried seeing another vet at the practice to get a second opinion, as your current vet isn't overly concerned?

I know that Rocky is a bit bald on his tummy but that is due to where his harness has rubbed on him, we have now sorted this out by putting some padding on the harness.

Could just be a staffy thing I guess ?????

It seems at that surgery they sort of place you with who they think you will be best matched with. I suppose because the vet has a staffie X himself it would be the obvious choice.

We have just ordered some doggy aloe vera stuff. Very reasonably priced.

Will keep you posted ><

I see the hair loss started before she was spayed. Have you looked at household chemicals? Such as detergent used to clean/wash floors and carpets? My Mother in law had a little pekinese that lost all its hair and was actually gravely ill due to the floor polish that was used on the kitchen floor.

I'd get a second opinion to, that amount of hair loss is not normal

Morning all. We have looked at cleaning products. We have the smallest kitchen in the world, literally. The floor area is 3' x 4' so not enough room to swing a cat let alone anything else. Due to it's miniscule size it gets swept with a dustpan and brush and the ceramic tiles just get a wipe over. We do not have a back door leading out of the kitchen, so the only thing that get's droppped are occasional food scraps. We also have a stair gate accross so if I am cooking or getting something out of the oven madam is excluded for safety reasons.

We do not use any other cleaning products that she could be coming into contact with.

The only other thing is when her/our bedding is washed. We stick to reputable brands of soap powder/fabric conditioner but buy whatever is on offer so again, not sticking to the same product should not give the continuous hair loss.

We have bought the suggested aloe gel (awaiting delivery) so will try that.

I will definitely ring the vet today and ask what the next steps are to find out what is causing this as I too am convinced this isn't 'normal'.

At least it isn't bothering Sophie at all, she is her normal self, taking into consideration the heat we have.

Will keep you posted. ><

Thomas is going bald too!!
I've been looking into the symptoms of Demodex, and while it could be demodex, its not a classic case. He is much the same as Sophie, bald on the underside with no itching or major redness. Is it possible that neutering can have the same affect as the hair loss mentioned above in post-spey females? He had quite furry bits when we went to meet him before we adopted him, but the hair hasnt really grown back since his op. He also has bald armpits and had a little bald spot where, i thought, his harness had rubbed.. In the last week or so, all the patches seem to be getting closer together!
We changed him on to a different flavour of his regular food about a month ago, but have changed it back since noticing the baldness. Have also changed the harness but im sure more hair is falling out so i've just got him on a collar now.. Much to his annoyance! I know they have very short hair and its summer coat season but im sure it shouldnt be quite so sparse!

Going to the vets later for an (i think) unrelated issue so will ask him to do a skin scrape but just wanted your opinions.. Thanks guys! x

Hi Evilgenius. I would be interested in what your vet says please. Sophie is on regular doses of Advocate so this will prevent demodex. She did suffer from it briefly as a very small pup so we know what to look for, also the skin scrape came back clear.

If you look at the beginning of this thread, there is a link to a slideshow of a number of nasties that can cause skin problems.

Let us know how you get on. ><

Ooh! I'l have a little look, thanks.
Its weird because it doesnt look at all angry or red.. Just bald! He looks like a pig!!
Will of course let you know what he says.. Hope you manage to get some sense out of your vet too!

If the gel dosent do the job, how about just for now, buy some baby washing powder just for Sophies bedding only and see how it goes? Pixee was sprayed when in the Blue Cross. To be fair while some of her hair has grown back, theres patches where it is thin. Fingers cross the gel works for you. Its good to know Sophie is doing well otherwise.

Hi Staffie Lover >< When we are out Sophie is crated with her own bedding. In May, my son went to live in Greece for four months. Sophie was so lost without him we allowed her to come into our bed where she now beats us there

I will have a look in a mo and would considr changing ALL our bedding to a baby powder one if that is what makes the difference for Sophie.

Its amazing what washing powder can do to you. I have to keep to a certain kind, as in non bio, cos my hubby will come out in a rash down his what sits . Thats why I wondered about this for Sophie.

And I bet you are missing your son too. September hes home I take it then

WASHING POWDER!! D'oh!
I just washed all his bedding and blankets and sofa cushions and throws and his thundershirt cus i thought he might have mites or something.. Its an aldi one.. Didnt even think about it!

I feel really mean.

Hey the aldi one was the worse one for bring hubbys rash out

Dont feel mean, its one of those things that can happen.

GAH! Looks like i've got an afternoon of washing (in a nice, shiny non-bio) ahead of me.. Good job its sunny!

Vet at 2.40 so will report back later or tomoro morning..

Right, where to start. I was in town and decided to pop into the vets on the offchance. By luck, the vet was just finishing his morning surgery.

I showed him the photos taken on my phone of Sophies baldy tum. We could zoom in on the piccies in quite good detail. He is confident it is not an allergic reaction to anything as he said the skin would be sore and inflamed.

He confirmed as I thought that allergy testing is oftern inconclusive.

We discussed diet and he is quite happy with that as her tummy is perfect. I did say we had ordered some Aloe Vera doggy gel and he was quite happy with that.

I said we had put her back on the imune complex she had as a puppy. He suggested running with that for a week but if that doesn't work then he has given 'sold' us a tub of Vionate. This is apparently a vitamin/mineral supplement.

He still maintains we are coming back to stress related alopecia and not to worry.

His only concern was changing washing powder at the same time as introducing something else could be misleading and to just introduce or change one thng per week and monitor her.

Will keep you posted. ><

Of course I agree, one thing a time, otherwise how do you know should it work, which one is was. Hopefully you do find a cure for her. And yes please do keep us posted.

Hmm.. So its kind of good news but still none the wiser? Frustrating. Im so pleased that her tummy troubles are sorted though.. I didnt get anything massively helpful from the vet yesterday. No diagnosis anyway, just a steroid injection, 3 months of advocate and a week of anti-biotics. He said that it was better and cheaper to try 3 ways of eliminating it before doing scrapes and follicle analysis.. Could be an allergy to washing powder or grass or pollen(Pup does get Hayfever..)could be Demodex, could be any number of things apparently! Hopefully it will clear up but its hard not knowing what it is so we can prevent it in the future.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help but good luck with Sophie.. Im keeping my fingers crossed for you..x

Morning EG >< I am starting to wonder if our vets are twins ot having any real answers. Interesting that yours is going down the steroid/antibiotic route and ours is just leave well alone and see what happens. Ours has not suggested medication other than the Advocate which is used regularly anyway.

Will be intersting to follow this. Again, Sophie is road walked and almost never goes in long grass. She hasn't even sunbathed on what we used to call our lawn (until we got a girl doggie)!!!

We will start with the suggested vitamin suplement next week and see what happens.

BTW Son (who Sophie worships) went out to Zante on the 3rd May. I was expecting him home at the end of August. He now intends to stay until the end of October. I daren't tell Sophie

Hope all goes well with Thomas, and keep us posted please ><

Hiya! I will def keep you posted.. It will probably take a couple of weeks for the hair to (hopefully) come back. I think the anti-biotics were mostly for a little cut/splinter thing that wouldnt heal but the steroid injection was for his baldyness. I guess its like treating eczema with steroid cream or something? Who knows!

Will come back if there is anything more to report! x

Ahhhhh poor Sophie, I have to wash all Vin's stuff in non-bio other wise he comes out in little scabby spots all over his body (shake and vac also has the same effect)