Blue Female Hair Thinning issues

Hi All,

We are new members to the forum and are looking for some help and guidance. We will post some pictures shortly for you to all see our little girl.

We have a blue female staff who is 1 year old in a few days. We have been having problems with hair thinning around the back of the ears and neck area. She did come out in what can only be described as little bumps. she scratched them until they bled and just as they formed a scab she would scratch the area again and open up the wound, hence we had a vicious circle, we took her to the vets who prescribed antibiotics and anti allergy tablets, they did not seem to help, we applied hydrocortisone cream to the area amongst a variety of other creams one after the other to heal it, the only thing that seemed to help her scabs heal was tea tree oil diluted in water and applied to the back of the ears with cotton wool pad an we brought baby socks to put on her at night times as this was the times she seemed to scratch. now she has no infected areas or scabs at all she just looks rather bald around the back of her ears and thinning of the neck area. On reading the other comments on here its sounds abit like mange, we have spoken to the breeders who recommended we use benzyl benzoate ointment for hair thinning, we are currently doing this and maybe it is just a case of being patient and waiting for her hair to regrow, just wondered if anybody has any other ideas? she could not have mites/fleas etc as she has advocate applied every month without fail.

many thanks lewis

Beautiful-blue
New Staffy-bull-terrier Member


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was your dog from 2 blue parents?

I think some photos may help out a lot , as I said on my other post Tilly my older girl has always been a bit thin behind her ears and on the underside of her neck but in comparison it's difficult to judge how much better or worse yours is

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t12017-how-to-post-a-photos-onto-the-forum

Yes she is by two pure blue staffs. I am trying to work out how to upload some pics. could you point me in a general direction. cheers

Here's a couple of pics of my girl for comparison

Your pics look exactly the same as our little ones, now going to upload a couple of pics in a sec. thanks for your help so far.. Lewis

we'll have a look at the pics but if they are the same as Tilly I really don't think you have anything great to worry about . Tilly has been like this from a pup no better no worse. We did buy her from a BYB and I always put it down to this , other than this her coat is beautiful. Our boy is KC reg from a good breeder and he is much hairier by comparison with hairs on his hairs

blue with blue mating can have puppies with CDA

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t17716-colour-dilution-alopecia

i am really struggling with uploading these pics... im clicking on the picture box that has a floppy disc in the icon, is this correct?

you need to make a photobucket account

As you can see she has / is going bald in the middle of her head above. Hope these pics help guys..

sorry but where is this picture taken , with it being so close I can't tell maybe a little furthe rout but this looks like a defined patch rather than an area if that make's sense. When you say behind the ears is it identical on each ear ?? I only ask because Tilly's is , I would have been concerned more if she had a bald one and a hairy one

http://www.vetinfo.com/color-dilution-alopecia-in-dogs.html

i think it could be CDA

The First pic is of her neck. She is bald on both ears, and to be fair it looks like the baldness behind her ears will eventually link up with the bald patches on her neck if that makes sense, if she continues to loose her fur

it's because she was bred from 2 blue parents if it's CDA

I think you should go back to the vet and get the scrapes done

It looks like one of two things...
1. As Steve says, it could be CDA (Colour Dilution Alopecia) which is a fairly common skin complaint with blue dogs that have two blue parents. If so, it's very difficult to treat & can't be cured. You can help by getting plenty of omega oils into her - the capsules you can get in Holland & Barrett or similar will help, or a little salmon oil poured over her food.

2. It could be mites. If you're getting bumps & scabs I would lean more towards mites, but this can only be confirmed by having a skin scrape done at your vets as the demodex mite cannot be seen by the naked eye. If it's demodex (Demodectic Mange) and is treated quickly it's easily cured, but you'll need to have a word with your vet.

We have just been having a look at the CDA link ( so thanks for that ) as it says about the benzyl shampoo, we are currently putting the cream on once a week at the moment. as it will take a while for the hair to grow back anyway i think it might be an idea to see if it takes affect. if it doesnt change anything then we will have to take her. She isnt bothered about it at all, it concerns us more i think. only natural.

Dave -- did you have scrapes done on Tilly??? as pics look very similar

No we didn't have scrapes done , she's never had any irritation or anything like that and has always been like that as she grew up. How can I put it , it's not bald patches , it's even (identical behind both ears) and "even" if that makes sense. She doesn't lose any hair at all in these areas it's just how her coat has developed

i think the CDA does sound possible. We will have to try her on some salmon oil or omega 3 tablets. thank you all very much for your advise. very kind

I really would get the scrapes done, though, just to rule out mites, because if it is mange, it could get worse & much harder to deal with.

if she did have mites would she be scratching??as she isnt at all.

Not necessarily. At first it's normally just hair loss, with occasional sore spots/scabs forming.

ok well thank you very much for your comments and advice.

you need to rule out everything else out before you can say it's CDA & if its CDA i would be going around the breeder and be demanding your money back or reporting them to trading standard

Just a thought - what's her general hair condition? Is it glossy, smooth & healthy looking? Or coarse, dull & patchy?

its very smooth, glossy and generally thick over the rest of her body.

my mother and father in-law own a male blue staff, which they got from the same breeder about 2 months after we got Freya and he is perfect. He came from the same father as Freya but had a different mother (obviously), they were both pure blue. We have seen the father and both mothers and they were perfect in every way. maybe we are just a tad unfortunate.

it's very bad breding 2 blue together a good breeder will bred back to black so CDA don't pop up

In my opinion, your best bet is to take your dog back to the vets and ask to get a skin scrape. We can all throw suggestions out, but there's no way to tell for sure over the Internet with something like this.

Good luck, and I hope your dog recovers quickly!

Beautiful-blue wrote:its very smooth, glossy and generally thick over the rest of her body.

If that's the case, I would definitely ask for a skin scrape because it's more likely to be mites.

Beautiful-blue wrote:my mother and father in-law own a male blue staff, which they got from the same breeder about 2 months after we got Freya and he is perfect. He came from the same father as Freya but had a different mother (obviously), they were both pure blue. We have seen the father and both mothers and they were perfect in every way. maybe we are just a tad unfortunate.

Yes, you may well be unfortunate, but there's no guarantee that your dog does have CDA - as I said, you really need to get that scrape done so that you can decide on a suitable treatment.

Breeding blue to blue is a bad breeding practice, as you are doubling up on the colour dilution, which can weaken the skin and hair follicles, leading to hair loss and skin problems.

ok thanks for your advice it has been very helpful, glad we joined :-D

Looks like demodex, that bald patch in the middle of the head is classic.

I would stop the advocate every month. There is no need for that. See if that makes a difference. Only treat for fleas etc if you actually SEE one

Obi has bald patches on the back of his ears too. I did wonder if his could be CDA as he is from a blue x blue mating. It doesn't bother him at all and his coat is beautiful everywhere else. Infact it like velvet if you run your finger through it it leaves lines just like velvet.

Best read that article. Do I have anything to worry about now? Help

Most Staffords have thinner hair on their ears & belly areas.

Although blue x blue can lead to CDA, it doesn't always! If the hair's only thinning on the ears then I wouldn't worry.

Thanks Caryll your ace

I've been trying to remember if my last staffy was bald behind the ears and I can't remember

Now i've read that article i'm sure he doesn't have CDA I'll have a chat with his dad's owner and see if he's come across it with any of his other pups. I can also check with his grandad's owner who is his mum's dad to see if there is any history on that side.

Be prepared to be told that there's no such thing as CDA.

I'm not dissing your pup's breeders, but generally speaking a breeder that breeds blue to blue will deny that there are any problems.

Thanks again Caryll fully prepared now thanks to you.

I'll fb his sisters owners too see if they've got any bald patches as his sisters seem to be more grey/silver than blue like Obi his coat is definately darker than theres from the piccies I've seen.

xXx

Love that avatar!

Caryll wrote:Love that avatar!

Ah thanks Caryll that's my zaccy this piccie was taken 4 weeks before we had to say goodbye to him. It was part of a family photoshoot that we had done miss him so much but Obi has definately helped to fill the massive whole he left

Awww. What a beautiful face!