Losing fur - Allergies? Skin Problems

Hi All

Just wanted to see if I could get some advice on what might be wrong with our pup.

He is 13 months old now and for the last couple months he has had a rash on his chest which the vet gave us some cream for.  It seems to help once weve put the cream on but it needs reapplying ALL the time.

Also a couple of weeks ago we had to take him to the out of hours Vet Hospital at 9pm as his whole face started swelling up, starting on his nose, then his head, lips, and back.  They said he must have had an allergic reaction to a bee sting or something.  The next morning he was worse, so back to the Vet for a steroid injection.

Those lumps went down eventually, THEN a week later, his eye was all swollen up.  This was apparently an ulcer - which with some eye drops, anti inflammatories and antibiotics has now cleared up.

The whole time all this is going on his fur seems to be falling out.  This started on his neck and behind his ears and its gone down to his chest.

I've had the vet do a skin scraping, fur pluck and swab for Demodex and all three came back negative.  She has said we can now start testing individually for things he MAY be allergic to, but I don't get that a vet wouldn't know what is causing this hair loss.....  Its getting worse and if its not sorted Im sure he will have no fur soon

Has anyone else experienced this or can anyone advise on what on earth is going on with my little one, feel so bad for him

He is a blue staff, from two blue parents and he eats Royal Canin Adult dry food

Thanks for reading and I really appreciate any ideas you may have

Jules
xxx

Jules&Nick wrote:Hi All

He is a blue staff, from two blue parents and he eats Royal Canin Adult dry food

Jules
xxx

This last statement may explain things that are happening to him, many blue puppies from both blue parents have experience of skin problems. Two parents should not really be bred from because of the issues it can cause.

The link below may help you:

http://staffy-bull-terrier.com/how_to_buy_a_dilution_colour_dog

It does sound like it could be colour dilution alopeacia, perhaps speak to your vet about that?

The lumpyness sounds like an allergic reaction. Bane had one while we were waiting for allergy blood test results to come back.

Was there anything different that he was doing before the lumps appeared? Or have you changed anything recently like washing powder or food? Did you give him any treats that were new?

As for the hair loss, Bane did have a little on his ears and neck due to scratching and skin infection because of his allergy so it may be that, but it does sound a little extreme.
Having two blue parents doesn't bid well for him and it could be alopeacia. What tests are they doing on him do you know?

Oh god I really hope its not this alopecia thing, more poor boy I would hate it if he lost all his fur

The vet hasn't really said too much.  I asked them to do the skin scraping for Demodex, skin mites, (my friends staffy had this a couple years ago and had the same symptoms as Bailey) and that came back negative.  The vet is waiting for us to go back to them with what we want to do.  She has said we can do more allergy tests, we will have to pay for each one individually, but they could all come back negative.

Its difficult to know what to do to be honest.  What would you guys do if this was your pup? Would you go ahead and keep getting individual tests done to rule out certain allergies?

He also seems to be a little bit off his food which he has been on for a couple months, he was on Royal Canin puppy but now has the adult version since he turned 1 at the end of June.  I wonder if it is something in his new food?

With the Royal Canin, do you get the one designed for dogs with skin sensitivity? We had our pup on the pediatric one of that up until last week, not because she had problems with her skin but the vet recommended it as Staffy's often exprience skin problems.

No we just feed her the normal adult one. He was on the puppy one, which seemed to be the only one he could tolerate. A few months ago he had a problem with the runs for weeks on end and the Royal Canin seemed to stop it all. We are low on his food at the moment, maybe we can buy the paediatric one? Does it have to be recommended by the Vet?

We are seriously considering feeding him a raw food diet as a lot of people have said its has helped clear up any skin problems, we just have to research more into it.

So he started getting the skin and fur problems after you switched his food to adult? Food is one of the big things that can cause allergies, have you tried him on any of the hypoallergenic foods before? There are a lot of grain free ones out there, fish based in case of a chicken allergy etc.

Does your vet not do an overall allergy test to test for everything? It would seem a little odd that you have to tell the vet what to test for...how are you supposed to know what it is?
With ours, the vet took a blood sample to do a basic test which showed if he had an allergy to food, indoor or outdoor things. That came back positive as an indoor allergy so he then tested further to find exactly what it was indoors he was allergic to.

As for raw, we switched before we had the blood tests to rule out food as the cause of Bane's problems and even after the blood tests coming back negative for food, we have stuck with it We think it's great and Bane is doing really well on it! It just isn't for everyone!

Jules&Nick wrote:No we just feed her the normal adult one.  He was on the puppy one, which seemed to be the only one he could tolerate.  A few months ago he had a problem with the runs for weeks on end and the Royal Canin seemed to stop it all.  We are low on his food at the moment, maybe we can buy the paediatric one? Does it have to be recommended by the Vet?

We are seriously considering feeding him a raw food diet as a lot of people have said its has helped clear up any skin problems, we just have to research more into it.

Royal Canin does their varieties in both paediatric and adult so you shouldn't have to switch back to the puppy one. Just look for the junior or adult version of the skin one.
http://www.royalcanin.com.au/products/products/vet-products/vet-care-canine

Thanks for all of your replies.

Yeah his skin problems started (if I remember rightly) when we changed his food, maybe just a bit before though. He started getting the rash on his chest at first, then the fur falling out followed.....then he had that awful allergic reaction......

We are seriously now looking into feeding him raw as well Emma (Bane). There seems to be a huge amount of people who agree that its the best way to go especially for dogs with skin problems.

I agree about the Vet, how would I know what to test him for and what not to test him for? Its almost like they want ME to suggest what to do next and I don't know

We are trying to source local butchers and local meat factories who may be able to help with providing us with the raw meat/offal etc and trying to get our heads around the different kinds of meat we have to include, it seems very daunting, but I'm sure once we get our heads around it we will be fine.

Can I ask if you have any recommendations for getting info on the raw food diet Emma (Bane), some are so conflicting saying you should just change and feed a mixture of different foods, others say you should do it gradually and slowly introduce different types of meat etc.....

Thanks for all of your help again

Jules xxx  

You can look at the FAQ for some info and there's also a sub forum for raw dieting.

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t49380-raw-diets-frequently-asked-questions

We switched ours over to raw and it helped calm down his itching abit (Didn't stop it totally), so we're still getting more tests done on him.

We started ours on 1 meat at a time, only adding another after atleast a week if his number 2s were ok. Start with chicken or turkey then add in which ever you didn't start with then one meat at a time incase their allergic to a certain meat or something.

Food is a possibility in that case! Have you thought of going to another vet for a second opinion or to see how they would advise to act on the situation? 

As for the raw I read a lot of things and it does get confusing! There are some good threads in the raw section here and I found this website helpful too: http://preymodelraw.com/page/articles.html/_/raw-chat/how-to-get-started-feeding-a-prey-model-raw-diet-r19

It is daunting and when we started, I wasn't 100% sure I was doing it right! But from what I understood, the basic facts I follow are:

- You should feed 80% Meat, 10-15% Bone, 5-10% Offal. This doesn't have to be exact and can be balanced over time. (Ignore offal when first starting)

- It's advised to feed 2-3% of their expected adult weight per day. This is a guideline and I don't think we ever really stuck to it. Pick a starting weight and adjust it according to his weight. Let his body condition guide you

- When switching from dry to raw, switch immediately eg. Feed dry biscuits for dinner and the next day feed raw, and then stick to raw. (they digest at different times so can cause an upset tummy feeding together)

- You need to introduce meats to him one at a time to work out if he has any allergies or intolerances. So plan a rough 8 week schedule eg:
1:Chicken, 2:Add Turkey, 3:Add Fish, 4:Add Tripe, 5:Add Pork, 6:Add Beef, 7:Add Lamb, 8:Add Offal.

- Only add new meats when his stools return to normal and are firm.

- Once you have got past the introduction stages go crazy and have fun! Feed as much variety as you possibly can!

It took us quite a while to switch after first reading about it because we were so unsure, but it really isn't disastrous if you don't get it exactly right We just made sure we had some meat and hawk eyed what was coming out the other end of Bane It is a good indication of what is working and what is not!
The raw forum is really helpful! Feel free to ask anything in there, everyone is really helpful! Sorry for the essay!

Wow thanks Emma, that is SO helpful.....  

We are looking around for where best to get the meat from. We can get it all online we just need to order it and get going really. It seems supermarkets (we have tried Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons) don't do chicken mince? I know I used to buy this years ago, but we cant seem to find it anywhere?

I'm even contemplating buying a mincer and buying chicken breasts to mince myself, but that's gonna start costing a fair bit. I have the feeling that chicken mince is best to start him on rather than chicken legs/thighs?

Thanks again for your help and ill let you know how he is getting on.

Jules
x

No problem I hope it helps!

We haven't seen chicken mince anywhere but online and chicken in supermarkets is very expensive if you think of how much they need! Have you got any local pet shops that may sell it? Or try PAH for a bag of the natures menu mince just to get you going until you feel he can handle bonier parts

Have a look at this Jules
http://www.dermagic.com/

Thank you so much everyone for all your advice, sorry I haven't been on this site for a while with one thing and another.

So to update we have had lots of tests done on Bailey and its seems he is allergic to just about everything

Its probably easier for me to tell you what he isn't allergic to, but this is a list of what he has come back with as being extremely allergic to:

Chicken
Lamb
Turkey
Milk
Wheat
Yeast
Beet
Carrot
Pinto Beans
Potato
House dust mites
Storage mites

We have had him on a RAW diet for the past few weeks and had started him just on chicken till we got all the results back, now it seems this is one of the things he is highly allergic too . I'm out of my mind now as to what the hell to feed my poor boy and feel like I've been doing it all wrong.

He can have:
Pork
Beef
Liver
Fish
Rabbit

SO we are now trying desperately to source a raw food place to get the right stuff for him

I'm really pleased that we have had the results and can now move on eradicating all the allergy inducing food out of his diet.

Onwards and upwards for my lil puppy kins xxxx

Wow that is a lot of things to be allergic to !

At least you have a starting point now Jules

Glad you have some answers that is a long list, but with patience it should improve

Wee soul

So glad that you have finally got answers and so sorry that they aren't the best results!

Once you get his diet right for him you will see some big improvements!  Are you going to stick to the Raw? Where abouts in the UK are you? We order from Durham Animal Feeds and are really happy with the service. They have a great range of meats, it's just whether you have the freezer space and if its a convenient way of buying it for you.

I really hope he starts to get better now.
Bane has a Dust and Storage mite allergy which I know is only part of your battle but once you get on top of the food allergies, I'm sure the dust mites will be a breeze

How is he? Could always try a sensitive dog food