Color Dilution Alopecia

We have just rescued a beautiful blue brindle and white Staffy. She is still under the rescue centre's vet for a skin complaint, which having watched her scratch for an entire weekend as soon as the "collar of shame" is removed, we believe to be CDA. Has anyone found a way of relieving the itching? Willing to try anything to help her.

Hi . My dog suffered for 13yrs with itching. I tried everything from steroid cream , steroid tablets, herbal creams, soaps, shampoos etc. She had skin scrapes done.We changed vets for a second opinion. They told me that she could have an allergy to the common house dust mite. She cost me thousands over the years ( But every penny was worth it).
We were told by the vet of a new tablet called Apoquel. We tried these and it was a wonder drug. No more scratching, No more ear infections and no more anal gland problems. When she was on them they were approx £2 each but after a couple of weeks she was on half a day.( This dosage still stopped her scratching).
She was on Apoquel for the last 2yrs of her life and these 2yrs were the most relaxed we ever seen her.
It is a wonder drug without the steroid side effects.
I have read bad reports about Apoquel but i was prepared to try anything to give her a better life. ( And it did)
I have had staffs for 25yrs and Bonny was the 1st one to suffer from any skin complaint. It was sad to see her like this.
Hope the above helps but i can only tell you of my experiences with Bonny.

Thanks Kelley. We are seeing the vet again tomorrow for a skin scrape as they don't want to commit to CDA just yet.I will mention Apoquel to her. We are putting her on a grain free food and adding in a lot of fish and cod liver oik. Fingers crossed for a itch free dog

My Flo tends to nibble her paws but we used a powder called Thornit. It's not meant for paws as such but for ears, however, it can be used on other parts of the body. It's certainly worked wonders on the one law but not yet cracked the last one.

Maybe worth looking into.

Thanks Ian.

Not sure on this one see what your vet suggests

I'd be looking down the allergies route too. There are so many things they can be allergic to and also there are now quite a few treatments that may or may not help depending on what you're talking about.

Also, it's not uncommon for dogs in rescue to be more prone to issues - especially skin problems with staffies - due to kennel stress. You may well find that with a little more time her body will settle anyway.

If you do need to use a buster collar, though, have you looked at the inflatable ones? Some people swear by them, although I'm sure it will depend on the dog and what she's trying to itch.

What food is she on?
The reason I ask is my girl had been itchy and lost all her white fur and some of the blue on her back. We tried loads till I changed her food to no grains and no chicken. It took a while but although her white fur is thin at least she has it. We also recently got her spayed and she again started loosing it but it didn't take long to recover.

We have put her on a grain free food and are adding a piece of fish and cod liver oil to each meal. She is better already after 3 days and putting a natural cream on her belly over night. She had a shampoo today in an Aloe Vera based shampoo and was a different dog afterwards. Maybe she was suffering from Kennel Stress.

Thanks again for all your comments. It's good to talk to other worried dog owners.

Sounds like you're on the up, fingers crossed for you both.

It is awful having an animal who is uncomfortable but sadly it's not uncommon with rescues. Just remember that there are people on here who have been there, done that and some are even still wearing theirt-shirts. Do ask, even if the question sounds odd. We might not have all the answers but we can provide plenty of support.

Hi Chrissie, just reading this and wondering if you spoke to your vet about Apoquel yet?

Ralph is a 'scratcher' and we've tried a lot of things to stop him. It was actually our window cleaner that said about Apoquel, that it had worked wonders for his Staffy. The vet didn't dismiss it when I spoke to him about it but said he wanted to try other things first. Those other things don't seem to be working too well though!

Mmmmm the vet is being v dismissive of anything that's not Steroids at mo. Have a rash free dog at mo and its so lovely to have a dog around that is behaving like a normal dog. X

Steriods can be useful to get a condition settled as sometimes it can become a self perpetuating thing, so if in future you can't get it settled don't rule them out completely but it sounds like you're on top of it for now.

I'd be keeping a diary and really watch out for any further recurrences, noting exactly what potential influencing factors were around during the 24hrs or so beforehand.

this is another reason why i personally steer away from 'blues'