Puppy Losing Fur

[icequeen]

I have an eight week old puppy dog that is losing it's fur. The vet doesn't seem overly concerned, he just took a quick look and gave me some medicated shampoo. But because she has just had vaccinations I can't start to use the shampoo for at least a week.

A friend has said that it may be the start of mainge so now I am getting concerned and wondering whether to go to another vet.

Has anybody had any similar experiences? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[JohnC]

Simple, do what you would do if you were not happy with a medical opinion on yourself, get a second opinion. Could be ecxma, could be mange, could be stress only good vet will be able to tell.

[Cuban]

Is the pup scratching out the fur?

What is the underlying skin like?

Any red inflamation or rash?

What food are you feeding? One of the Thai vets' standard responses to skin disorders is a gel-capsule called Furmeg-3, they charge between 5-10 Baht per pill, as the active ingrediant is fish oil you are better to but a small tin of pilchards (or similar) for 11 baht and feed that to your pup. Try a small amount first - a tin full of fish oil might cause upset stomach in a young dog.

Where is the fur being lost from? Our dogs developed a rash when they were 3-4 months old, after a few days we traced the cause to a strong floor cleaning fluid my wife was using on the tiled area where they slept.

Is there any sign of leas, ticks, etc. in their fur or bedding?

When using the shampoo, I suggest that you use it sparingly, dogs do not need to be washed as often as some owners consider is right. Get your pup used to being brushed, I use a soft bristle cheap 10 Baht brush from the open market. This removes loose fur and dust etc. and the dog loves the grooming attention.

HTH.

[Nienke]

Chances are high that your friend is quite correct with the mange part.

A very high percentage of dogs carry the demodectic mange mite in their hair follicles. Those with a healthy immune system do not show symptoms as their immune system is capable of keeping it in check.

The immune system of a dog matures when the pup is about 6 months of age, meaning that little puppies have underdeveloped immune systems. Vaccines can cause a (temporary) shut down of the immune system. This is the perfect time for the mange mites to reproduce and become a pest.

That your puppy most probably show symptoms of demodectic mange indicates that it is really struggling with its health.

The vet could do a skin scraping to confirm that your pup has demodectic mange or not. But as your puppy is still so young it may very well be the reason that the vet decided to try it with a shampoo first instead of with heavy med's.

What you yourself can do is boost the immune system of the puppy by feeding it the highest quality of pet food you can find. If you prefer commercial petfood than I would advise Nutro, Eagle Pack, Advanced Pet Diet or otherwise Hill's Science Diet. All, in puppy food form.

Of course, best is to put your pup on a raw food diet. To get an idea how to start you can read an article I wrote a while ago: http://www.luckydogs.info/pdf/Feeding_your...natural_way.pdf

I still need to update the article as I don't feed veggies, rice or cereal anymore. Dogs are carnivores, and there digestive system is designed to process meat bones and organs and not vegges and rice. If you are interested in a puppy schedule, please, pm me and I'll send one to you as an attachment.

For more info on a raw fed diet you can also click on the links under diet: http://www.luckydogs.info/links.html

A while ago I got a 2 months old golden mix in. Also she started to have a major skin and coat problem, diagnosed as Demodectic mange. And also she got a special shampoo and some AB's which didn't work for a meter, on the contrary, her condition worsened, because no one ever reviewed if her diet was sufficient in nutrients.

Anyway, only after two weeks with me there was already a visible improvement, just by a simple change of the diet.

This was her when she came in:

Good luck with your puppy! I hope she will get well soon.

[elcent]

change the food for your dog. It needs a balanced diet. Give it pedigree for three months and you will see the difference.

[ad61]

change the food for your dog. It needs a balanced diet. Give it pedigree for three months and you will see the difference.

Changing your dog food is a good idea but certainly not for Pedigree (manufactured with by-products only), change it for Nutro, Eukanuba, Royal Canin or even Euro Premium which are all premium grade dog food.

[elfe]

many dogs here tend to have skin problems. especially at puppy age or old age. it is a sign that they fight with other disease or the immunity is too low. also if the dog is weakened by intestinal worms it lowers the immunity shield.

usually raw diet plus high quality dogfood, multivitamin, helps. also, if severe like itching and wounds, loss of most hair, creams and tonics work well. if the dog ist older than 5 months i would try ivermec injections or amitraz dips.

be patient and don't give up, sometimes it can take a while, especially if the dog does not suffer from severe itching and if no strong medication is used. usually the dogs will be over it after maturing at about one year age. spaying also helps, as it will keep the production of hormons down which also causes some dogs to imbalance of immunity.

[icequeen]

Thanks to everyone for your advice, I've not been online for a few days or I would have replied sooner. It doesn't seem to be getting any worse which is good. I am going to try changing her diet and start with the vets shampoo tomorrow and see what happens. Will keep you all posted.

[bangkokumpalumpa]

I had a husky puppy that had major problems with red mange, after spending stupid money at the vets and not listening to the farmers I at last opened my ears BIG TIME.

the vet was charging me for ivomec, it is cattle drench, and what a price they were charging!!!!

ok so my pup gets another bloom of the dreded red mange so I call the vet and as for them to make me up some meds, well the answer to that was no we have to see the dog, I said no way just give me the meds it is the same as last time, the nurse then says we cant issue controled drugs to your animal without seeing it first.

well I informed her again that it was the same as before and all I wanted was 100 ml of ivomec, well I got the same answer, so I went to the farm supply shop and purchased 1 liter of ivomec then walked into to the vets, well I had a few words with them asking for ivomec and was told no it was a controled drug, so I dumped a liter on the desk and told them it was not as I had just purchased this next door. I also informed them that they would never see my busines again.

the happy ending is that she has grown out of it now, I feel it was the vacinations. the messed with her imune system, agfter that we never gave her vacinations and she is healthy and still going strong, just living with the x-wife in NZ.

so for mange if it is that, get some ivomec!! it also kills fleas, ticks, worms and it is good enough to give to animals that are designed for us to eat!!! great stuff and well worth giving your dogs!! I use to keep it hanging up with a drench gun, put down the food and grab the gun, all you need to do is then squrit som in the dogs mouth

[icequeen]

Little bit of good news everyone!

I've changed her food to Pedigree puppy food and started using the shampoo from the vets. There definately seems to be an improvement after just a couple of days, so hopefully in a week or so we should see some big changes.