7 month old dog, patchs of fur missing, discolored nose, lethargic..any advice for a concerned owner

[ArtfulD]

I need some advice on a issue with my dog, I'm sorry for the long text but any suggestions of what to look for would be wonderful.

I'm taking her to the vet again tomorrow, but I cant rely on the vet their likely to say nothing is wrong and just give me a months supply of antibiotics. Beebo has had all the standard injections for her age. The vet she has been going to regularly is popular in Pattaya, located at soi nern plebwan.

Name:Beebo

Sex:F

Age:7 months.

Breed: Bitsa (Bits of this, bits of that)

I'm not sure what led to it but I noticed a bald patch on her back right leg around the hip area. She chewed and

licked the area constantly and the patchiness seemed to get worse. We took her to the vet who found nothing in the blood

test, skin checks showed some sort of bacteria. Antibiotics were prescribed. 2 days after starting the antibiotics her patch seemed to improve, no longer constant biting/licking and after a week fur was noticeably regrowing so everything seemed fine. Also while we missed it before hand that she was not herself we now noticed she was more playful/energetic. Also her fur felt softer and not so dry/coarse.

Shortly after the first patch healed up she had another round patch of fur missing this time from on her back left leg. We waited a bit and along with the constant biting/licking she seemed to become lethargic, not her playful self and often panting/heavy breathing even when lying down relaxed. Another vets trip and all they say suggest is food allergies or something. They prescribed antibiotics for 7 days, antihistamine and a antibiotic spray. I decided to not give the antibiotics and just try to calm the itching/irritation she had with the spays. This seemed to be going well, she stopped biting/licking the area like before, however it did not grow back like before. She seemed to be regressing, while no patch of fur have appeared she does have some dry flaky skin at the site, and shes lost her energy/apatite. Dry nose, fur like straw. I give her the antibiotics and the fur improves, no patch and it feels soft.

Now though her problems seem to be increasing. She is definitely off her food/drink, energy levels way down. I thought she was just missing someone who had recently moved out but now I'm worried its something more. Her nose has developed some discoloration and she is wanting to do less and less. She will lay there lightly panting with a slight wheeze. Her eyes are a little blood shot and at times she seems a bit confused. The really worrying thing is she has snapped at us several times in the past couple of weeks, one moment I'm stroking her then she will either growl lightly and snap or just snap. She has never bitten down, just got close then instantly she seems to come to her senses and wag her tail and lick my hand. Each time she instantly stops after the initial snap and looks sheepish/remorseful, she knows it was wrong. I am now worried about petting her because I don't know if/when she will zone out for a moment and snap. In the past she has played with dogs in the area even though I tried to stop her mixing with the local packs. Even though she has had her rabies shot prior to her problems, im very concerned..

[Nautilus05]

What's her living environment like? Is she allowed to run around, and play lots, or is she more confined?

I'm no vet, but stress is one thing that struck me while reading your post.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Nautilus05

[Bikkii]

If I was you I would get a Rabies test straight away. 3-4 of her symptoms sound like rabies symptoms. I know you said she has had her shot but hey check anyway for hers and your families well being.

[ArtfulD]

She lives in a large house and has 24/7 access to a large garden (we are on 1 rai of land). Previously she managed to get out into the soi a lot due to my maid not being concerned with Beebo wandering onto the main road and mixing with packs of dogs. I know she enjoys being out but I cant rely on her to come back and not to wander off to potentially dangerous areas so I have made an effort to keep her in more. We have always played a lot with her indoors but now she seems to be not interested, my girlfriend brought her dog over to play but Beebo just avoids it. I take her for walks around the village on a leash which she seems to enjoy.

[meatboy]

for a start i would change your vet,then get the new one to do a blood test.

has the dog been clipped,

ours when he was 2yrs.old we had him clipped and within weeks he had some nasty looking soars which he kept licking and biting,the vet came and took some blood,then asked us if we had changed his food,it could be hot spots[look it up] and asked to see the shampoo we were useing.

bingo that was it the shampoo we had is not for thai dogs so we changed it to [pezzio] which is a medicated herbal shampoo manufactered in thailand.good luck.

[ArtfulD]

for a start i would change your vet,then get the new one to do a blood test.

has the dog been clipped,

ours when he was 2yrs.old we had him clipped and within weeks he had some nasty looking soars which he kept licking and biting,the vet came and took some blood,then asked us if we had changed his food,it could be hot spots[look it up] and asked to see the shampoo we were useing.

bingo that was it the shampoo we had is not for thai dogs so we changed it to [pezzio] which is a medicated herbal shampoo manufactered in thailand.good luck.

She has not been clipped, after looking up hot spots the areas of missing fur do look like it could have been that. I will try that shampoo you recommend, thank you. While the fur patchs do seem healed now for the most part (some dry flaky skin remains) my other concerns about her behaviour still remain. She slept all night, and this morning reluctantly ate some food/water. She seemed to be in a good mood even though not as lively as before, so I tried to play with her by using my foot on one of her toys and "wrestle" her for it...15 seconds later she snarls and snaps...ive played with her like this countless times before and never any problems. Now I dare not touch/play with her, even though her snaps never touch and she shows remourse instantly afterwards. We took her for a small walk around the village for 10mins now shes back in bed sleeping.

[meatboy]

get that blood test done for peace of mind,the so called hot spots on ours was the same as yours,healing up one week then coming back shortly after.

as for ours being clipped we were only trying to make him comfortable in the heat as he has a double coat.never again.

[Cuban]

When some dogs are under-stimulated they become fixated on repetitive actions to relieve the monotony of life without a job, dogs have always been human companions and generally don't enjoy sitting around doing nothing like cats. Dogs need to be part of the action.

So there may indeed be nothing wrong in terms of skin/parasites/infection now (an old spot of Mange/Canine-scabies‎) and it just be a patch of skin that is easily reached and licked. In this case training and negative re-enforcement would be the action required.

One of our dogs had a cut paw which was treated and just needed to left alone to heal, there is no magic "drug" in dog saliva that is better than the sprays we used, but when left alone the dog would lick, as is their nature from times before human-medical-intervention. It took a few hours of my intermittent appearance (I was watching from a concealed distance) and a few "leave-it" commands, as I left the dog looked as his paw, looked at where I had come from, and laid down to sleep.

For the skin/fur: I would suggest including raw mackerel in the dog's diet. You mention you are Soi Muslim, we used to live there close to the Animal Hospital (which we found very good). The Tesco store a few minutes away often sells of cheap mackerel at the end of the day, I would often come home from work via the store and our dogs would have the fish as is after I had removed the dorsal spine and other sharper parts near the vent and front fins. As long as it is not frozen our dogs love mackerel.

I will guess that the vet has sold you Furmeg 3 as a skin improver. compare the amount of oils in a 10 Baht capsule to a whole fish ? Common sense really.


On shampoos - It's my firm believe that many people get fixated on shampooing their dogs far too frequently (driven by advertising and applying human standards) we are now in rural Issan and the dogs have the run of fields and river, our Golden loves the water but we comb and brush him more than shampoo. He is clean, smells fine and has great skin.

Where does your dog sleep? As Thailand is hot, dogs will seek a cool place and this often means a tiled or concrete floor. Over time this can wear down fur and cause pressure sores, dry rough elbow calluses are a typical example. I found a raised bamboo bed gave better air circulation and was a good solution.

Because of the behaviour changes a blood test for rabies would be wise if only to rule out that as a possible cause.

[Nautilus05]

I found a raised bamboo bed gave better air circulation and was a good solution.

I know this isn't my thread, but thanks for that tip. I never even thought of a nice raised bamboo table as a bed for my dogs, but I'm sure they'd absolutely love it. I'll have to grab one or two of those tables. Thanks again.

[meatboy]

I found a raised bamboo bed gave better air circulation and was a good solution.

I know this isn't my thread, but thanks for that tip. I never even thought of a nice raised bamboo table as a bed for my dogs, but I'm sure they'd absolutely love it. I'll have to grab one or two of those tables. Thanks again.

ours like's to sleep on our sealy posturepedic bed between me and the mrs.on his back legs in the air with the mrs.scratching his tummy till he goes to sleep,air con on,3rawhide bones and his toy companion.dinky by his side who said its a dogs life.

[Patsycat]

Men, act so manly when in fact they are big soft lumps!!

[LeCharivari]

for a start i would change your vet,then get the new one to do a blood test.

(edited)

Ditto - tell the new vet the complete history, including not giving the meds, and have a full blood work up and skin samples taken. Until you've got the results, which should only be a couple of days, anything else is speculation.

[bina]

first of all to the person who suggested rabies test; there is no such thing unless the animal is dead; and even if they test it could come out false positive because she's been vaccinated.

i would think an xray of lungs, nasal passages, head, check for cancer, - the changed nose colour, weakness, patches of fur missing, behavioral changes, wheezing and panting, it all sounds much more like soemthing in the head area, and very similar to symptoms ive seen with dogs with tumours in head (brain/nasal etc)... dont jump to conclusions it could also be something really simple like a parasite infection or one of the tick fever diseases or many things all together, as one disease causees the immune system to break down so that there are other problems that develop.

change vets, stop all treatments, get real checkup from vet hospital, take temperature, stool sample, etc...

try to feed simple foods like lamb and rice/ or along that sort, to rule out also food allergies, but i dont think its that. there is just to much deteriation and behavior stuff going along with that.

good luck

[Nautilus05]

Quick bump. Did you by chance manage to figure out what the issue is / was?

Asking because one of my dogs growled at me today for the first time ever. I gave both my dogs the same amount of treats, and instead of eating his own, he decided to go steal from the other one, so I gave him hell for it. That sparked a vicious growl from him, like I've never seen him do before. Only lasted a second, but still.

He's also losing hair. I know full well it's due to parasitic mites, and I think I have that resolved now, because he doesn't scratch or bite himself anymore really. He's back to being healthy, and fully of energy, but still losing hair. And that growl caught me off guard.

Anyway, did you ever find out what the issue with your dog was?

Edited November 4, 2013 by Nautilus05

[Groadie666]

I didn't read what everyone else wrote, but it could be Mange.