Belly Rash and Excessive Shedding

[Carson716]

Ok, lazyboy... I've got a new one for you.

We moved into our house about 4 months ago and since then the dogs have been primarily inside as it's taken us a while to get the yard dog proofed and I happen to like having them with me whenever I am home. Since we've been here, I've been able to get Scetti's allergies under control for the most part - we're experimenting with different veggies to see which ones don't cause him to have a reaction - carrots seem to make good treats and he will eat them by the handful. Unfortunately, Harley is now having issues.

She's had a bit of a rash for the past couple months - nothing too serious at first...just a bit of an eyesoar for us, but over the past two to three weeks it has gotten worse. We have switched her food (we had her on Scetti's sensitive skin/stomach food and we thought that maybe against all odds, she might be allergic to something in that), but that doesn't seem to have helped. We've been giving her benedryl and putting an aloe vera/benedryl rub on it which doesn't seem to be helping at all either. I gave her a bath Wednesday night and noticed that she lost a ton of hair. My husband gave her a bath a couple weeks ago and mentioned this to me, but I wrote it off as maybe the temperature change affecting her coat - we've had a bit of warm weather here lately. I noticed the skin on her back is flaky, but not red and puffy like her stomach, and she's not going bald, but she is definitely losing an unusual amount of hair. I don't think it's parasitic as Scetti is completely unaffected by whatever ails her and they share a kennel all day. I'm thinking that perhaps it's eczema. What are your thoughts?

I've read off several sites that rubbing a green tea poultice on it might help with the redness and puffiness... what are your thoughts on this as well?

Thanks in advance. I'm at a loss.

[layzyboy]

Could be a couple things- all of which mean a trip to the vet.  Mange is a possibility- is she itchy or not?  We are getting into shedding season for them, and I'm always amazed how much undercoat Buddy actually has after a cold winter, is her coat looking thin?    She's losing hair, is it patchy or symetrical (all over both sides evenly).  She might be hypothyroid- how old is she and does she seem to be gaining weight?  Allergies seem unlikely in this case, but not impossible, same with an uncomplicated skin infection.  I'd bring her in see what the vet says and go from there; wish I could help more, but there are a bunch of ways this could go, and its gonna need hands on to figure it out.
If you have an anti-seborrheic/ antibacterial shampoo from Scetti, you could try bathing her twice in the next week with it and see if it makes a difference. 

[Carson716]

I was afraid you'd say something to that effect. We're in between vets right now...I have an issue with the way our current vet has been charging us for services we're not getting. So we're looking for a new vet.

It doesn't look like mange to me... at least not a kind I've seen before - I've been there with anther dog. The hair-loss is all over her back from the base of her neck to the base of her tail. She's not going bald, just thinning so far, but her back is peeling as well which is what is the bigger concern for me. Her coat looks thin in spots, but like I said, I didn't really notice until I gave her a bath Wednesday night and got to seeing how much hair she is losing. Her belly is itchy, although her back is no more so than usual. Her belly is RED and puffy... I mean bright red, but that's because she's licked it raw. It'll look ok (by ok I mean a bit pink, but not too bad) when she comes in or when we first get home in the evenings, but she'll lay down and lick it until I'm sure the skin's going to come off. I try to stop her when I can, but that's all she wants to do.

She's 3 years old - no weight gain...she's solid muscle.

And I understand. There's only so much you can do without actually seeing the dog. Thanks for your help. If you have any other tidbits you'd like to throw out there, I'm all ears.

I'm also still waiting on that allergy writeup. 

[Carson716]

Just an update...

Her belly is looking much better! It's apparently the blanket/detergent we had put in their kennel that is causing the irritation. She spent the night outside Friday night as we didn't get home until 2 AM and by Saturday morning I could tell a huge difference. Its not nearly as red as it has been. We left them inside today as the weather is kind of nasty, but I took the blanket out and left one of their pads in there that's made of different material and hasn't been washed in the detergent yet.

Now let's just hope they don't shred the pad.

[layzyboy]

That would do it.  Glad you figured it.  It's often hard to pinpoint contact allergies, but it sounds like you nailed it.  Still unlikely that an allergy would cause hair loss, but  for that part, I'd just watch her for the next few weeks, because its definately shedding season right now. Anyone who saysthat short haired breeds don't make an undercoat should look at how much I just stripped off of Bonny- I've got a hairball the size of my dog!!

[Carson716]

The rash is gone!! 
Wish I had taken before and after pics.

The shedding appears to just be normal winter undercoat shedding. She's not forming any huge bald spods or anything - just losing a ton of hair. I think I'm going to get one of those bathing gloves that helps massage the loose hair out.

For the moment I think I can say that I have two healthy, happy dogs!! 

[jikeller]

Hi All, I'm new to the board and just stumbled upon this post, because my 9 Month year old Pit Bull female is have the exact same symptoms. It started a few weeks ago. We went out of town for a weekend and left her with a friend. She was well taken care of. When we returned to her on Sunday she had a large clump of dead hair in between her shoulders. We combed it all out and her hair looked very thin. Since then she has continued to lose hair on her back and sides. You can see a lot of dead hair that has not yet come off. Where the hair has come off it's very thin... 
This past week we noticed the skin on her chest has turned very red.  She also has some red skin on her back where the hair is thin.
We took her to the Vet on the first sign of hair loss between the shoulders and the Vet blamed the front line.  Although this is the first time frontline has affected her and now it’s her back and sides. 
She does not seem to itch much or lick…  at least not when she’s in our sight. 
Any Ideas?

[layzyboy]

I have heard of topical flea products causing hair loss at the site, but it doesn't seem to go beyond, whee the stuff was applied.   Also have your vet check for mites, easy and fast to do in the clinic, and "bully breeds" seem to be susceptible to them.  I would try  a different flea control product next time and see if she's better on it.  Also welcome to the board- I'm supposed to get an email notice when someone writes on the medical board, but I missed this one, I'll check my preferences.   

[Tags:]

GoogleTagged: excessive shedding pit bull cause female hair loss hair loss product hair loss mange shedding how tell difference the unt health science hair loss shampoo black red nail art and rash pit bulls tummy dog skin conditions
why pitbulls lose hair stomach rashes pitbulls get under belly that pit bull rashes stomach pit bull belly bald dog has rash belly hair shedding and bull terrier rash pitbull excessive shedding belly rash bull terrier excessive shedding severe rash dogs belly how controll bull terrier excesive shedding