Question by raidergirl1965: Golden retriever losing hair on his back and tail?
We have an 8 year old Golden that has lost hair on his back and tail and gets goopy eyes. We have tried frontline, advantage, and advantix. He has been to 4 different vets over the last 2 years and nothing they prescribe has helped him he has been given eye ointment, eye drops, several different prescriptions nothing seems to work for him. He is a wonderful dog very well behaved and loving. We just feel sorry for him because he always seems to be itchy and biting at himself. We have gotten “bitter tasting spray” to spray on him but when that wears off he is right back at it. He gets an oatmeal bath once a month (we were told bathing him too much will take away the oils in his skin) We give him benidryl but after a few days that doesn’t seem to help him much either. Please any sugestions out there are welcome. We love him and do not want him suffering. We have spent a few thousand dollars trying to help him and would be happy to spend more if it will help him. They just keep telling us he has very bad allergies.
Shelby: he has been to 4 different vets in the last 2 years. We have tried every food that has been recomended to us by vets and pet food stores including all natural and organic foods.
All the vets we have been to have private practice small vets. I would not take my pet to the large chain. He has had injections they lasted maybe a day or 2.

Father of 2: thank you. I’m going to start trying olive oil tomorrow. He has already eaten tonight or I would start now.
Freezin: I’m going to start looking for that shampoo tomorrow thanks.
Jimbs: What do I do with the liserene? feed it to him or put it on his fur?

Best answer:

Answer by Shelby G
could be products ur using, food. . .we cant tell though we cant see or help ur dog so take him to a vet.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AkAEin7wKYzJPBD3FtL2If3sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20081212203341AAusoGh

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Question by Pudgygirl: My Pug is losing his hair in patches…?
I have taken him to the Vet. 3 times now and he has given him a Cortisone shot for allergies, next he put him on Predizone since the Cortisone shot didn’t work and placed him on a Prescription Diet, and our last visit he did a skin scraping as well as blood work to test his thyroid. The skin scraping results showed 2 types of problems, one being staph and some sort of bacterial infection. Fortunately his thyroid is fine. He was then placed on 2 different antibiotics. The Staph infection is cleared up but he is still patchy, oh and they itch him like crazy. He doesn’t have demodectic mange, in case someone suspects that…..that was my first thought too.
Anyways…here’s my question….we recently moved to our new home and this is when all this started…there is a small patch of persimmon trees in the backyard and I noticed he was eating some of the persimmons. Does anyone know what effect persimmons can have on a dog? I really suspect these persimmons could be a part of the problem because I raked them all up the other day and have noticed that he’s not itching as much now that he doesn’t get to eat the persimmons.
Thanks for any help.
He’s 3 years old and there does seem to be some hair growing back in the patches. Benedryl has been his only relief but I hate to give it to him constantly.
You can bet that the trees are coming down regardless of whether they are the problem….they draw flies too!
Thank you so much for the many answers I am already receiving…they are all very helpful thus far.
Thanks to all that replied to this question…over the weekend my husband and I cut down all 7 trees, cleaned up the debris as well as used a tractor and removed the stumps and roots so that should take care of that problem! LOL
Thanks again!

Best answer:

Answer by Vet Tech
Honestly, your best bet at this point is to have bloodwork done for allergy testing. Your vet will draw the blood and send it off to VARL.

You will get a detailed list of everything your dog is allergic to and how severe each allergy is along with recommendations as to how to deal with the individual allergies.

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Question by Secours de Chat: Why is my cat losing hair?
Can someone please advise me what can cause hair loss over most of the lower portion of the cat’s body…basically from the neck down, and sores that resemble mosquito bites? He is healthy otherwise. Good color, good eating habits, gets good food, playful, and his stools are fine. He doesn’t have worms either.

Yes, he’s been “vetted” and I fear that’s how we wound up in this mess. I had this previously healthy cat neutered, and since three days afterward he’s been in THIS condition. Three vets later now, $ 1600, they’re still telling me it’s a flea allergy. I DON’T HAVE FLEAS!!! I have seven cats. I have taken ALL of them to these three vets. One of said cats even has a documented history of flea allergy, yet she shows NO symptoms of hair loss. Now I’m broke and he’s STILL almost naked. I use Revolution on the dogs. Frontline on the cats, and my house AND my entire yard are treated faithfully because of my older cat’s flea allergy. Way back when, she went bald…no sores, just bald. Since then we’ve had no flea’s.

Can someone give me ANY ideas? I believe I now have what appears to be cat number two coming down with same symptoms. They’ve had skin tests and the whole nine yards…NOTHING! I don’t know where to turn and it’s getting cold. My cat is an insider but he’s freezing to death and I’ve resorted to putting a sweater on him. I need help and obviously something is seriously lacking in the vet department in my area. Surely this can’t be the first case of sores and hair loss from something besides a flea allergy on the planet?!?!

I can add pics if it could help……

Best answer:

Answer by Cherokee
I am not a vet, but in my area, many pets are starting to be diagnosed with MRSA. Many here do not know how to treat it. I am hoping and praying that this is not the case with your cats! Good luck to you and your kitties!

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Question by dudefromnewmexico666: I posted a question a while ago about my dog losing his fur, well I went to the vet and she had no answers?
here is my original question with pictures of my dogs fur loss/sores:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuDbL9DGwpjQiRjKcK0bLsLsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080810145151AAcdoF9

The vet did a skin scrape and said there weren’t any parasites like mites so it isn’t mange and that the skin she scraped where there was sores were normal eukaryotic cells, no bacterial or fungal cells indicating infection. She gave me an expensive shampoo which I’ve been giving Jasper, his fur seems to be growing back in but today I noticed he had another sort of scab. This is very aggravating spending a lot of money at the vet and getting no answers. The vet suggested if it didn’t get better I could try going to a dermatologist. She said she didn’t think it was allergies. So what is wrong with my dog and what do you suggest I do?? I feel like I’ve tried everything, shampoos, getting him soothing creams, hot spot treatment, giving him fish oil with his food to help his coat. I don’t know what else to do. What do you think?
My dog eats Canidae and has since I’ve had him (for about a year)..I have a bag of Wellness I could try switching him to, but I thought Canidae was a fairly good brand and it hasn’t seemed to cause him problems before. The only other things he really eats is trader joes peanut butter dog treats and liver treats (when I give him his medicine), sometimes some cheese or peanut butter in his kong and he gets bully sticks sometimes. I might try changing the cleaning products. I don’t think he’s been in any stress, nothing different is going on and personality wise he seems the same as always.

Best answer:

Answer by happy2luvk9s
Get a second opinion from another vet

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Question by NewEra: My lab mix 9 month old puppy is itching and losing hair with bumps on him?
He’s a lab mix, not sure what else he has in him. We got him when he was about 5 months old, he had thinner hair around his eyes then and his hair wasn’t really thick but it didn’t look bad. Over time he’s lost more and more hair, especially around his eyes, under his arm pits, and on the inside of his back legs. In the past few days we’ve noticed he’s losing a lot of hair on his chest now too, and more on his head/face and he’s getting bumps all over almost like hives on the side of his leg…

I brought him to the vet about a month ago, they did a skin scrape and said it wasn’t mange or anything. The vet said she wasn’t sure what it could be, so she adviced me to upgrade my dog food to Nature’s Variety. I did so, and for weeks i’ve been feeding him that so I wouldn’t think it could be an allergy could it? Unless a dog can adapt and BECOME allergic to a dog food?

He’s also been itching a lot today, and biting himself as if it’s itching/irritating him today. I gave him his flea medicine (frontline) but I’m not sure if it could be something to do with fleas? I’m thinking it might be fleas or an allergy? Anyone have any ideas? I plan on bringing him to the vet, but was hoping i could try changing his diet first and see if there is an improvement.
He really started to get bad the past few days. I’ve had him on this dog food for weeks now.

Best answer:

Answer by K
It sounds like an allergy. It could be something in your house. Do you have carpets? Or, strange as it sounds, the dog could be allergic to itself. Highly unlikely but it does happen. My boyfriend’s dog was. She had to get shots on a regular basis to stay comfortable.

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