Natural Animal Health

[snoots]

help!!!!
My little yorkie has a terrible skin problem.he has spots all over his body and his fur is falling out.He does'nt have fleas.my vet has no real idea what the problem is and so far it has cost me over 300 pound in blood tests,and biopsys.he is on preds at the moment but they dont really help.All he does is scratch and sleep and its pitiful.I am at my wits end i just want the wee man to be happy and would be grateful for any help.

[jo]

Hi,
Have you asked your vet to do a skin scrape of your yorkie they can analyse it for any mite or mange etc, i would certainly ask them to do that. As there could be any number of reasons why he is itching.

[snoots]

he has had skin tests blood tests and 3 biopsys but still he scratches all the vet could tell me was he has an allergy to something,what that somethinh is he does'nt know.he does'nt have fleas,mites,mange or anything else of that ilk.thanks for your reply much appreciated
snoots and rudi

[jo]

Hi Snoots, has your vet discussed a condition called Atopica with you, our dog has this, he started scratching the day we bought him home, back and forth to the vets we went, put lotions on him nothing worked. Hypoallergenicc shampoos, you name it we have tried it. Well the conclusion was Atopica, it is an allergy it can be either to food, grass, pollen, or airbourne, the problem is it is hard to detect the cause. You can either get your vet to refer you to a pet skin dermatologist there are a few in the country. Average consultations are approx ?100 an hour they inject substances under the skin and see how your dog reacts to them. I read up on peoples responses to the treatment for this and noticed that they said the dogs itching had reduced by thirty percent after 9 months, but the dogs were still taking either atopica or steroids.We have not gone down that road. The drug called atopica is very expensive but the vets say that it has a good success rate. Our boy is on a steroid, i cant say i am too thrilled about that but it does relieve the itching and we have gradually reduced his recommended daily dose you should know that when taking steroids it does reduce your dogs immune system although our vet did not inform us of that. We did not decide to go with Atopica as we feel there has not been enough research done into it, but thats everybodys own preference. Now he is having half a steroid a day and some herbal remedys which are suitable for dogs with itchy skin, we also wash him in a shampoo for dogs which are on sterooids, basically we do everything we can to try and relieve his itching, we have even taken him off complete food and put him on fresh meat and normal kibble, i have spent hours upon hours reading up about atopica and basically it seems there is no real cure, but i would have a word with your vet about it, just to be sure, i mean your dog may not have anything like it at all, hope this helps.

[allan101]

Hi Friends,
My 11 yr old yorkie just started in the last 2 wks biting her leg and chewing her paws. I had just had her groomed and it seems to have gotten worse. She never had problems before - I last took her in June. Today I noticed the little leg is getting bare and both paws are getting bare. Her eyes seem swollen and she had bare spots on her side with bumps. I felt bumps in other spots but the hair is still there. She's eating okay. Doesn't eat as much as before. Is still active just not as much as before. I have made an appt. at the local vet but can't get in until Thursday. I'm getting very worried.

[astral_equines]

Hi in response to your post about your yorkie, Had some similar problems with my JR terrier. Worked out it was in connection to immune system prob after putting her on probiotics also changed her feed to meat only diet with no rice or cereals after talking to Karen Ruggles (who runs company i brought probiotics off) Hope your doggy is on the mend but if not this may be worth considering?