What does bald spots on skin mean?

Hello guys!
It's nice to be back on this forum after so long.
There has been so much going on around in our household. We moved, and all of our fishes made it safe and sound and today I'm here to ask a question in regards to our new furry one.

He's name is Jade, she's 5 months, 45lbs. She's fed twice a day as recommended: 3 3/4 C of Fromm Puppy Gold for Large breed dogs and her fish oil supplement.
About 2 months ago, I noticed a pimple like bump on the top of her head and thought nothing of it. A few days later I noticed a lot of scratching and the bump was gone, all she had was a bald spot in its place. As the weeks went by, her coat got very dry and flaky and we noticed bite marks of her own on her back legs. Again didn't make much about it as 1. She likes to lay down to sleep on the vents where the hot air comes out thus causing the dry skin
2. She had been having accidents in her cage due to giardia. And required bathing causig her skin to dry (not any more though, she's fully potty trained now and giardia tested negative as in Nov 8).
3. Giardia itself causes dry skin on dogs

We took her to the vet number of times and she finally was cleared fr
Giardia and tested negative for mites and the patches are not red or raised bumps to associate them with ringworm fungus.

So with this in mind, do you guys have an idea of what this bald patches on her skin mean? I mean they are all over her body, they are just bare skin the size of a pea and are not infected or dry they are just bald. No fur on them

Additionally, I am putting Neem oil on her skin daily to help with the issue

 

Check on Demodex, which is cause by a mite btw. Every dog carries these but dogs with a weakened immune system (by Giardia) they can start causing problems.
Our labrador first had Giardia and Demodex afterwards grrrrr. Regards Aad

 

That's what I thought it was, but the vet tested and she said the mites test was negative.

 

My sister once had a puppy that had a very bad case of mange (which she had him treated for and he survived to a ripe old age... you couldn't tell he'd had mange as a pup).

https://pets.webmd.com/dogs/ss/slideshow-skin-problems-in-dogs

It's entirely possible your pup has allergies too.

 

Did any of you guys tried the borax & hydrogen peroxide remedie?
People have recommended that to me but I'm hesitant about it, that's why I started using the Neem oil.

You are on to something tabbycat, I thought so too. The vet put her on medicated food: Royal Canin HE for puppies as part of the giardia treatment and it was about the same time she started developing the bald patches.

 

You can try soothing your pups skin with a bath in colloidal oatmeal. It's safe for pets.

Edit; Click on the dog skin problems link in that web md article. It lists several different doggie skin problems with pictures.

 

That's what I thought it was, but the vet tested and she said the mites test was negative.

Did they a skin scraping until the skin was bleeding?
Chewing on legs/feet, scratching on ears, flapping with ears? Particular smell from the skin?

Sorry to hear your pup has health problems.


Edit: sorry just read that she bites on her legs.
I have a dog with severe allergies and the symptoms sounded familiar to me. Allergic dogs can be prone to skin infections, both yeast and bacterial, you often can smell it. These infections can be very itchy.
Just for your info.
Hope for you it's not a chronic condition although my "pup" does well now with specific food and a bit of medication.

 

Yes they did the skin scrape, which to my amazement hasn't healed. Minimum hair has come up from it.
No smell, we clean her ears weekly with a solution, I forgot the name. And yes, she chews on her arms and legs.

She's been wearing an e-collar for 3 days now because I don't want her to get the spots infected.


Thank you!

 

I edited my post, you probably missed it because your answer was already there before my edit got posted.

 

Did they a skin scraping until the skin was bleeding?
Chewing on legs/feet, scratching on ears, flapping with ears? Particular smell from the skin?

Sorry to hear your pup has health problems.


Edit: sorry just read that she bites on her legs.
I have a dog with severe allergies and the symptoms sounded familiar to me. Allergic dogs can be prone to skin infections, both yeast and bacterial, you often can smell it. These infections can be very itchy.
Just for your info.
Hope for you it's not a chronic condition although my "pup" does well now with specific food and a bit of medication.

I have no idea what to look for when it comes to food allergies. I know that the food she's eating now contains rice and Brewers rice which to my understanding could cause an allergy.

What are some symptoms to look for to see if she has a good allergy?

 

If you suspect the food, you could try switching her back to what she was eating previously and see if she begins improving. Stopping the food is probably the best way to see if she is allergic to it. It'll probably take a few days to get out of her system.

 

INGREDIENTS
Duck, Chicken Meal, Chicken, Oatmeal, Pearled Barley, Brown Rice, Menhaden Fish Meal, Lamb, Potatoes, Dried Tomato Pomace, Dried Whole Egg, Chicken Fat, Salmon Oil, Cheese, Flaxseed, Brewers Dried Yeast, Alfalfa Meal, Carrots, Lettuce, Celery, Chicken Cartilage, Calcium Sulfate, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Monocalcium Phosphate, DL-Methionine, L-Tryptophan, Taurine, Chicory Root Extract, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Sodium Selenite, Sorbic Acid (Preservative), Vitamins, Minerals, Probiotics.

 

If you suspect the food, you could try switching her back to what she was eating previously and see if she begins improving. Stopping the food is probably the best way to see if she is allergic to it. It'll probably take a few days to get out of her system.

For example, since the skin problem started she has been on two different foods. The Fromm, which ingredients I just posted and the royal Canin medicated food. She was on royal for a little bit more than a month. And I just switched back to Fromm, the one she was originally on about 2 weeks ago. I have not seen an improvement yet.

Should I get her off that one too, and tried something different. Perhaps a grain free?

 

I would go back to your vet, it sounds like it's an allergy to me but only the vet will be able to find out what she's allergic to.
The sooner you take her the better as the more she scratches or bites her skin the more likely she is to cause an infection.

 

I have to agree with Coradee. If she's having reactions to more than one kind of food, you need to know what exactly it is.

 

Diagnosing allergies is not that simple.
First step is done, excluding parasites. Normal step next is to exclude bacterial and yeast overgrowth (needs coloring of skin cells but is a test that can be done in minutes, often they use adhesive tape to collect the cells).

If everything is negative (including negative for fleas, one flea bite can cause weeks of itch if dogs are allergic to them) it's time to rule out food allergies.

You'll find more about it if you Google 'elimination diet'. I'll happily explain it to you but it's a long story. Feel free to ask if you need more info.

Lab tests for food allergies are available but not yet very reliable.

If an elimination diet (or two) doesn't improve things it's time to test for environmental allergies.

What it makes it hard is that dogs can have both food and environmental allergies (the often have!) . Which means that if an elimination diet doesn't give relieve it could mean the dogs diet still contains allergens or also suffers from environmental allergies at the same time.

Your dog is a bit young for allergies to show up but mine had symptoms as young as 10 weeks (the pimples and bald spots, being itchy and stinky slimy stool). When switched to a raw food without wheat he was fine for two years.
He is having multiple allergies now: wheat, rice, corn, chicken, duck (and birds that are in the same family), pollen, mold and house dust mites and some others.

So basically they can be allergic to anything but I think it's most likely coming from the proteins.

For an elimination diet your best bet would be things she never ate before, for instance rabbit potato based kibble - and no treats at all during that period except for that kibble.


If you think it could be allergies working with the vet is preferred. The bacterial and yeast infections my dog suffered from made it hard to determine if he was responding negatively to food, which required testing of his skin flora several times during the elimination diet to rule out itch due to infections.

Curious, did you treat recently against ticks/fleas? Recent vaccinations that could have triggered bad response?

 

I would go back to your vet, it sounds like it's an allergy to me but only the vet will be able to find out what she's allergic to.
The sooner you take her the better as the more she scratches or bites her skin the more likely she is to cause an infection.

I understand, we also mentioned it to her vet, the last time she was there. She wasn't cncerned about a food allergy because she never heard a case of a allergic reaction to the food she prescribed. That was her answer, that's why I discarted a good allergy, she mentioned it could be ringworm fungus but because she hasn't shown any other signs of redness, irritation, raised bumps other than the loss of hair she wasn't sure and told us to wait.

The thing is, I don't wanna wait, I don't want this problem to become a bigger problem. At first I thought it was demodex and found the "borax&perioxide" remedy, didn't do it because I'm afraid her coat would bleach lol she's black. & I don't know how effective it is. Someone at a wellness store recommended me the Neem oil which is good for bacterial infections, fungus and is good for skin in general so I'm trying that.


Maybe I should just bring her to a different vet and see what they tell me.

 

At this stage I would not use home remedies as you don't know what you're treating & could inadvertently make it worse.
Please take her to a vet, a different one if you're not confident in the one you've been to & get a proper diagnosis.

 

Diagnosing allergies is not that simple.
First step is done, excluding parasites. Normal step next is to exclude bacterial and yeast overgrowth (needs coloring of skin cells but is a test that can be done in minutes, often they use adhesive tape to collect the cells).

If everything is negative (including negative for fleas, one flea bite can cause weeks of itch if dogs are allergic to them) it's time to rule out food allergies.

You'll find more about it if you Google 'elimination diet'. I'll happily explain it to you but it's a long story. Feel free to ask if you need more info.

Lab tests for food allergies are available but not yet very reliable.

If an elimination diet (or two) doesn't improve things it's time to test for environmental allergies.

What it makes it hard is that dogs can have both food and environmental allergies (the often have!) . Which means that if an elimination diet doesn't give relieve it could mean the dogs diet still contains allergens or also suffers from environmental allergies at the same time.

Your dog is a bit young for allergies to show up but mine had symptoms as young as 10 weeks (the pimples and bald spots, being itchy and stinky slimy stool). When switched to a raw food without wheat he was fine for two years.
He is having multiple allergies now: wheat, rice, corn, chicken, duck (and birds that are in the same family), pollen, mold and house dust mites and some others.

So basically they can be allergic to anything but I think it's most likely coming from the proteins.

For an elimination diet your best bet would be things she never ate before, for instance rabbit potato based kibble - and no treats at all during that period except for that kibble.


If you think it could be allergies working with the vet is preferred. The bacterial and yeast infections my dog suffered from made it hard to determine if he was responding negatively to food, which required testing of his skin flora several times during the elimination diet to rule out itch due to infections.

Curious, did you treat recently against ticks/fleas? Recent vaccinations that could have triggered bad response?

Yes, it makes sense what you are suggesting. I am
Familiar with allergies as my daughter used to have food and environmental allergies. She outgrew them fortunately.
She did get vaccines and just recently got laptosporosis, DAPP, and Lyme.
And also got the 1st line thick and flea prevention. She was tested for fleas and thinks and was also negative

 

I'm not a vet but saying dogs never responded with allergies to the food she advised sounds kind of weird to me. Wheat and chicken are the things dogs often respond too, unless it's hydrolyzed chicken protein, but I imagine even then dogs can be allergic to it.

I also was told to wait. But it only got worse. Went to another vet and voila, good testing and the first elimination diet and 'challenge' proved problems with wheat.

Trust your inner feeling

 

.

I was a bit shocked to hear her say that about the food allergy but I wanted to trust her, and that she knew what she was doing, but you're right, seeing a different vet seems like the better option.

Thank you guys, that's why I love this forum so much!

I'll keep you all posted and happy turkey day!

 

Curious what food you did get from the vet?

 

Curious what food you did get from the vet?

It was prescription food: medicated Royal Canin HE puppy

 

So both of these pictures are from today. I figure it will be good you guys can see the patches. They are not red, bumpy or infected. Just bald
She has been wearing the e collar because I don't want her to keep biting and get her skin Infected.

 

I wonder if she might be stressed out too. Sometimes dogs will lick at their paws when their stressed out. Sometimes they do it when their bored. It could be psychological.

 

It doesn't look familiar to me, actually I'm glad it doesn't look the way the allergies did present itself in my dog; in the beginning there were random bald spots but there were more symptoms than that. Which is a good thing I guess.

Demodex/mange can be missed with scrapings. Fungal? Thinking out loud.

Now I saw the pictures I can't rule out allergies but it seems less likely to me.

Clueless...

 

It doesn't look familiar to me, actually I'm glad it doesn't look the way the allergies did present itself in my dog; in the beginning there were random bald spots but there were more symptoms than that. Which is a good thing I guess.

Demodex/mange can be missed with scrapings. Fungal? Thinking out loud.

Now I saw the pictures I can't rule out allergies but it seems less likely to me.

Clueless...

That's how I feel. When I looked up pictures for all the stuff you guys brought up, none seemed to fit but the allergy was making sense regardless, I scheduled her an appointment to see a new vet in the hopes for an answer.

A dog breeder, friend of mine said it could also be spider bites. The thing is, that none seem to fit because a bit will create an infection and she doesn't have any. Not that I want it to get infected but you know what I mean.

 

I wonder if she might be stressed out too. Sometimes dogs will lick at their paws when their stressed out. Sometimes they do it when their bored. It could be psychological.

I wouldn't rule this one out either, although we try to keep her busy and entertained so that she doesn't get hyper or destructive , it could well be.
I have not noticed her licking her paws specifically, just the biting on her legs but I'll keep an eye on it.

 

Let us know what the other vet tells you. I'm curious to know what she is suffering from.

 

So sorry I've been away for a while but a lot good things have happened.

So we decided to hold on to doing anything regarding the bald spots and went ahead to have her spayed before she would go into her 1st heat.
She recovered very quickly from the surgery and she's back to being her happy self.

After the surgery we focused on feeding her a grain free and poultry free quality food and it has been almost 8 weeks since we switched.

She has improved 100% from the bald spots. We noticed that the parts where the vets shaved to perform the surgery are growing, and are still a little noticible but progressing.

She has gained so much weight and she is growing and thriving.


In conclusion I resume to think that in fact it was a food intolerance.

She is now 7 months aand 60lbs.

 

What a great news! Thanks for the update
She us looking good!