Hi all,
I need some help. My 8ish year old miniature pinscher’s skin is an absolute mess. On the recommendations of many, many people, I decided to switch her over to a grain free diet back in November. I chose Castor & Pollux’s grain free because it came in small bites and also rated 5 stars. After about a week or two of eating this food, I noticed that she was starting to have some hair loss on her legs and also seemed to be developing dandruff. It progressed to hair loss on her ears, between her eyes, and now her belly. Not significant hair loss, mind you, but definitely thinner. The dandruff is horrendous and she actually has scabs on her ears and legs. At first I thought it was an allergy to something in the food, so I switched her over to Taste of the Wild, which my other 3 large dogs eat. It didn’t seem to help. I took her to the vet two weeks ago for the skin issue (and for antibiotics for a bite from my other dog, but that’s another story). The vet didn’t think it was allergy related. Naturally he wanted to do upwards of $200 worth of testing to determine what it was. I’m sorry, but I just don’t have that kind of money. I love my dogs, but I also have children to feed and clothe! I agreed to a skin scraping, but that yielded no results. As the vet put it, “there were no mites found.” Which apparently does not mean it’s not sarcoptic mange. He wanted to treat her anyway, because frankly I just don’t have the money to do half a dozen other tests. I decided to hold off on mange treatment for several reasons: 1)none of my other dogs have any signs 2)my children and I don’t have any signs and 3)it’s not gotten worse, it’s unchanged in the last several weeks and I’ve seen sarcoptic mange before, I know that would get worse. I did have another dog with an unknown skin issue back in October. My long hair greyhound mix had random spots of what looked almost like bug bites and also had random patches of dandruff. After a week and a half of antibiotics, her skin completely cleared up. This is another reason why I don’t think my min pin has mange. My vet also suggested ringworm (an $85 test!) but I’m on the same page as the mange. There are no other symptoms on any of the living beings in my house. I still feel firmly that it’s either an allergy to something in her food or it’s some sort of deficiency in her diet. She’s been on Clavamox for 10 days now and while her skin hasn’t gotten any better, it also hasn’t gotten worse. I’m very leery of just loading her up with meds and hoping they work (like the vet wants to do with the ivermectin). She’s never had a very good digestive system and I really don’t want to make her sick from medications. If anyone has any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it! I’ve started researching supplements, I really think that’s going to be what I try next. What are the best supplements for skin? Thank you all for your help in advance!
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