Hair loss on Tank's hind end

I'm posting a video of Tank's hind end and tail to show the hair loss he's displayed over the last couple of months. Now he is hypothyroid and this is a symptom or would be if his Thyroid levels were wacky--but they aren't.

I've done a full blood panel including a full thyroid panel and nothing is really off. His T4 is fine. T3 is a bit off and I'm waiting for my vet to get the notes from the pathologist about this, but I'd think if the T4 was fine and the T3 a bit off that I wouldn't be seeing this hair loss. All his other levels were fine, basically. It's not mange or mites or allergies that we can figure out as nothing has changed--unless he's allergic to the new flooring in the house (Oh God say that isn't possible). But I think if it were the floor, we'd see itching and we don't.

Nothing in his diet, life etc has changed. He has not become any lazier than usual or drinking more, etc. But he's definitely developing rat tail which he hasn't had in almost four years--he did have it when I first got him due to his thyroid being poorly regulated.

Any thoughts? I'm going to ask my vet what if anything she thinks and I've sent this video to my homeopathic vet.

Oh--and Juni kissed the camera lens just for you all....

Zoe's got hair loss on the back of her tail by her hind end, but that's due to scooting, which I now know is allergies. Could it be possible that he scoots when you're not looking and the hard floor is just harsher on it than the carpeting was?

Mel wrote:Zoe's got hair loss on the back of her tail by her hind end, but that's due to scooting, which I now know is allergies. Could it be possible that he scoots when you're not looking and the hard floor is just harsher on it than the carpeting was?

No, Mel. He never scoots. And he's not often out of my sight, the sight of my son or my husband. He's always with one of us as a rule. And I think there'd be redness if he was scooting. And the hair loss is more extensive than just his tail. It's his flanks as well.

if you've ruled out all the allergies, and the thyroid, could it be just a general alopecia?

TxAllieGrl wrote:if you've ruled out all the allergies, and the thyroid, could it be just a general alopecia?

I guess it could, Allie, but I'd think alopecia would be more general and not just from his waist down. But what do I know......

And maybe between his compromised immune system and his age, the hair just isn't growing any more or is falling out more rapidly? I dunno.

I was kinda thinking alopecia as well. Along the flanks, up the tail, and across the belly are patterns I have seen in dogs with more suppressed immune systems, or yeast, or allergies, or just old age. My aunt has a 17 year old doxie with complete hair loss on her tail and her underbelly. Just age.

He is still damn cute though. I love the look he gives the camera.

I don't know Blanche. My vet thought Bubba would have bald spots after his severe mange because of the damaged hair follicles. His hair grew back, but it is very thin, especially on the areas where the mange was the worst. If can't keep a harness or collar on him because it rubs him raw.

Is it just that one spot on the underside of his tail or is it patchy? I have a bunch of sites bookmarked from when Nell was a puppy and had a lot of hair loss. Diet, etc. didn't seem to help her at the time. Helped with the itching but she still continued to have hair loss. As she aged and became more healthy in general (she was kind of a sickly puppy) her coat improved drastically. Anyway, one thing I just read about on one of the sites I have saved is something called Alopecia Areata. Seems to be autoimmune related and involves hair loss, hyperpigmentation and some flakiness but without itching. Don't really know anything about it but may be worth looking up. It says it usually clears up on its own.

http://books.google.com/books?id=VKa2Wo3Wc-kC&pg=PA460&lpg=PA460&dq=Alopecia+areata+dog&source=bl&ots=Gc8BvduC-a&sig=wN3savXtMwRFkqos9limSVzBX_g&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eSUTT7niNKnn0QHn7J2NAg&sqi=2&ved=0CGAQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Alopecia%20areata%20dog&f=false

It's a weird hair loss. The hair along his thighs is thinning--not patchy,but definitely thinner. He's balding at the leg to body joint in the rear. Hair along underside of tail and top side is balding resulting in what's called rat tail (for obvious reasons although it's not totally bald yet). Hair around his bum is going bald. No issues with the front of his body.

The thinning and the rat tail are often typical of thyroid dogs that are poorly regulated or undiagnosed, but he's well regulated and we've known about his hypothyroid since he came into rescue. There's some "elephant hide" around his bum, but he's always had that. No pigmentation. In fact, his black belly has been beautifully pink and soft for a year or more now and still is that way. No itching and no smell.

I'll read up on alopecia areata. Thanks for the link, Amanda.

Is he on meds for his low thyroid? I know in humans some of the meds have hair loss as a side effect.

lisamak wrote:Is he on meds for his low thyroid? I know in humans some of the meds have hair loss as a side effect.

Yes, Lisa, he is. But he's been on them for years and his dosage went down after we got his prednisone down and his dosage hasn't changed in the last 2.5 years. It's quite possible that the combination of age, weather, prednisone (although he is now on only 1 mg of prednisolone also called Medrol every day or every other day depending on his itchiness) and thyroid have conspired to make him a Baldy Baines.

I also just discovered that he has been napping in front of my son's gas fireplace with his butt and tail right against the heat vent so he may be losing his butt and tail hair by cooking it off......When I came down and found him Ass to the Glass I made him move and Tucker said "Oh he does that all the time. He likes it".

Is it that he is actively losing hair from that area or is it more likely that regrowth after normal shedding is being impeded? I guess the best way to check is to brush him and compare how much loose hair is removed from the lusher parts of his coat against what is removed from the parts in question.

If it it definitely hair loss then I would be looking at a full blood panel (compare it with his last one.) If there is nothing obvious, then I would increase whatever supplements high in anti-oxidants that he can tolerate.

If it is more likely a retarded regrowth, check (which you have no doubt already done) for any abrasion or epidural thickening in those areas. Again if there is nothing obvious then try putting a low screen or barrier in front of the heater. (If he has been cooking his bum, you may need to start massage a light oil or something into the area to restimulate the abused hair follicles...)

My final thought is a bit of a stretch but I have a young girl here at the moment with a mild dermal infection which flared up worse after a course of ab's and scrapings determined that an opportunistic yeasty fungus has invaded the area, so she is now on a course of ab's plus anti-fungals. She is 5 months, so right at the immune system dip stage that some dogs go through. Given Tank's immune issues would it be worth a scraping to see if he too was harbouring something similar?

Pugsly had a low thyroid most of his life. Once a year or more if something else was going on, we would have blood work done. His thyroid range was always normal, but it wasn't until I moved back to Tennessee and was working with a new vet that he mentioned that while Pugsly's thyroid levels were showing in the normal range, he preferred to see the levels more on the higher end of the normal range when dogs are taking medicine. Pugsly had very thin hair for a couple of years and had always had a nice thick double coat. We raised his medicine up just .5mg and low and behold, he began growing hair where there had been none plus his hair came in thick again.

Puggered wrote:Is it that he is actively losing hair from that area or is it more likely that regrowth after normal shedding is being impeded? I guess the best way to check is to brush him and compare how much loose hair is removed from the lusher parts of his coat against what is removed from the parts in question.

If it it definitely hair loss then I would be looking at a full blood panel (compare it with his last one.) If there is nothing obvious, then I would increase whatever supplements high in anti-oxidants that he can tolerate.

If it is more likely a retarded regrowth, check (which you have no doubt already done) for any abrasion or epidural thickening in those areas. Again if there is nothing obvious then try putting a low screen or barrier in front of the heater. (If he has been cooking his bum, you may need to start massage a light oil or something into the area to restimulate the abused hair follicles...)

My final thought is a bit of a stretch but I have a young girl here at the moment with a mild dermal infection which flared up worse after a course of ab's and scrapings determined that an opportunistic yeasty fungus has invaded the area, so she is now on a course of ab's plus anti-fungals. She is 5 months, so right at the immune system dip stage that some dogs go through. Given Tank's immune issues would it be worth a scraping to see if he too was harbouring something similar?

Angela--he sheds almost not at all. So I think it's hair loss as opposed to failure to grow. We did do a full blood geriatric blood panel with a full thyroid panel--nothing was out. His T4 is at 24 which is pretty close to the middle of the normal range and there's some debate about where a geriatric dog's T4 should be. My traditional vet likes it in the 20s and 30s, but my homeo vet likes it in the teens. His urea level was borderline, and his T3 was a bit off, but we're waiting to hear what the pathologist thinks about that. I may talk to my vet about increasing his thyroid dose, but I'd think if it was thyroid we'd have seen it when his levels were testing at 13/14/15 and not when he's testing at 24.
I wondered about an infection, but there is absolutely no evidence of it. The only evidence of anything is the hair loss--not redness, itching, skin change, etc. And frankly, if it was a parasite, his hair loss would be in places other than his hind end. I've checked for staph and strep--which he has had issues with a couple of years ago and there are no pustules or other indications of that sort of germ. He's not been around anyone with any kind of bug so we're a bit baffled. I do wonder if we're seeing the beginnings of Cushing's.

leslyeb wrote:Pugsly had a low thyroid most of his life. Once a year or more if something else was going on, we would have blood work done. His thyroid range was always normal, but it wasn't until I moved back to Tennessee and was working with a new vet that he mentioned that while Pugsly's thyroid levels were showing in the normal range, he preferred to see the levels more on the higher end of the normal range when dogs are taking medicine. Pugsly had very thin hair for a couple of years and had always had a nice thick double coat. We raised his medicine up just .5mg and low and behold, he began growing hair where there had been none plus his hair came in thick again.

I'd have to see what he's getting now, it's half a pill twice a day (so I think a total of 5 mgs a day, but I'd have to check). I'm not sure what the heck we're seeing and I'm hesitant to muck around with his meds too much given what a delicate balancing act this can be with him.

northernwitch wrote:

TxAllieGrl wrote:if you've ruled out all the allergies, and the thyroid, could it be just a general alopecia?

I guess it could, Allie, but I'd think alopecia would be more general and not just from his waist down. But what do I know......

And maybe between his compromised immune system and his age, the hair just isn't growing any more or is falling out more rapidly? I dunno.

Sophie pretty much stays bald in spots (including the base of her tail)-even if we lower her steroids, it doesn't seem to come back much. We are guessing it's her immune system.