Missing hair from his rear!

[Gabby]

My male Scottish terrier will not stop biting his butt, as funny as that sounds. He has lost most of the hair back there and I'm starting to worry. Is there anything I can do for him, or should I just take him to the vet?

[Barbara]

I have a 6 month old mini poodle pup. She is biting her fur off too, but not on her rump. She is chewing it off her outer thighs and front upper legs. She is a big fluff ball except in the places she has bitten off her fur. I think it is separation anxiety. I took my dog to the vet. He thought it might be allergies but he said she was rather young for that. He told me to give her a children's benadryl twice a day. I have done that but it doesn't help. She seems nervous and is always checking to make sure my husband and I are at home. Sometimes she wants out in my fenced backyard to play and sniff and chase squirrels but she will come to the door and scratch the door. I bet I open that door 15 times in 15 minutes. She can see through that glass patio door, but I have to open it for her and then she will run back out into the yard to play another minute. Doesn't this sound like separation anxiety to you? I have not convinced my vet of this. He has even treated her for scabes (which I don't guess she had because she continues to chew her fur off). I'm like you. I wish I knew what to do. She doesn't bite if off where I can see her skin but it looks like the fur has been buzzed off with clippers in these places

[Matthew]

It is possible that it could be an allergy, whether it's a food or inhalant allergy. My dog has the same problems, I've found that natural, homeopathic remedies work the best, instead of conventional medicine. Regular vets wanted to put him on prednisone, which over time depresses and the immune system and causes a host of other issues. Also, how often is he vaccinated? Vaccinations have been proven to cause chronic skin conditions (i suspect that's what's wrong with my dog). What kind of food are you currently feeding him? Most foods are filled with useless ingredients that are most often the cause for food allergies. Some of the common food allergies are chicken, corn, soy, beef, wheat or gluten allergies. Depending on the possibility of what he could be allergic to, let's say he's allergic to chicken, is he allergic to the chicken or what's IN the chicken, or other chemicals that aren't listed on the ingredients label. Most companies use meat sources that are filled with growth hormones and other pesticides, these can cause allergies. if you feed him anything with meat by-products I would stop that immediately. This can include ANY type of meat, including euthanized dogs and cats, road kill and dead zoo animals. Essentially, depending on your dog's diet, he may be eating the drug used to euthanize the dogs and cats, even the plastic bags and flea collars are left on the animals during the process, they end up in your food. A healthy, holistic diet will surely improve his condition.

[Suzie Laughlin]

My Harley does the same thing, and I have noticed that he has alot of dry skin dandruff. I Got Johnsons baby oil gel with aloe in it, and rubbed it into his hind quarters regularly, and the dandruff started going away and soft silky fur started coming in. Just have to watch the dog for a while and make sure it is sunk in good before you allow him/her to lick the area

[Barbara]

Matthew,
Do you buy organic dog food? My pup has been on dry Puppy Eukanuba. I checked the ingredients:real chicken, natural fish oil, no fillers or artificial preservatives or artificial favors or colors added, grains of corn, grain sorghum and rice, vitamin E, beet pulp fiber and FOS to help with puppy's natural defenses to help maintain a healthy digestive tract. I have no idea what the FOS is. She is also eating the wet Eukanuba labled Puppy Entree with Fresh Chicken and Rice. The wet food has many more ingredients in it:chicken broth, chicken, beef by products, chicken by products,beef liver,brewers rice,chicken by product meal, dried beet pulp, and then a bunch of vitamins and minerals are listed. Since this has the words by products I am thinking about what you said and wondering if this may contain what you said the by products were. I guess it wouldn't be road kill since they are using the word chicken and beef but still wondering what that might be. It sure could contain the hormones you mention. These are the foods the puppy was weaned on from the breeder when taken away for her mom. My husband and I eat all organic. Should I buy the organic dog food from Whole Foods where we shop and will that contain enough protein and fat that a puppy should get? When you say holistic do you mean organic and do you mean cooking up my own recipe for the puppy? If you have a good puppy homemade recipe that works for you and would work for a 6 month old pup would you share it with me please? My vet did mention that if it continues the next step would be giving her Tempril P which does contain Prednisone and I really don't want to give her that. Being a puppy she has had lots of shots and even some the vet divided into two doses instead of giving one shot that contained the whole dose. At this time she is good on all shots until a year after receiving these shots. My vet always does a titer test on my pets to make sure they need vaccines before giving them again. Of course Rabies, by law, is given every two years. (Sure wish they would do that for cats too as the law is still each year for their rabies shots.) Please inform me as to what you say is a healthy holistic diet. I am willing to try anything to get her to stop chewing her fur off. She absolutely looks horrible instead of like a cute fluff ball. My friend who also has a dog and I were talking about people food being fed to our dogs because that is what people used to feed their dogs instead of dog food, but I don't know a vet who would agree with this as they are always saying to not feed dogs table food.
I really feel the biting of her fur is a nervous habit being caused by separation anxiety. Do you have any ideas on how to treat that and make her confident that I am here or will be back soon? This is only the 4th dog I have had in my 60 years of life and none of the other 3 (which were all mini poodles) were never this way. They were so calm and obedient. This one is afraid of everything-sights and sounds. She is also much more hyper than my other 3 ever were. She is a real chewer and has even ruined some furniture.
I am open to any advice that any one would share with me please.

[Matthew]

Some of the food I do buy is organic, Newman's own organic is a fantastic dog food, it is made from mostly organic ingredients, but in order for a food to be certified organic, it must be made up of more then 95% organic ingredients, but don't worry, Newman's is one of the best pet food companies. There is a dog food called Karma Organic, that is certified organic. About the chicken and beef by-products, you are correct, in that they come from only the cow or only the chicken. From beef, just the same as chicken, it could be liver, instestines, tongue, brain, heart, any part of the body. Would you believe some pet food includes dead fetuses? With the organic food you have several options. To home cook meals for your dog would be a lot of work, and might get expensive, but it also would be extremely healthy. Holistic doesn't necessarily mean organic. If you simply go onto google and type in holistic pet foods you'll see what kind of ingredients are used in holistic foods. I personally do not home cook for my dog, simply because of the cost and time involved. But if you have the time and money that's certainly an option. With the vaccinations, I would highly, highly recommend that you DO NOT give her ANY more vaccinations, except the rabies on in which you have no choice. I cannot tell you how many dogs, including ones I have personally know have died from vaccinations. My friend's dog collapsed and had a seizure, then died later that day. She had every vaccine. Titer tests, in my opinion can be useful. But many vaccines have been shown to protect the dog for life. Annual revaccinations to nothing but depress the immune system, I haven't gotten by dog vaccinated since I got him almost a year ago. The vets told me that he'd live a horrible life plagued with health problems, but when I had to get him a shot because I had to put him in a pet hotel, he had bloody stools for a week, see the illogic in that? Please to not get her vaccinated any more. There is an alternative though, if you could find a homeopathic vet in your area, they use what are called nosodes. Which are like vaccines, but they use natural ingredients found in nature to protect the animal, these have little or no side effects. From my experiences, this is what I did that helped my dog. Change his diet completely. Look into these following brands of DRY dog food-California Natural, Solid Gold, Wellness, Timberwolf Organics, Karma, Evo, Newman's Own, Ziwi Peak, Eagle Pack. WET foods such as Weruva, Tiki Dog, Wellness, Eagle Pack. Mulligan's Stew. Eliminate the following from her diet ( as these are the most common allergens) beef, chicken, grains of any kind, corn, rice, wheat, soy. A fish based, grain free diet (timberwolf organics-Ocean Blue, and wellness both make foods like that) would be ideal, as not many dogs are allergic to fish. After changing her diet, DO NOT give her any table scraps, nothing but the food she eats. I know this is hard, but it's necessary to solve the issue. In time, it could be up to 6 months, you should see her itching start to decline. At this time, do the following, remembering to feed only organic or holistic food and treats, for several reasons. If she was allergic to chicken, is it the preservatives, growth hormones, etc in the chicken that she's allergic to, or the chicken itself? Organic and holistic foods with chicken will not have this. Each time you put an ingredient (such as chicken) back into her diet, and only 1 ingredient at a time, watch her itching. If her itching doesn't get worse, then you know she wasn't allergic to the chicken. Continue adding foods from her old diet (but organic and holistic versions of them) until you see her itching get worse, if you add beef back into her diet, and she starts itching more, then you know she's allergic to the beef. Now this will only work if she has a food allergy, if it's an inhalant allergy there's little you can do. Convention medicine will harm the animal in the long run. A holistic pet care website, azmira.com makes a healthy natural alternative that helps control itching from inhalant allergies. I also used (with great success) a product called Health Concerns Skin Balance, its a pill, a chinese herbal remedy that cleanses the blood as it passes through the liver. Within about 3 weeks my dog's itching was almost non-existant. I am going to use the azmira one after I am finished with that. As far as separation anxiety goes, possibly going to dog trainer would help. There's a product called rescue remedy (found at places like GNC and pharmacies) its a natural, homeopathic stress and anxiety reducer, it worked well for my dog. Back to diet and vaccinations for a second, ingredients in dog food and treats, such as sugars and a list of others, have been shown to cause behavioral problems, vaccines have been shown to do the same. This is why a holistic diet is extremely important. As I said before, just go onto google and type in holistic dog food, you'll soon realize why certain ingredients are and aren't use. Just do as much research into it as you can. If you have any more questions, please feel free to call me at [phone]. Do not hesitate to call if you have any questions. I was once in your position, not knowing what to do, I want to help people in any way I can who are in the same position that I was once in.

[Barbara]

Matthew,
Thanks so much for all the good tips and advice. I am going to immediately look into the organic food when I shop at Whole Foods for the family. You know I have never even gone to see what they have for pet food. Our store here is huge! I have been buying her food at Petsmart and left her on what the breeder began her on. The Eukanuba food she has been on is supposed to be a premium dog food and is highly recommended in my Dallas Ft. Worth area by breeders and vets. Science Diet is also but I have not used that. I am going to get on line like you said and try to research and I am really going to check the organic grocery store for some of the food you recommended. I really appreciate you answering me. It also makes me feel better to know that my puppy is not the only one who is in this position. I have even began to wonder if it is something I am doing but do not realize that could be causing this. You have given me some good ideas on where to begin to help her. I don't want her on that Prednisone. She is very loved and spoiled. My hubby and I do want to do what is best for the puppy as she brings us so much joy. My kids are grown and I call my cat and my puppy our fur babies. We treat them like our kids and I can tell your animals are a part of your family also.

[Matthew]

You are very welcome, I would hate for anyone to be in the position that I was once, that's why I'll do whatever I can to help another person and their pet out. As for eukanuba, it's hardly premium. It's recommended by the vets because that's most likely the brand of food they were taught in school (by a company rep) and they also get paid to recommend that food.

[Beth]

That is not exactly true Matthew. Vets do not get paid to advertise a certain dog food. They may get Science diet for a cheaper cost, if they choose to use it in their offices, we do not get paid by a company. My vet chooses Eukanubu. simply because it is complete. Do not judge all vets. I do not recommend products that I know what would be unhealthy for dogs. As far as the holiistic foods. Why would your cat or dog eat blueberries, chickory root, carrots, peas, while those certain items can be very hard on your animals digestion. Animals with sensitive stomachs will end up with Colititis, severe diarrhea, vomiting and then leading to dehydration.

[Matthew]

With all do respect it is true. Companies like Hill's send customer reps to vet schools to teach that their product is healthy, isn't this a biased teaching? it's not a coincadence that they end up using those foods in their offices. The companies even give vet students discounts on food and medicine. If they knew anything about pet nutrition, which I am NOT judging all vets, but very little of them do. My vet, who i really like, does not know a lot about nutrition, I brought up one brand of dog food (just to see what he would say) and he said that no one brand is better than the other, thats completely false. He said that brand i was referring to, which contains more than 5 ingredients proven to cause cancer was a healthy food. The ingredients that you mentioned are not hard to digest, at all. If anything, science diet and eukanuba (which use fillers such as corn) are extremely hard to digest. Blueberries are the most powerful source of antioxidants which helps prevent free radical damage to the cells, this has been PROVEN to increase the life of humans and animals. Carrots contain vitamins and other things such as beta carotene that help maintain healthy site. The others are a good source of fiber and antioxidants as well.

[Matthew]

my dog as colitis, which he was treated for once, and it just so happens that he had bloody stools after the vaccination? the same symptom he showed when he had colitis, one of the side affects of vaccines is colitis

[Beth]

vaccinations are essential for animals to protect them from horrible suffering and disease. Distemper and Rabies is essential. Do not buy in to that, just because the animal died does not mean it was from the immunization. All dogs by law need to be protected.

[Matthew]

With much respect intended, your statement about shots being essential is completely false. I came across many books, and articles, written by some of the leading vets in the country, that vaccines cause a host of devastating side effects, simply go onto google and type in "harmful pet vaccinations" you will see what I mean. How else would you explain a PERFECTLY healthy dog, dropping dead within a month of having a vaccination? When most of the articles I read have listed epileptic seizures as side affects? Also, personally with my dog, he is extremely healthy, fed an all organic and holistic diet, TWO DAYS after he got the shot, he had bloody stools all over the carpet. Was there a change in his diet? No, was he introduced to anything new? YES, THE VACCINATION. if you do the research you'll come across the same things that im referring to