shedding or hot spots (its a mystery)

[chrisusvi]

We have a 3 year old all black chow and we are getting increasingly frustrated each season with our dog's shedding problem. We can't differentiate between whether she has hot spots or its a shedding thing.
We bath her every Saturday with Eqyss brand shampoo and dry her with a hairdryer. We also live live in a humid climate (St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands).
The worst was about 5 months ago when she lost most of her hair. She looked terrible, except around her head area.
We've been bathing her for about 5 months now on a weekly basis and when the hair grew back again, we thought that we fixed the problem. For a couple of weeks now, we noticed that her hair is starting to fall out again around her hind area. Her back paws look like they have black boots on because the hair has dropped off about half way up the legs. She's constantly scratching and biting her hind area.

Could someone shed some light on this subject.

Thanks.

[chowfrnd88]

Hi there, I'm fairly new to chows so others will be able to give better, more in depth advice. But it is normal for her to go through two major sheds a year. My Special Dark just finished one of his, it lasted about three-four weeks before he got rid of most of his undercoat. During this time, I found myself vacuuming non-stop! In terms of bathing, it's my understanding that you should most definetly not bathe so often. We've only had to bathe Special once since we've had him (that was when we got him, in March). If they are not really dirty, you shouldn't have to bathe very often. If I can, I plan on bathing him twice a year. The brushing and sometimes bath wipes keep him clean. However, I think in your case, you might want to speak your vet and see if maybe she has a skin disease causing her to shed so much. She shouldn't be nearly *Censored Word*, that's perplexing. Good luck and like I said, others will be of waaaay more help than me! Welcome to the forum!

[TiVo's Mom]

I'm a new chow owner so I don't have tons of experience with chows though we've had at least two to three dogs ever since we've been married (27 years). I'm just wondering if its seasonal could it be an allergy? I live in Northwest Indiana and am amazed at how many of my friends have dogs that suffer from allergies. Our mal developed allergies as he got older and had to take allergy meds in the Spring and Summer to keep from breaking out in oozing nasty blisters but he never shed out his hair because of it.

[chris]

chrisusvi.. the amount of sheading you are describing is NOT normal. As chowfrnd88 said, she should be nearly *Censored Word*. Part of the problem may be that you are bathing her/him way to much. For the most part, rule of thumb is 2 times a year unles of course they get into something. I would definatly recomend calling up your vet and tell them whats happening.

Keep us posted.

[jerryo]

Benny came down with a case of hot spots last week. He had finished blowing his undercoat a couple of weeks ago and is starting to reinflate. His undercoat came out in handfuls when it was happening. The hotspots are a totally different problem. I thought he had a flea problem at first the way he was scratching and chewing on himself. I gave him a flea bath, put on Advantage, put on a flea collar -- no help. He chewed a bloody hole in his tail, so I immediately took him to the vet. He diagnosed the hotspots, gave Benny's tail a poodle cut, bare shaft with a puffball on the tip, 10 days of antibiotics and a medicated spray. It knocked the problem right out. Now he is fine except for the embarassing tail restyling.

I'll never wait on hotspots again. A vet visit can take care of them overnight.

[Jeff&Peks]

As the others said, you are bathing him way to much, 2 or 3 times a year is fine, and as always with Skin problems what are you feeding him? If its Iam's or anything with Corn or wheat fillers in it, Change his food.

[chris]

ooo, sheesh, I feed steel Iams.. If I change it do you think his coat will look better? I havent really had problems...
Where is that food post???

[chrisusvi]

We also give the dog a bath because she starts to smell bad after a couple few weeks. That seems to keep her from smelling.
For that matter, is the smells that she gives off normal?

[kiwani]

Re: "We can't differentiate between whether she has hot spots or its a shedding thing."
---

Staph infections, responsible for causing oozing hot spots, can also cause inflammation to hair follicles and hair loss. Staph thrives in humid climates, and is normally dormant on skin, but it gets a *foothold* when skin is irritated or inflamed, and starts to spread when the skin is scratched. The odor you mentioned is also one of the symptoms.

I'm not familiar with the shampoo you mentioned, but there are specific shampoos for staph and similar infections, and antibiotics are also prescribed.

Since you can't eradicate staph in your whole environment, it's important to also build up the immune system, find the *causes* of skin irritation/inflammation which allow staph to gain a foothold (flea-bite allergy, food allergy, etc), increase anti-inflammatory fatty acids in the diet such as the omega-3 fish oils, and reduce food ingredients which are pro-inflammatory (animal fats, certain vegetable oils, etc)

There are some fairly recent threads on hot spots in the health forum, or just do a search on staph/hot spots. Best wishes.

[Boogie and Linda]

I agree with Kiwani. Boogie has a staph infection right now and this sounds exactly like what Special Dark has. (The smell is a tell tale sign. Yuck!) Boogie is terribly allergic to fleas. I saw that he had one hot spot and was starting to develop another on his leg so I called the vet and I took him to get a bath so he would be clean and when I was blow drying him I discovered he had 6 oozing hot spots. (He is a black chow and the only time I get to see down to his skin is with the dryer when he gets a bath.) I felt so badly for him. He was put on two different medications that the vet perscribed, cephalexin and prednisone.

I was using advantage for fleas but he was itching again before the month was up so I switched to frontline because a poll on here seemed to show more people using it but then this happened. He was just due for the new dosage. The vet suggested that we go back to advantage and use it on Boogie every two weeks. I am skeptical about doing that but then I don't know what is worse, too much advantage or oozing hot spots.

Jerryo, what was the medicated spray that they gave you? I bought some over the counter spray that was supposed to soothe hotspots using organic tea tree oil but it ended up stinging him.

[janet]

hi linda, i am not familiar with any over the counter meds for hotspots, but, when my past chows had them the doctor gave them panalog ointment. i know it's only available thru your vet. it worked well. good luck, janet.

[Jeff&Peks]

Be careful with the prescription hot spot sprays, Not that it mattered with Pekoe but the spray the vet gave Pekoe was great, when I looked it up on the net it said do not use on pregnant dogs or dogs that will be breeding, the ingredients can cause brain damaged or deformed puppies. I forget the name but it was an excellent hot spot spray it worked instantly with no smell. If you plan on Breeding which you shouldn't be anyway, read the warnings.

[Zhuyos mom]

Perhaps you can communicate with Shane via the PM system of this site. He lives in the Bahamas and has two chows, Krillian and Shadow. I think Shadow is black. He also is doing his work study at a vet hospital. Maybe he could provide you with some observations he's had with chows living in your corners of paradise.

[jerryo]

Hi Boogie and Linda,

The hotspot spray from the Vet is called Genesis. It is sprayed on the lesions twice a day.

Benny is also on Cephalexin 500mg with hotdog twice a day, for 10 days.

He seems OK with the spray, but he is not a complainer anyway.

[redangie24]

I know when a pup is young and has fleas they tell you to bathe them with unscented baby bath until they are 16 weeks. Ivana is an adult and I still use the unscented baby bath. It makes her coat nice and it does not irritate her skin. Then I use some Isoplus or Pink spray the are oil sheen for black ppl or frizzy womens hair. They keep out tangles also works wonders on my little girls. After any other problems are sloved (if it is staff or some other infection) you may want to try the baby bath and if that works okay the oil sheen works great too. I would take her to the vet to find the problem since chows don't normally smell. One of thier many great points.

[Zhuyos mom]

For those of you whose chows have staph, has your vet prescribed Simplicef? Here's info I posted for a young lady who was distressed about ther chow's health.

http://chowchow.org/forum/viewtopic.php ... +stephanie

[Boogie and Linda]

Thank you all for the information. I will check with the vet about the Simplicef and Genisis to see if either of these can help Boogie out. The main probelem lies with keeping the pesky fleas away from him.