I am posting this for a friend of mine unti she gets approved for the forum.

QUOTE:
I have a 3 year old, male, English Bulldog. I adopted him at 14 months and he had a beautiful, very thick coat. He still has his testicles as they never dropped (if that's of any help). When I adopted him, he was being fed Iams (not the best, I know)... so I gradually switched him over to Orijen.

Orijen was a little too high in protein for him as he's a low energy dog (but he does get regular exercise and is very fit) so after a few months I switched him over to Acana Grasslands (lamb/grain free) and he did very well on it.

I kept him on this food for quite a few months but I started to notice that he was developing bald patches. They started mostly on his chest, and then a little on his thighs and bum. I took him to the vet for his annual check-up and mentioned to her that I was concerned about the bald spots. They did a blood test and a skin-scratch test on him and said that he was in perfect health. The vet recommended that I switch to the Acana Pacifica (fish).

I switched to the Pacifica, but the bald patches just got bigger and bigger. After about 6 months, the new food was not helping at all, so he is now on Royal Canin English Bulldog food and doing fine on it but the bald patches persist.

He is now almost completely bald on his tummy, chest, bum and hind legs. He is also now thinning around the ears and neck.

I have made no other changes to his lifestyle. We have not switched laundry detergents, shampoo, or anything. He is behaving normally, active, happy... he never scratches or anything, the bald spots do not seem to bother him at all. I've tried adding olive oil to his food, I've tried giving him an egg once a week, nothing is helping and it just gets worse. Sadly, I cant really afford to continue doing expensive tests at the vet but I'm really concerned. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

*Also, if its any help, we have NO carpets, just hardwood/ceramic tiles

Edited by Connie Sutherland (10/31/2010 02:25 PM)
Edit reason: add "Quote"

So no patches on the sides?

Any darkening of undercarriage skin? Any thickening?

What were the blood tests testing for? Can you get that invoice or report in front of you and tell us? Tests for Cushings and thyroid?

I don't really understand the focus on food (except for a BTW that Royal Canin is not a particularly good food, and the breed gimmick kind of drives me nuts ... but JMO). None of this non-itchy balding really makes me think of food allergies. Makes me think of pyoderma from external parasites or staph or strep.

If you were seeing symmetrical patches on both sides, I'd wonder about alopecia.

I imagine that demodex would be the first thing the vet would have thought of, but a scraping was done, right? So external parasites and ringworm (a fungus) were ruled out?

I understand the expensive vet test problem. I wish the post had been done immediately so the advice to get thee to a derm vet could have been given. (Dermatology is a far bigger specialty than to expect it to be within the ken of most GP vets. JMO. Strong opinion.) But I would hate for everything but a skin infection to have been ruled out and then to leave a pyoderma present that can become systemic.

Can we be linked to pics?


All JMO. Not a health professional.

And one other thing to check out, although the timing may not be right for this, is seasonal alopecia. Apparently this is a somewhat common occurance in bulldogs, but typically it occurs during winter months.

Are the bald spots bilaterally symmetrical? (same on both sides)

And, skip the olive oil and start with salmon/fishoil and vitamin 'e'.

My dog has one retained testicle, I do plan to get that removed before he turns four, but I remember in my research that certain type of cancers that form on the retained testicle can cause bald spots along with 'feminization'. It is worth reading up or asking the vet about, as this would need to be taken care of ASAP.

Posting for my friend again.

Quote;
I'm going to try and get the names and results of the tests that were done and I'll post them asap.

I only included so much about the food because that's the only suggestion the vet made, so it was the only thing I had to go off of... and since I have really no idea what it could be, I thought it wouldn't hurt to include it

There is some darkening on the chest skin. It's been bald the longest and he sleeps on his tummy a lot, so its gotten darker... the baldness IS symetrical (completely so on the ears, neck, tummy and chest)... slightly more hair on one leg than the other, but its pretty close.

And a picture link, if possible. I suspect that what we mean by "symmetrical" may not be exactly the same. I meant bald spots on one side of the body matching bald spots on the other, and particularly the dog's sides.

I really would personally have almost no concern about food involvement based on what's posted, but here are a few questions: Does he have more than one or two poops a day? Does he ever have ear infections? Do his ears look clear and pale inside, without inflammation and debris? You already said no itching ... any exceptions, like face-rubbing or toe-licking?

"There is some darkening on the chest skin."

I am hoping that we can hear/read all the test results, including blood and scraping.

Sounds to me like alopecia or perhaps an endocrine disorder both of which bulldogs are pretty well known for. If the test for cushings is normal, the thyroid is normal, my guess would be alopecia.

Yes, I'm with you that alopecia is way up there.


I think that hormonal alopecia is bilaterally symmetrical.

Then, of course, there are many other kinds of alopecia. Demodex, for example, is a cause of alopecia. I recall in some book about dogs' skin ailments reading about 20 or 30 alopecia causes.

There's Acanthosis nigricans, for example, which presents with skin darkening, but also itching.

I think that the word alopecia (without a descriptive adjective) just means "hair loss," so it often just means "loss of hair as a symptom of something ...."

Like "Alopecia areata," which I believe is an autoimmune disorder, or "Cyclic alopecia" or "seasonal flank alopecia," which is hair loss caused by an interruption of the hair's growth cycle at certain times of the year ... or "allergic alopecia" (but "no itching" sounds so atypical to me) .... and many more.

 Quote: Melissa Thom

.... endocrine disorder ... bulldogs are pretty well known for ....

Wow, yes, I am finding out just today how over-represented bulldogs are in the endocrine disorder overviews!

Kiersten Lippman's idea about retained testicles and the posts about endocrine disorders(thyroid,cushings syndrome, etc) seem most likely.
What color is the dog? Some blue dogs, (Dobermans, Dane, IGs) have alopecia (no hair,scant hair) that gets worse with age. It's not a "disease", it's just how they are.
Skin that is not protected by hair tends to become darker and thicken.
Surgery in an English Bulldog is not real straightforward, they have airway problems under anaesthesia so I wouldn't go hunting for those testicles unless his problems were more than cosmetic.