I wonder if anyone can help me with this problem. I have a 4 year old male GSD. His coat is excellent. I feed Pinacle which is comparable to California Natural. I give 800 i.u. of Vitamin e per day along with 1000 mg vitamin c per day. I also give all my dogs 2 glyco-flex plus per day which is basically glucosamine. About 3 months ago, he started having very dry skin around the eye which then resulted in hair loss. The vet did a skin scraping which revealed nothing. He has no history of mange in his bloodline & I understand this may be heritary. The vet put him on a high dosage of Keflex of 2000 mg per day. It cleared right up. Now it just started again & we have him again on the Keflex. He has been on this dog food for about 1 1/2 years with no problems. The only thing I can possible think of is that he is allergic to hot dogs as this is something I have recently started using for training. Anyone have any ideas? The vet wants to try some sort of deeper skin scraping. I know mange is usually around the eye but I am good friends with his breeder & none of her dogs have mange so I can't believe this could happen to him. What do you think?

Thanks,

Pat <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Pat,
I have worked with a vet for about 12 years and I can tell you that one type of mange to consider is demodex. ALL dogs (and humans for that matter)carry the demodex mites on their body. Under normal circumstances the bodies own immune system can keep it under control. During times of stress or if the immune system is compromised in anyway then they can multiply and cause problems. We see it a lot in young puppies without their immune system fully developed or young adults and adults going through lots of stress.

It does not sound like anything you described fits that description but ask your vet (since you have already been in at least twice) about using some Oxydex gel or something like it to apply around the eyes. Use it sparingly and it is best to apply with a Q-tip around the eyes. Keep the pet occupied for a few minutes after applying to allow some to soak in. If it is demodex and is that localized this is usually enough to help it heal up. You may even want to talk to your vet about doing bloodwork to check your dogs immune system to distemper and parvo. If there are no titres to this then you may have this problem. I may get answers from people disagreeing with the vax approach but sometimes they are needed. I don't always give my dogs vax but I do check there titres each year....so far so good since their initial puppy vax.

Hope this helps.
Jerri

Thanks Jerri. I will try anything now. We have been to the vet so much lately I should have my own parking space.

Patricia