# Skin Problems



## jhvaco04 (May 23, 2010)

okay so i have a father who, as much as i love him, has crossed over into BYB territory. He has 4 dogs, an italian mastiff, jack russell, and 2 pit bulls. Back in January the female gave birth to a litter of 7--->>4 of which were anywhere from a coffee color to dark chocolate, the other 3 a fawnish brindle with dark brown striping (pics coming soon). Due to stress IMO he is no longer able to care for the pups the way they should be and I hv FINALLY convinced him to bring the remaining pups to the spca.

Anyway the reason im posting is bc, maybe about 2 months ago a cpl of the brown pups began to experience minor skin loss primarily around the face area. He said he'd take care of it. Well Friday i saw the pups for the 1st time in about a month and things hv gotten terribly worse. Not only do all 4 of the brown pups hv the condition now, but the original 2 that had it hv hardly any fur....i'll say about %80 missing. Not only that but 3 outta the 4 hv developed a bunch of red bumps on their skin. It looks HORRIBLE!!! I already had one of the brindle pups from the litter, but after seeing the condition of the pups I brought home another. He used to be a peanut butter color & my mother loved him so much. But she says he now looks like a hyena or something with all of the patchy hair loss. Ironically he looks MUCH better than the rest.

I know that in order to get assistance, you guys will probably need more info & to actually see the dog (im working on uploading some pics from my phone). What i can say is they were on science diet advanced i believe (the label has got like a maroon color), and pedigree canned food, mixed with grits. Given the fact that only the brown pups hv the condition, and also ALL of his dogs hv pretty much the same diet i dont think that it has to do w/diet but who am i to say. Me personally i think he wasnt bathing them nearly enough (1x per week he claims). Also he housed them in 2 large dog kennels-3 in one, 4 in the other. And lets just say when one had to tinkle in the middle of the night, they ALL had to lay in or around it until the morning. 

So to bring my extremely long very 1st post to a close, what can I do to help his skin/fur?


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## ThaLadyPit (Oct 12, 2008)

Hmmm.. it's hard to really say what it could be. Several things come to mind regarding th pups' conditions and symptoms. Do they have fleas on them? Are any of the adult dogs affected like the pups are? If it's not fleas, it sounds like it could possibly be mange, but I'm not a vet, so I can't diagnose. Your best bet is to take them all in to the vet for a checkup and possibly a dip, if needed. Best of luck to you and welcome aboard. Hope you're finding your way around ok and look forward to interacting with you in the future.


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## jhvaco04 (May 23, 2010)

ThaLadyPit said:


> Do they have fleas on them?


I havent noticed fleas on any of he pups, or on any of the grown dogs come to think about it.



ThaLadyPit said:


> Are any of the adult dogs affected like the pups are?


Not at all. And like i said its only affecting the brown colored pups. The 3 brindled puppies and all of the adult dogs are fine.



ThaLadyPit said:


> Your best bet is to take them all in to the vet for a checkup and possibly a dip, if needed. Best of luck to you and welcome aboard. Hope you're finding your way around ok and look forward to interacting with you in the future.


I definitely plan on taking Rocky to the vet, probably in the upcoming week or so. Thanx for the input & well wishes, Ive actually been a lurker for quite sometime now. its just unfortunate that it took something like this for me to actually join. Ive attached a few pics of Rocky so hopefully that'll help get me in the right direction as well.


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## aimee235 (Apr 29, 2007)

It looks like demodex mange. It happens when the dogs immune system isn't fully functional. All dogs have the mites that cause it living in there hair follicle. The immune system usually keeps their population in check. They will need a skin scraping from a vet to be sure, and medication.

Also I don't think they need to eat grits. That's made out of corn isn't it? That could cause an allergic reaction in some dogs.


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## ThaLadyPit (Oct 12, 2008)

Yes, Aimee is right.. the grits are bad for them as they are a corn product, and corn is not good for dogs. I had a suspicion it might be mange, but like I said.. I'm not a vet, so I can't diagnose.. definately get em to the vet and have em do a skin scraping and make sure to get em treated asap!


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## Jblondie813 (Oct 1, 2008)

Yep thats definitely demodex!! They all need to see a vet ASAP. Demodex is an immune system defficiency. If not treated the pups will probably eventually need to be put down because they might not be able to heal from it.....


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