Hello fellow husky lovers.

Our boy Snow (13 months old now) has been suffering pigment loss past few months and it is getting progressively worse.

We were almost sure that it is the UVS, however he never had any eye issues and vet pretty much confirmed that today. She is unsure of what is going on and she will contact eye specialist about Snows eyes as she saw something unusual in them regarding the pigment but she is confident that it is not an inflammation. Snow opens his eyes wide open on the bright daylight looking for anything to eat so it looks like his eyes are alright for the moment.

He is loosing pigment on and below his nose on his lips and paws. Is there any other disease causing only the pigment loss in these areas? So far i failed to find any as most of the other diseases include inflammation of the depigmented spots while Snows pink spots are not irritated they just turn light pink.


Could it be UVS and eye problems will follow? Or is it unlikley that UVS is going on without the eye problems happening first. As i said this is getting proggresivley worse over past 6 months and we are getting really worried as the only disease that fits the symptoms we found was UVS

We will proceed with more tests at our vet after she consults the specialist but we would love to hear some input from people that know about this problematics.

What we did:
We took away all plastic toys from Snow yesterday to make sure its not plastic allergy. We gave him other toys as replacement.
Since yesterday he does not have any plastic bowls, he still had one for the water upstairs. He now has metal and ceramic bowls.

We feed him kelp and salmon oil for a month now and we feed him Orijen Regional Red as the food of choice. I will try to increase the dosage of the kelp slightly to see if he will react to it somehow in case it is Zinc deficiency (Unlikely?)

Few images of current state:



Could it be anything else that UVS? I failed to find ANY similar case that is not UVS so far

You're out of my league here but I will toss out a couple of comments anyway - I like folks to tell me I'm all wet!

The Husky "snow nose" is quite common - with some dogs it varies from season to season, with others it just seems to gradually change at random.

I just scanned your other messages, seems like you've got your hands full with a sick little boy who's on his way to getting better.
Since I know nothing about UVS I did some reading and it seems as if there is a definite eye component to it, lacking that in your guy and the fact that it's uncommon, I'd be inclined to rule it out.

Another that seems to pop up is something called vitigilo which is an autoimmune disease of unknown cause, of very limited danger to the dog and basically (apparently) normally left untreated. Symptoms are primarily a loss of pigmentation on nose, paws, possibly skin.

Assuming that all else is now looking up for him, I'd be more inclined to put my emphasis on improving his general health further and keeping an eye on the pigmentation loss.

And, something that is getting common with me, since we're a pretty scattered group, if you'd put your location in your profile it sometimes help when people are responding.

Thank you for the input aljones, we have been moving home the past months and Snow is now doing great with other things. Or at least he did until he started losing his pigment. We too hope that it could be "just" vitigilo but i failed to find well documented case similar to his. It is probably because as you say the vitigilo itselve isnt dangerous to the dogs general health so people dont tend to post too much about it.

I will update my location in the profile setting, thank you for pointing that out .

We will keep on going with increased dosage of kelp and salmon oil to see if we can see some change while we wait for the specialists verdict about the eyes.

Just a quick update. Vet confirmed that the eyes are clean with no visible issues at all for now. She suggested to monitor the eyes and the pigment loss closely in the next few months to see the changes as the progression of the pigment loss was rather slow so far. We will add some suggested multivitamins to Snows diet and won't be going with any more tests as vet believes they're unnecessary for now.

I agree that it looks more like Vitiligo, or of that nature, I would suggest asking your vet if you need to put sunscreen on him when he is exposed to the sun for any length of time, to prevent any other problems.

MiyasMomma wrote:

I agree that it looks more like Vitiligo, or of that nature, I would suggest asking your vet if you need to put sunscreen on him when he is exposed to the sun for any length of time, to prevent any other problems.

Hello,

that is actually great point that didnt come to my mind at all. Thank you for pointin that out i will ask my vet about it.

Hi, no problem that's why we're all here to help each other, I took a look at your old posts and would love to see the two together now that they are older. We luvs pics here, lol. He has been a sick boy for a long time, I hope he is doing better soon.

Btw, keep those plastic items away, many cats and dogs get facial problems with those items, also was surprised that vitligio (spelling) is more common in Rotties, however I did see some huskies with the problem, and as you describe it being on his paws too, I would believe that's the problem, your vet did take scrapings of the area? If it's zinc deficiency it will look more like a sore, and scrapings of affected area will rule it out, you don't want to over give zinc if there's no problem, so again talk with you vet on the amount of zinc you're giving and see if scrapings were done.

Renee

I have updated my original thread with new photos and information

https://www.itsahuskything.com/t11899-unca-jednicka-and-her-brother-snow

Regarding the skin biopsy the vet believes that it is not needed because the pink skin is not irritated at all. She wants to supplement some of his food with light vitamins and keep an eye on him. From all the reading i took it looks like UVS is actually worse version of vitiligo where the depigmented skin and the eye are irritated but i can be wrong.

Also we took all the plastic stuff from Snow and we are not giving it back to him, instead we will buy some more toys for him to enjoy

Very good, got to see your new pics....the pink patch doesn't look like it bothers him, your vet knows best for sure. I had 2 cats with cat acne from plastic bowls, stopped using plastic and went away.

Hello everyone,

just a quick update from me on this. Snow was getting kelp and multivitamins with high amount of zinc (still quite normal amount tho, not the radical treatment like he would get for a zinc defficit treatment). We kept giving him these supplements for about a month and a half and his pink spots are looking much better now. Some of them are gone (Lips) and some are getting smaller and smaller (Nose and muzzle parts).

Excellent glad things are gradually improving for you all. I'd especially like to say how I appreciate your coming back and letting us know. While your original thread had gotten lost in the normal mayhem, it immediately came to mind when I saw the title, thanks!

Also glad you gave an update. Good to hear things are better!!

Hi dc41f!

I did a search for "pigment" but for some reason, this thread didn't show up! I think my husky has the same thing right now. At the moment, it's just on his lips, but i just noticed some depigmentation on the side of his nose too. His nose is usually black, but in the winter, it becomes a brown-ish liver colour.

Was Snow also losing pigment in his lips? I posted some pictures of my dog here: https://www.itsahuskything.com/t14365-pigment-loss-lips-pics#216529 Did Snow have something similar?

Would you mind sharing what kind of kelp and multivitamins you are giving Snow? We are giving Gus probiotics right now, but that is all. He is also on a raw diet. Do you think Snow's pigment loss is because of a slight zinc deficiency then if he improved after you gave him kelp and multivitamins?

Any tips you have would be really appreciated! Thanks for posting this!

Hello Maggie,

I did post the answer in your original thread , sorry for taking that long.

Link: https://www.itsahuskything.com/t14365-pigment-loss-lips-pics