our 5 year old husky has been having some (in my opinion) serious issues lately. She is shedding like crazy, yes I know it's time for them to blow their coats, but this has been going on for 6 or 7 weeks. She's not only loosing undercoat, she is also losing her guard hairs. She has an oily, scaly thing going on on her back. It apparently itches because she constantly chews on it (not enough to where it stays wet though). Took her to the vet, (two different times), they said it was a bacterial infection, gave her some meds (twice) to clear it up, but it never really did clear up, it got better, but didn't go away and it's getting worse again. Like I said, it feels oily to the touch. She seems to throw up a lot too. I don't really know if the two things are related or not though. I would say she throws up about once a week to once every other week, (not really a lot, but in my opinion, more than a dog should throw up). She is currently eating Taste of the Wild, the yellow bag, has been for about a year. We have tried just about all the color bags, except the red one, in the past. She's never had an issue with this brand of dog food, she's been eating it for 3 years. Could this be a food allergy she has suddenly developed? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't really know how much our vets in our area know about huskies.

Kelly, can you describe better on her throwing up? Is it first thing in the morning? Is she throwing up food? Does she eat grass first before throwing up? I would try the Pacific Stream formula, there is 0 chicken in it, and the most common allergy is chicken, so it would be a start, also the PS has salmon in it which is excellent for their coats.

How old is the bag of food she's working on now? It sounds like allergy induced hot spots but without seeing a picture of the wound and a little more info on the nature of the vomiting it's hard to say.

Well, the vomiting is usually either nothing at all but stomach bile or her entire bowl of food. It usually happens during the day while we are at work. So she does not eat grass before hand. She is an inside dog. So while we are at work, she is in our house. The current bag of dog food is not very old at all. And we have tried the other two kinds you mentioned with no change. I will try to get a picture of one of her spots this afternoon when I get home from work.

P.S. Roomba does not get along well with doggie throw up.....

Do you feed multiple times a day or just one big meal? I have heard horror stories about Roombas and accidents. That would really suck. My boy when he was chewing himself raw with allergies I would massage coconut oil into the raw area and it helped clean his skin up.

These are the best pics I could get. The black spots are not fleas or eggs. It's just part of the crusties. I feed her twice a day. Two small meals.

Nobody?

I'm surprised that no one has offered more. I'm afraid I can't be of any help but maybe your "bump" and my comment will entice someone to look and offer help.

Thanks!

I actually have two angles of experience with this, I hope any of it's helpful!

Oof, are those scabs? Poor babe. <3 I used to be a groomer in college, whenever I'd see skin irritation/flaking/hotspots, it OFTEN had to do with food allergies.
My own dog has some really severe sensitivities to food. It was urgent enough that I didn't really have time to eliminate ingredient by ingredient to figure out what the problem was because she was getting almost deathly ill. She didn't have these skin issues, but her coat was definitely patchy and dull. (For her, she ended up getting an infection in her intestines but it was originally inflammation that got worse. Sounds different than what's going on with your pup) It happened pretty suddenly. What I ended up doing is actually switching her to a reeeeeeally simple, hand-cooked diet. Canned pumpkin, ground beef, little bit of rice, and eggs- with the occasional supplement. I didn't do it raw because I didn't trust her stomach was strong enough for the bacteria, so it was cooked. That way, I knew exactly what she was eating, and there were only a few ingredients to be dealing with instead of everything that goes into dog foods. She was eating that as she was recovering, and I kept her on it for MONTHS, I only recently switch her over to Nutro's limited ingredient foods, which I like for the same reason- there are only so many ingredients to worry about. This seems to have done the trick for her, she has had no relapses, not to mention her coat looks AMAZING.

Another possibility would be an autoimmune disorder? My family's dog years ago was a greyound that ended up having some kind of lupus. His autoimmune system was attacking his skin for some reason, and he was having hair loss and scabbing. There were some other signs too, I think his appetite wasn't great, and it was attacking his joints too, so he couldn't move around as much. As I wasn't there at the time, I unfortunately can't tell you the specifics of what the vets did to treat it, but they WERE able to get a positive diagnosis, which is always better than having some mystery issue. If your vets never brought up autoimmune issues, it might be worth suggesting that to them?

There's definitely something going on there. Looks really dry. Usually mine get really red though and while there's flaking the skin under looks white and somewhat healthy, just really dry. Did they give you any medicated shampoo? I would get some shampoo like trizchlor4 and see if that helps. Since the skin looks decent at least what I can tell in those pictures I imagine you're dealing with an over production of yeast. The shampoo should help with that too.

As for the vomiting, how does his poop look? Any slime? You may need to do a bland diet followed by an elimination diet to see what he's developed an intolerance for. At two meals a day I wouldn't expect hunger pukes, but you could always go to three and see if it makes a difference before doing the more extreme work.

It's not dry though. It's oily flakes. It's weird.

Hmm...I would still try the medicated shampoo. It will help with her itching as it has topical antihistamine built into it and most are made for balancing what is going on whether dry or oily skin. Is she going out in the early mornings and laying in dewy grass? Could be a combination of environmental grass allergy and moisture being trapped near the skin, which would feed a yeast/bacteria problem. That stuff likes excess moisture. If she will stand for a high velocity dryer you may also try blowing her out after each bath and when she comes in from laying in potentially damp grass. Husky coats are thick so too much bathing or swimming or just being in moist areas can cause issues if they aren't getting super dry in between events. That may help with some of the issues. Still think it's worth cutting chicken and exploring a food allergy as well. When a dog has both food and environmental allergies it makes getting over them so much harder.

Kelly, most allergens take 6-12 weeks to get rid of. I would not do a slow transition and just go over to the Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream flavor and stay on it for at least 2 months and see if there is any change to the coat. Along with Jenn's suggestions. The Pacific Stream has no chicken, the other flavors do, it has no eggs, again the other flavors do, and those 2 items can cause havoc on an allergy dog. My gsd didn't have your huskies coat issues, but her coat stunk so bad, once off the other flavors and went to the PS flavor her allergy issues cleared right up. It's worth changing if your dog has allergies.