Hi Everyone,

Its been awhile since I've been on here. My big husky Kai has had this discoloration on her gumline outside her mouth for the past 2 years or so. Recently, it has gotten worse and I noticed today that the area has hair loss. Ive researched and have come to the idea that it may be a zinc deficiency. I read some posts here and think this may be the case. My vet has never been concerned about it, but maybe someone else here has experienced it and can offer some insight.

(She's asleep BTW!)

Thanks!
Jenah

Jenah, another member here has a husky who had something quite similar. She doesn't post much here but I'm going to pm her and see if she doesn't have some advice for you. She didn't treat it as ZRD and it went away but I dint know the specifics. In any event, it's still worth having the vet test for ZRD just to make sure. I know my boy Kohdi had some issues similar on one side of the mouth like that, and it was nothing more than it being from chewing on the threaded (where the cap screws on) part of Gatorade bottle

. I'll pm her now.

Hey Jenah,
yeah my girl had a very, very simular looking issue i thought was zinc deficiency. My vet said it was a allergy of some sort basically, put her on atibiotics and it hasnt come back since. I did make a switch in her diet i switched from taste of the wild to Acana (i feed the fish and the red heritage), no issues since.

My og post here
https://www.itsahuskything.com/t17152-could-it-be-the-food

Taking Kai into the vet would be the best thing to test for zinc deficiency and maybe the antibiotics would help clear it Up? Good luck

Hi Jenah,

Poor little girl. My 2yo boy is on a zinc supplement and currently taking monthly allergy shots after episodes with his paws and nose. He is clear as a result and we hope to stop the shots eventually. In Florida there are a lot of Huskies with allergies, according to our vet. Switched food from Blue Buffalo to Eukanuba per our breeder and I cook organic meat for him every day. Threw the kitchen sink at the problem, but it worked. All the best with your girl.

Hello everyone,

I am new here and realize this post is quite old, but I thought you all might get notifications regardless, even if it's an old thread?

My 4 year old husky, Gatsby, recently started showing the signs of zinc deficiency above his nose, where the fur meets the actual nose skin (sorry for not knowing proper terminology.)  I took him to see the vet on a Thursday, when she did a skin scraping to rule out demodex (he DID have demodex as a puppy) and the scraping came back negative.  She said it looked a lot like a zinc deficiency, but wanted to do some research to make sure she recommended the best supplement.  On Monday evening (4 days later), she finally called and recommended Zinpro.  Unfortunately, the spot that had turned a reddish/pink had spread at this point, and the telltale crusty lesions had already developed.  I had researched Zinpro  in the meantime and was comfortable purchasing it, so I did immediately.  It arrived two days later (a total of 6 days after he initially went to the vet and lesions had already appeared) and Gatsby has been getting 2 pills every day since (he's only been taking them fo 6 days at this point).  It does NOT APPEAR to be progressing, although it's difficult to be sure because the lesions had already started forming and they're still going through the process of falling off/scabbing.  

The area (which was a dark black before) is now a natural pink (no longer red or enflamed), but very crusty, especially on the top of his actual nose.

Gatsby has never had any signs of zinc deficiency before.  I know they can pop up at any time, but there is one other thing I think is worth mentioning.  He has been on a home cooked diet for about 2+ years, with a vitamin supplement that our vet recommended with the foot 1x daily (Dynamite Showdown).  It gets mixed with water and added to his food at breakfast.  His health/skin/coat have never been better and his digestive issues and problems with picky eating disappeared.  About 3 months ago, I switched from his usual protein (chicken) to beef because I attended a healthy food seminar that said larger animal protein was better for dogs.  I am wondering if the zinc deficiency and/or skin reaction (if it's not zinc) could have been caused by his body poorly absorbing or responding poorly to the beef fat/protein?  I've read that beef is one of the leading food intolerances in dogs.  

Just around the time we started him on Zinpro, we also switched back to his normal chicken meals.

Like I mentioned, it doesn't seem to have worsened since the pills/diet switch, but I'm not confident that it's necessarily getting better, either.

My questions are this:

1.  Has anyone ever dealt with skin diseases in their sibe due to a food intolerance?  If so, please let me know.  While I don't doubt the zinc deficiency, I have a strong feeling a reaction to beef is playing a role in all of this.

2.  Has anyone used anything topical on the lesions for zinc deficiency?  I don't necessarily mean a zinc cream (although if you have a good one to recommend, please do-I have read that using the topical ointiments can cause worse flare ups afterward, though, but at least it would confirm that it is in fact a zinc deficiency).  I more mean, some kind of ointment to help keep the skin protected and from developing infection?  Like vasaline, perhaps, or neosporin?  Or something more dog-specific?  

Any advice you can offer me would be much appreciated.

I use Zinpro for my female and like it. Vasaline does not breathe, the only topical stuff I have ever put on my dogs since this is around the mouth and will get licked off is coconut oil. It has done a great job both to help heal with zinc flair ups and with my male's extreme allergy to chicken. He is severely allergic to cooked chicken, to the point that he chews himself bloody where there's no hair left in patches on his body and feet, and the skin oozes and bleeds. It takes 4-6 weeks to completely clear an allergy trigger ingredient from the system so healing is a slow process, but I used coconut oil on this as well and have been very happy with the results.

When I first started having issues with my female and zinc I would use neosporen on the spots around her mouth and it did okay, but in my experience I have had just as much luck with coconut oil and it doesn't bother me that she licks it off like it bothered me when she was licking off the neosporen.

Since going over to raw I really haven't had the zinc issues with my girl I had when I was still only on kibble. You may want to also look at how you are balancing your homecooked and the vitamins that you are adding. If it's balanced you shouldn't need a vitamin, but not all vitamins are created equal either and vary in where they are sourced.

Jenn, thank you so much for reaching out.  I wonder if Gatsby has similar issues to your male's allergy, but with beef?  Since we were giving Gatsby the beef instead of chicken, he was scratching his ears/biting his paws/shaking his head, but we pushed it off as seasonal allergies.  Could you tell me any more about the actual symptoms your male showed that proved he was having an allergy to the chicken?  Did he have any skin issues because of it? (By skin issues: obviously his skin was itchy, but I mean any hair or pigment loss due to the allergy and not scratching)

He came to me from the pound already showing the signs. He's white, so no real pigmentation loss to speak of. lol. He smelled, and would chew at himself. His skin was flaky and the flakes tended to have a yellowish tent to them which is a sign of elevated yeast levels. He would lose his hair in spots and where the hair was lost the skin would ooze and be red if not full blown bloody. The biggest sign of it being a true allergy is that it is fast. I took him off chicken as soon as I got him and detoxed for several weeks and things started to clear up, then one day I dropped a bit of grilled chicken in the kitchen and he vacuumed it up before I could even register that it had fallen. Within minutes he was chewing all down his back and was raw and bloody. Food allergies seem to be all over. He is allergic to a lot of stuff like various pollens as well. He will be itchy with those and tends to concentrate on his feet and stomach since laying and walking through the grass are the main areas that are affected with outside pollens. Seasonal pollens also tend to mess with their head. Goopy eyes (though watery eyes can come with food allergies too), runny nose, sneezing, reverse sneezing. Seasonal allergies in dogs really aren't too different than they are in people.

I wanted to give an update: I put some neosporin on Gatsby's nose last night, just to see if it would make any difference. While obviously the area isn't "healing" yet in response, it does appear to be keeping it lubricated and the cracking/scabbing has lessened a lot. I am going to buy some coconut oil tonight and start using that so it's safer for him to lick off. I am praying that the zinc supplements, plus his diet change (really, going back to his normal diet before the beef), and the addition of coconut oil to the affected areas helps clear this up for him.

If anyone's huskies have experienced issues with pigment loss in response to zinc deficiency, can you let me know how long it normally takes for the pigment to return?

I don’t have pictures but have a 5 year old sib who had the same issue around her mouth, starting at 4.5 years old. The couple of pictures I’ve seen look exactly like her mouth did. One vet said it might be zinc deficiency. She kept scratching and was uncomfortable with more and more hair loss and a little scabbing. A second opinion put her on Apoquel for a week then as needed. Also EPAH medicated wipes w/ PS for ar least a week then as needed. She cleared right up! I’m not sure what triggered it, we’ve not changed her food. She may have seasonal allergies..maybe zinc deficiency? Since the two meds we used for 2-3 weeks cleared her up I wanted to post our success.

I am also curious on if you discovered if this is an allergy or a zinc deficiency. A family member's husky has the exact same discoloration on his face and it is a persistent problem. The vet has put him on antibiotics for it, but they would not test him for a zinc deficiency.
The husky has been put on zinc pills anyway. He also has thyroid issues but I'm not sure they're related.

What was happening around her mouth must have been seasonal allergies. We see it again during the same time of the year. We’ve found it to be treatable thankfully.

Poor thing has hair loss on both hindquarters. Vet said it might be Alopecia and skin vet said might be Zinc deficiency. Eight months of zinc pills and it’s not better, actually worse. Pictures are from 10 months ago. Sure wish we could figur by e out what this is and if it’s treatable.

sibmom wrote:

What was happening around her mouth must have been seasonal allergies.  We see it again during the same time of the year.  We’ve found it to be treatable thankfully.

Poor thing has hair loss on both hindquarters.  Vet said it might be Alopecia and skin vet said might be Zinc deficiency.  Eight months of zinc pills and it’s not better, actually worse.  Pictures are from 10 months ago.  Sure wish we could figur by e out what  this is and if it’s treatable.

That's promising that the face patch was treatable. Those bald spots stink, though. I hope you can find out what's going on with Alopecia's skin.

Kavik_the_Havoc wrote:

I am also curious on if you discovered if this is an allergy or a zinc deficiency. A family member's husky has the exact same discoloration on his face and it is a persistent problem. The vet has put him on antibiotics for it, but they would not test him for a zinc deficiency.
The husky has been put on zinc pills anyway. He also has thyroid issues but I'm not sure they're related.

Can definitely be related to thyroid if its hypothyroid. Apparently, an under active thyroid inhibits zinc absorbtion. I've also heard that Huskies require more zinc than the average dog. My first husky popped up with underactive thyroid at about 2 years of age, had to argue with the vet to have her tested....he was insistent that she had mange (she tested negative for that)

Ptoot wrote:

Can definitely be related to thyroid if its hypothyroid. Apparently, an under active thyroid inhibits zinc absorbtion. I've also heard that Huskies require more zinc than the average dog. My first husky popped up with underactive thyroid at about 2 years of age, had to argue with the vet to have her tested....he was insistent that she had mange (she tested negative for that)

I'm guessing your pup had hair loss since the vet was thinking mange. Did she have any other symptoms?

It is Hypothyroid, yeah. He was very lethargic, had an insatiable appetite, was putting on a lot of weight for no apparent reason, his coat didn't look right, and he had a muddy look in his eyes as if he were having a bad case of brain fog. The patch on his face comes back persistently and there is a yellowish stain that never goes away. It gets inflamed sometimes and never fully goes away.

At one point she had lost 80% of her fur. It was horrible. I battled this for years and only managed to keep it controlled. She had 1/2 a vanectyl P every day, if I missed a dose it would start to flare. I also used grapefruit seed extract when the yeast would start