Folks, I thought I'd post this here in addition to a Chihuahua forum just to get more exposure/thoughts on this. We've had Glory since March 2010, so just under two years now and she just turned 5 yrs old this past December. Since we adopted her she's had some sort of rash/breakout like what you can see in the picture below:



She doesn't have fleas and she doesn't have flea allergy dermatitis. This is the third time she's developed this rash since we've had her. The first time was during the summer of 2010, the second time during the summer of 2011. Each time she gets it, it seems to irritate her quite a bit. She bites and picks at it constantly if you let her to the point that she bleeds. Each time this has popped up I bathe her in Bio-Groom Natural Oatmeal anti-itch soothing shampoo and also apply 1% hydrocortisone to the affected area anywhere from 1-3 times a day (as needed). I also put a sweater on her to deter her from bothering the site. Each time her skin clears up within a week and she's back to normal.

She's already healing from this lastest rash but I thought I'd post and see if anyone's seen or experienced this before and might have a clue as to what it is? I've made an appointment for all 3 of my dogs to see my old holistic vet in FL in a couple weeks. While I'm there I'm getting a second opinion on Faith's lump in her mammary area, Glory's knees reevaluated, and I'll show her the picture of Glory's rash and ask her thoughts on it. In the meantime, any ideas?

My BC Maggie used to get these and the holistic vet put her on a detox oral solution. It got worse before it got better but cleared up. In conjunction he had me switch to a very limited ingredient kibble, California Natural. It's wasn't the Orijen Senior quality but had far fewer ingredients.

Looks like a reaction to something. I hope your vet can figure out what!

The first 2 times were in the summer, but this time it's in the winter, however, I think we've all been saying that it's been warm for it being winter.

The first 2 times she got it, was it early summer when the weather was transitioning between spring and summer - when it was warming up?

Just trying to find a common factor....maybe that info ca help your vet figure out the onset of this irritation...

Lordbroll wrote:

My BC Maggie used to get these and the holistic vet put her on a detox oral solution. It got worse before it got better but cleared up. In conjunction he had me switch to a very limited ingredient kibble, California Natural. It's wasn't the Orijen Senior quality but had far fewer ingredients.

Did your vet say what Maggie had? I'd like to know more about the oral solution...what was it treating exactly?

As far as diet, our Glory is constantly eating new things as I rotate their diets very frequently. I couldn't tell you with absolute certainty what she was eating the first two times this happened. But I'm pretty sure in the summer of 2010 she was on The Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw with some type of kibble and summer 2011 she was on THK 4 days a week and raw 3 days a week. She's currently on Blue Buffalo Wilderness Duck kibble with Fresh Pet Select refrigerated turkey rolled 'wet' food. All along she's been eating a good diet though.

hypers987 wrote:

Looks like a reaction to something. I hope your vet can figure out what!

I do too!

cmanding wrote:

The first 2 times were in the summer, but this time it's in the winter, however, I think we've all been saying that it's been warm for it being winter.

The first 2 times she got it, was it early summer when the weather was transitioning between spring and summer - when it was warming up?

Just trying to find a common factor....maybe that info ca help your vet figure out the onset of this irritation...

That's what has me perplexed is that this happened in winter this time around. But yes, it has been a warmer than normal winter here. It's not hot or anything, just warmer than normal. Our averages for the past week or two have been lows in 40's and 50's and highs in the 60's. Both times she got this rash in the summer was around the June/July timeframe so definitely mid-summer for this area and not during a seasonal change.

Huskyluv wrote:

Lordbroll wrote:

My BC Maggie used to get these and the holistic vet put her on a detox oral solution. It got worse before it got better but cleared up. In conjunction he had me switch to a very limited ingredient kibble, California Natural. It's wasn't the Orijen Senior quality but had far fewer ingredients.

Did your vet say what Maggie had? I'd like to know more about the oral solution...what was it treating exactly?

As far as diet, our Glory is constantly eating new things as I rotate their diets very frequently. I couldn't tell you with absolute certainty what she was eating the first two times this happened. But I'm pretty sure in the summer of 2010 she was on The Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw with some type of kibble and summer 2011 she was on THK 4 days a week and raw 3 days a week. She's currently on Blue Buffalo Wilderness Duck kibble with Fresh Pet Select refrigerated turkey rolled 'wet' food. All along she's been eating a good diet though.

He diagnosed it as either food or contact allergy. He really suspected food since she was in early stage kidney failure. It happened mainly in spring and summer the last two years so I still lean to allergies and thinner coat of old age. The oral mix had pulsatilla, ubichinon and solidago plus other ingredients for her other ailments. I hated trying two things at once so not sure which helped. She had so many other more pressing health concerns but at least it cleared up.

Thanks Brian, I'll look into that out of curiosity. And I'll still see what my old holistic vet thinks when I take Glory in a couple weeks.

My holistic vet says she has seborrhea and dermatitis. She has both the dry and oily seborrhea and is now on a special (and might I add EXPENSIVE) shampoo to manage it. The seborrhea along with her allergies are also leading to her dermatitis and bacterial infections on her skin.

Due to the vastly different and numerous different diets we've tried with her we are thinking that her allergies are most likely not food related but environmental. In addition to the special shampoo, she gave us 3 different holistic supplements to give Glory daily. Two supplements for improving her coat condition given once a day and another supplement for environmental allergies to be given twice a day. And of course she will need baths at least once a week or more from now on.

So all this on top of her color dilution alopecia (CDA) is making me want to pull my own hair out. For those unaware, CDA is hairloss caused by dilute color genes. CDA commonly affects blue dogs because blue is a dilution of the color black. A good chi breeder will not breed two blue dogs together because of the risk of CDA. However Glory's horrible original BYB owner irresponsibly bred Faith, a blue tricolor, with a male blue merle, and Glory gets to suffer the consequences of that irresponsibility. I know I'm preaching to the choir here but it's just a perfect illustration of how BYB can have so many consequences and they're not worth supporting at all. Not only does Glory have to live with her problems but her owners have to spend tons of money trying to manage them. Anyone thinking of buying from a BYB, please tell them to talk to me about Glory!