# Hair loss around eye and mouth?



## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

My GSD Sinister has hair loss around his right eye and by his left lower lip. At first I thought it was from the evil puppy I used to have (he bit my dogs eyes and mouth) but that puppy has been gone for almost 4 weeks now and his eye and lip are still bald. Should I be worried? Do you think it might be hair loss or something else? Should I take him to the Vet???


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## Branca's Mom (Mar 26, 2003)

Sounds like could be mange, I would get him to the vet for a scrape.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

How do they get mange?


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## Chris Wild (Dec 14, 2001)

Close up photos so we can see what you are seeing would certainly help.

Demodetic mange is a possiblity. The demodex mites that cause it are always present on a dog, but in times of immune supression (which could be stress, health, vaccine or diet related) they can flare up out of control causing a case of demodetic mange. A scraping by the vet will reveal if that is what it is, and if so a course of medical treatment will fix it.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Ok, I will post pictures tonight when I am home. Thank you guys!!!!!!!!


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Well, Sinister went to the Vet today and she said that he is allergic to grain and gave me lots of medicine to cure his baldness. He will be switching over to Solid Gold Barking At The Moon as it is grainless and will be better for him


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

Did your vet do a skin scraping to check for mange mites? 

How did she determine that he's allergic to grain?


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Well I told her that I just switched his food. He was on Wolf Cub and that was grainless and then I put him on Wolf King and that has grain and a couple of days after we had switched his food he started losing hair around his eye and mouth. She said it looks like it's allergies and his eye had some blood around it where he had scratched it. She also said that mange doesn't start off in the locations where he is missing fur. Does that make sense?


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

*Rerun*

Which food do you think would be better for him..... *Barking At The Moon* or *Blue Wilderness Chicken Recipe*?


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

I don't know how a vet can determine that a dog is allergic to grain without running a blood test. 
I would say it is mange, vs the food you are feeding. The change in diet may have stressed him enough to bring on a flare up. 
Are you sure one of his toys isn't causing a problem? Just a thought-Karlo loves his teaserball but it messes up his face, so he doesn't get to play with it anymore.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

Wolf Cub isn't grainless...it has pretty much the same as the Wolf King.

Wolf Cub.
Bison, Salmon Meal, Brown Rice, Cracked Pearled Barley, Rice Bran, Canola Oil, Flaxseed Oil, Garlic, Amaranth, Blueberries, Yucca Schidegera Extract, Taurine, Carotene, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, (a chelated source of iron), Zinc Proteinate (a chelated source of zinc), Copper Proteinate (a chelated source of copper), Manganese Proteinate (a chelated source of manganese), Potassium Iodide, Thiamine Mononitrate, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Supplement, Biotin, Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (vitamin B6), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Vitamin D Supplement, Folic Acid.



Wolf King.
Bison, Ocean Fish, Brown Rice, Millet, Cracked Pearled Barley, Rice Bran, Canola Oil, Flaxseed Oil, Garlic, Amaranth, Blueberries, Yucca Schidegera Extract, Taurine, Carotene, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Iron Proteinate, (a chelated source of iron), Zinc Proteinate (a chelated source of zinc), Copper Proteinate (a chelated source of copper), Manganese Proteinate (a chelated source of manganese), Potassium Iodide, Thiamine Mononitrate, Ascorbic Acid, Vitamin A Supplement, Biotin, Calcium Pantothenate, Sodium Selenite, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (vitamin B6), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Vitamin D Supplement, Folic Acid.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

LaRen616 said:


> Well I told her that I just switched his food. He was on Wolf Cub and that was grainless and then I put him on Wolf King and that has grain and a couple of days after we had switched his food he started losing hair around his eye and mouth. She said it looks like it's allergies and his eye had some blood around it where he had scratched it. She also said that mange doesn't start off in the locations where he is missing fur. Does that make sense?


Demodex mange actually does frequently start off around the eye. The ear tips is also a common area. I have two adopted girls who are demodex dogs (neither has had any signs/symptoms of it since clearing up initially), one who started with minor hair loss around her eye around 10 months old, vet never did a scraping and I had no clue about mange back then (this is my 6 yr old female). This girl was bred by leader dogs for the blind. Neither my vet, nor theirs, diagnosed it correctly - thought it was allergies, etc. and I was putting ointment and she may have been on some oral meds (can't remember that far back). Only after she went back to leader dogs for formal training at 1 yr of age, then was "career changed" and adopted back out to me due to mild hip dysplasia 3 - 4 weeks later did it finally get diagnosed correctly due to a skin scraping.

My other one was a severe rescue neglect/abuse case and it was also diagnosed via skin scraping. We knew she had mange (given her baldness and oozing sores), it was just a question of which one in that case...demodex or sarcoptic. 

I would personally request a skin scraping. I suppose you could just switch the food back to what you were feeding previously, and see if it clears back up.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

Every time I've ever seen localized mange it's always started around the eyes or the mouth. 

Demodectic Mange


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)




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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

That looks identical to what my 6 yr old presented with when she was 10 months. It was demodex.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

My Vet gave me

NeoPolyDex opth. ointment and Diphenhydramine


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Ok. Sinister has an appt for thursday april 8th for a skin scrape


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## RubyTuesday (Jan 20, 2008)

Good to read that you're getting the scrape. Far too many vets leap to declare dogs allergic to grains, chicken, grass etc without any real testing. I think they're even more likely to jump to such conclusions with allergy prone breeds. A downside is the problems persist & all too often some vets simply pile on more things the dog is allergic to such as turkey, duck, fish, potatoes, oats etc. There can quickly be vanishingly few foods the dog is permitted, often very expensive, hard to find foods you wouldn't even want to feed if you felt there was a choice.

Many health problems eventually resolve even without intervention which can lead owners & vets convinced it was some recent change in diet. Hopefully you'll get a definitive answer as to what is happening with Sinister. Don't hesitate to question & push your vet for additional tests or information. IMO, the best health professionals have an open, questing mind which welcomes a deeper look into things.


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