# Skin Issue at 5 Months



## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

Hello!

We have a 5 month of Vizsla without any family history of SA, but we’ve been seeing some patches develop. The vet did the first round of tests and didn’t find any sign of ring worm or SA, but wanted to see if anyone else had a similar situation.

He currently eats Purina ProPlan Sensitive Skin + Stomach for Puppies with a can of tuna on top and we give him a little primrose and omegas as well which seems to help a bit. And we only wash him once a week with oatmeal shampoo + conditioner.

If anyone has any similar experience let me know and I’ll also report back once we find what the culprit of the issue. Thanks!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

My best guess is Demodectic mange. If so it’s easily treated with Nexgard .


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## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

Thanks for that. I’ll bring it up to the vet tomorrow. He had a Nexgard pill on the 18th but it might just be taking a bit longer for his hair to grow back.


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## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

Usually threads go dead and not solutions are posted, so I want to keep this one up to date in case anyone has a similar situation.

*UPDATE:* We took him to the vet who gave him an allergy shot which cleared up all bumps on him, but the bald patches are still a work in progress. The doctor is running a blood panel to make sure there isn't anything metabolic that might be causing issues.

*What have we done so far and ruled out:*

*1. *We gave him another dose of Nexgard on 10/18 in case of demodex and/or fleas + ticks. So far this hasn't helped with the bald spots.

*2. *We found that Sebaceous adenitis doesn't run in his family, and he's young to show any auto-immune issues, so this is still the worst case scenario, but unlikely.

3. No sign of parasites, fleas, or ticks after a skin scrape. The lesions also don't appear to be related to ring worm.

*4.* We have given allergy pills from the vet and Benadryl on occasion that has cleared bumps up, but no noticeable effect on the bald spots.

*Currently doing the following:*

1. Waiting on metabolic panel results.

2. Only feeding Hill's Science Diet Puppy formula (no additional tuna, fish oil, etc).

3. Bathing him with Ceraven CHX+MC Antiseptic Shampoo.

4. Applying Pet MD Hot Spot Treatment to the bald spots.

The only remaining possibilities are ring worm (unlikely), SA (unlikely), seasonal allergies (likely), or a metabolic issue (pending test results).

I'll keep updating this thread as we hear more so anyone who is having a similar issue can see the process of figuring this out if their pup has similar symptoms.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Anytime they lose hair, it can take a while to grow back. If there are no new balding patches, dog is not scratching, and the skin is healing/looks healthy. I would give the treatment already given, a chance.


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## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

texasred said:


> Anytime they lose hair, it can take a while to grow back. If there are no new balding patches, dog is not scratching, and the skin is healing/looks healthy. I would give the treatment already given, a chance.


Great advice, and thank you. Crazy enough the blood panel came back clean today right when one of the spots he had started sticking up and became brittle. We pulled the hair out and there was a circular rash –– we're positive it's just a very strange type of ringworm that wasn't very noticeable in the other lesions. We're continuing with the shampoo treatment and will report back!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Kind of off topic. 
Have you ever seen ringworm glow under a black light? Not that you want a animal to have ringworm, but it’s to see it under the black light.


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## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

texasred said:


> Kind of off topic.
> Have you ever seen ringworm glow under a black light? Not that you want a animal to have ringworm, but it’s to see it under the black light.


I haven’t, but saw that online. We’re taking him in to get another skin scrape to get a diagnosis before confirming it’s ringworm, but the bumps and brittle hair in spots are pretty spot on to the symptoms.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

I’ve fostered a lot of rescue dogs, and have seen plenty of different skin issues. I’m not a vet, and tests could prove me wrong, but my money would still be on your pup having a few extra mites causing his skin issues.


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## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

*UPDATES*

Again, updating in hopes that this thread can be more informative than one that goes dead without resolution. Our pup did have a few more tiny dead hair circles that pulled off to reveal a laceration –– which is exactly what ringworm looks like, but apparently...isn't the problem.

*Another Type of Fungus: *Definitely possible.
*Allergies: *Negative. No itching or scratching and on a sensitive skin/coat diet.
*Demodex:* Negative
*Ringworm: *Negative Initial Sample (waiting for 2 weeks to see if anything grows in the lab).
*Sebaceous Adenitis: *Vet doesn't think so since he's so young (5 months), but it could be a possibility.

Waiting on further instruction from our vet, but she is baffled and said if ringworm is ruled out 100% we'll get more into the "fringe" diagnosis and keep exploring for what the issue could be.


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## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

Ok, about 2 days away from the fungus culture results coming back, but the following has almost cleared the bald spots.

1. Clotrimazole USP 1% (Lotrimin Cream)
(Over the counter, 2 times per day)

2. Sulfur + Lime Cream
(Over the counter, 1 time per day)

3. Covetous Phyto CHX+MC Shampoo
(Prescribed, 1-2 times per week)

Again, not trying to bump up a dead thread, but hoping this serves as some guidance to other owners and will end the thread with the final fungus results. Gotta love the strange fungus strains you’ll run into here in Los Angeles…


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Hopefully the last test results will give you answers. I always hate hearing the word idiopathic, when it comes to medical issues with the dogs. Sometimes if we can clear up the issue, we just have to come to terms with not knowing the cause.


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## Bob Engelhardt (Feb 14, 2012)

relativculture said:


> [...] not trying to bump up a dead thread, but hoping this serves as some guidance to other owners [...]


Your continuing follow-up will be much more useful to others. The thread may be inactive, but it's still there for others to find.


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## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

Appreciate it! And you’re totally right — difficult to not have an answer, but here are some photos to contrast with the original ones after throwing the kitchen sink at the problem.


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## organicthoughts (Oct 9, 2012)

Be patient

I would just stop fussing with it


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## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

*Update to end this thread.*

No sign of anything being medically wrong, but the spots have resolved after treating with anti-fungal cream and lime/sulfur. His hair is all back to normal. All lab results for ring worm, various fungus, etc came back negative after 3 weeks in a petri dish.

Wish I had more of a concrete example, but if anything can be gathered from this thread I guess sometimes Vizsla puppies have a flare up and it may not have anything to do with a fungus or immune disease.


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## Dan_A (Jan 19, 2021)

I'm not a vet but have had battles with skin disorders with my prior pup.

It could be something like seborrhoeic dermatitis. They don't really know what causes it, theories on autoimmune, allergies, etc. The conditions set themselves up to be favorable for secondary bacterial and fungal infections which furthers amplifies the cycle. The lime sulfur is showing signs of helping because its basically a nuclear bomb for parasites, fungus, and bacteria which helps break the inflammation cycle caused by secondaries. It also acts as a keratolytic which also aids in skin rejuvenation. If it is working well I'd keep with a sulfur/lime cream topical (dont let the dog eat it, the sulfur lime reacts with stomach acids to create poisonous hydrogen sulfide). You probably won't need the other antifungals unless it gets out of control again.

Another option is once it is under control switch to a keratolytic only cream which is less toxic than anti fungals/limesulfur.


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## oscarthevizsla (3 mo ago)

Dan_A said:


> I'm not a vet but have had battles with skin disorders with my prior pup.
> 
> It could be something like seborrhoeic dermatitis. They don't really know what causes it, theories on autoimmune, allergies, etc. The conditions set themselves up to be favorable for secondary bacterial and fungal infections which furthers amplifies the cycle. The lime sulfur is showing signs of helping because its basically a nuclear bomb for parasites, fungus, and bacteria which helps break the inflammation cycle caused by secondaries. It also acts as a keratolytic which also aids in skin rejuvenation. If it is working well I'd keep with a sulfur/lime cream topical (dont let the dog eat it, the sulfur lime reacts with stomach acids to create poisonous hydrogen sulfide). You probably won't need the other antifungals unless it gets out of control again.
> 
> Another option is once it is under control switch to a keratolytic only cream which is less toxic than anti fungals/limesulfur.


Thanks for this advice, and the tip on the lime/sulfur. I'll keep this in mind if any flare ups happen again –– it has to be something, but fingers crossed that it won't.


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