Help me identify what might be causing my dogs hair loss
Hi all. A little background on our girl. We have had her for about a year and a half. She is mostly American Staffordshire with some bulldog mix according to her DNA test. She was a rescue that was likely being used for breeding. I’m assuming this because she was left at a shelter when she was unable to pass her puppies, most of which unfortunately didn’t make it. When we got her from her foster, she had a beautiful coat with no signs of hair loss.
Winter approached and she developed hives. The vet prescribed steroids which cleared most of them up and she seemed to clear up pretty well going into spring with minimal hair loss. This past winter, she had hives even worse. Two rounds of steroids helped a little but once again, only time really seemed to make them go away. I believe she had a dust mite allergy and I wasn’t keeping up with her bedding enough, but that’s just my guess.
She now suffers from this hair loss. I took her back to the vet who started her on cytopoint shots, she’s received one and it was two weeks ago. The hair loss seems to have gotten worse. She’s also a very very picky eater and hates any type of kibble, I’ve tried numerous. I switched to raw chicken and veggie mix from a k9 store. She’s been on it two months and loves it, but I do know staffs tend to suffer from chicken allergies. Her energy has improved, shes lost weight, and shes much happier and much more active.
I’m just at a loss for what’s next. How do I know the cytopoint is working? Should I switch from chicken to another raw food? Should I ask the vet to try Apoquel or should I stick with the cytopoint a little longer?
To add further to this, I’m just discovering something called flank alopecia, which can be caused in some dogs or breeds by lack of sunlight. This seems to fall pretty in line with ours and was wondering what people have used for it. I see melatonin is an option. Are there any devices that mimic sunlight that might be beneficial to have in the winter months?