Hair loss

Brandysmom

My 9 mo. old female boxer has started losing hair in small patches on the right side of her face. I bathe her with a very mild puppy shampoo and she does not have fleas. There doesn't appear to be any kind of rash and she isn't scratching. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be and how to fix it?

Frenchy

You might be going through the "Ugly puppy stages" where the puppy becomes an adult and loses all his puppy hair for the new adult hair to grow in..

Have you asked a Vet about it yet? Some times a call is all you need.

sonnywimps

sounds like a food allergy. What are you feeding her?

sonnywimps

also wanted to add, along with a possible food allergy it could be ringworm.

dch

I grew up with Boxers and showed and bred a few litters and had several champions.

Anyhow, you may want to take her to the vet and get a skin scrapping done. She could have a type of mange or Seasonal Alapacia. (sp?) I've seen some bloodlines of Boxers with seasonal alapacia that would affect them with loosing hair in patches before, during or after their heat cycles. And those females would have it when they had a litter of puppies too.

If she had any type of mange you may be affected. So I doubt it's that.
It's just something to watch for.

The right dog food is very important too. As I've posted before, Grain free diets are the best (and only!) way to go.

A few things to think about when trying to figure out what she may have:
does she have deep wrinkles on her face? How are her eyes? Does she have smelly ears with any brown stuff or puss in them? Does she rub her face? Any excess tearing? Or dry eyes? Could she have injured her eye(s)? (My Boxers would play so hard or jump around and would scratch a cornea.) I would look at her teeth and gums too. Look for any type of abscess in her mouth.

Has she had her first heat yet? Or is she spayed? (I've seen spayed females have the seasonal alapacia too.)

She could be allergic to the shampoo that your using. A great shampoo to use (You should dilute any and all shampoos you use on her) is Micro tek. It's made by Equiss. It's great for any kind of skin problems.

I miss my Boxers! I'm waiting to find that right puppy to buy!

Good luck!

Sivaro

Yes, I was thinking along the lines of dch. I find many dogs that this happens to do have mange. If it is, its best to get onto it quickly. It travels awefully quick.

sonnywimps

Going to correct you here as well. Not all dogs do well on grain-free diets. The majorty does, but not all. Some dogs needs the grain or else out it comes the same way it came in.
There are many good, quality dog foods with rice in (a grain). All are human quality and excellent foods.

dch

"Going to correct you here as well. Not all dogs do well on grain-free diets. The majorty does, but not all. Some dogs needs the grain or else out it comes the same way it came in.
There are many good, quality dog foods with rice in (a grain). All are human quality and excellent foods."


In my 46 plus years of lots of doggy experience, I have seen just a few dogs that were fed raw food only, have it go out the same way it went in. And that was dogs fed Turkey. Oh was that gross!

I love grain free diets much better whether it be kibble or raw as the dogs do so much better. Cleared up lots of skin problems, yeasty ears, dull eyes and coats, just to mention a few. Many years ago when i was a vet tech, this one vet I worked for taught me all about this. He was great!

Brandysmom, did you find out what your Boxer girl has?

sonnywimps

Grain-Free is definately the better way to go, but it does not work for all dogs. I have seen (well literally not seen, but been told be costumers) that their dog got sick on grain-free foods.
If my dogs could be on grain-free food, they would be...but all the grain-free foods that I tried (Evo, Orijen, Nat Var. Instinct, and Solid Gold's grain-free) made them sick.

dch

Have you tried Taste of the Wild? The High Prairie formula. It was the easiest kibble I put my dogs on. My mini Schnauzer friend put her dogs on that one and has had no problems with it at all.

They have a couple of different ones, and their fish based one is pretty good too. Although I use that one as treats.

Natures Variety has Montmorillonite clay in it. And a lot of dogs have gotten sick from the foods that this clay is in. It's terrible! Plus they put way too much of it in the dog foods that it's in.

Hey Brandysmom, how is your Boxer girl doing?