Hi,
I am so worried about my 9 month old Westie (Pebbles), over the last month and a half she has started to lose hair around her mouth and eyes.  I've taken her to two vets who both tell me it's food allergies.  I've tried 4 different types of foods and nothing seems to be working.  At the moment she is on Eukanuba a Vet's diet, and after eating a meal the skin around her eyes gets really red.  Within the last two days she has started to scratch the area more frequently.  She doesn't look like she's suffering, but she's a puppy and all she wants to do is play.  I'm not sure what to do.  Has anyone experience something similar?

Jessica

Hi Jessica,
I have a westie called Milly she is 11 months old. I had her at the vets last night as her skin has gone blackened and she just cannot stop itching all the time. Its driving us round the bend, the vet was great and advised us that when westies are between 6 and 12 mths they are prone to allergy's, this can be prompted by anything from clipping to her diet. Milly is on Eukanuba as well ??? She has given her anti allergy tablets which she has to have one a day for a month and that should settle things down. She will see her again after this time as she will be due her boaster injection by then also. Even after 2 of these tablets you can see her skin changing back to pink on her back - If tests have to be carried out on her they can be quite expensive however will be covered on the kennel club insurance that we have on her. Bless her she is so gorgeous. I hope that we can sort it out. I would def take Pebbles to the vets, as its probably an alleregy like Milly. Seems strange they are both on Eukanuba !

Hi Westiemillie. :-)

Not sure where you vet has heard that westies are prone to allergies between 6-12 months as that is not correct.

Perhaps he meant if a dog has allergies they may show up at this age.   

Not sure why vets says things like this.

Westies coats come in at 4-6 months and they like most harsh coated breeds get a bit itchy as it is tickley coming through but it is not an allergy.

I do sympathise with your troubles though and hope you can get them under control. Westies I do not think need this high protein diet , they do better on lower protein food such as tripe and a light terrier biscuit.

A recent visitor to the board told us her vet used the term " westie skin" but what is interesting is if the Percentage of westies wth  bad skin was so great I cant understand why they  cheaper to insure than most dogs.

I could insure my westies cheaper than our labrador :-)  They are not on the list of high risk at all..   

Good luck//

I do suggest changing the diet to the pair of you..

I agree with Blue, you would be better feeding a little bit of tripe with, burns or something what doesn't have any additives like james well beloved, burns or wafcol hypo allerginic, these foods have no additives in them and are a healthy food to feed your dog with a bit of tripe to tempt them.  I would say my self it does sound like an allergy if she is losing her around her eyes and nose. Try these foods and i will bet my life that you will see an improvement in your dog within three weeks.  Also i know westies are white but dont  be bathing them constantly because they dont need it and if you dont wash their coats properly that can cause problems in it's self with them having a double coat the left in shampoo can cause irritation.  Also has your dog been treated for fleas, these little buggers can cause a lot of irritation.  I'd also say that chemicals what you use to clean your house can cause allergies like bleach, so i'd advise mopping up with non biological soap powder and be dog friendly.  In this way you are ruling out the probable causes.

It's funny you know Blue every vet i've been to says to me make sure you insure your westies because they have alot of allergies.  Which i've never had a problem with Charlies skin, also i thought that Westies skin was meant to be black not pink, the blackness comes on with maturity correct me if i'm wrong Blue because you have alot more experience than me.  Anyway good luck with your pup, i hope she gets better, because i bet it's getting on her nerves to.

Warm regards Susan

Frank the flea treatment is a good and important thing one I should have said :-) I faithfullly keep all my dogs treated with frontline and fully wormed.

I am not so sure about the colour of the skin or the impact it has some just have darker skin, some have more pigment than others. People use to think if it was darker it was better but from what I have seen with others I am not sure this is the case to be honest . I have a mixture of both so maybe over the years I will maybe form some opinion.  Some lines have darker pigment others don't.    Dogs with allergies skin darker for some reason but this shouldn't be confused with good pigmentation.

I do think that they seem to be less tolerant of some of the high protein commerical diets and the grass mites in summer can be a nusiance, fleas etc . Touch wood so far I haven't had a problem. I hate to even say that sometimes.

The day I have any trouble I would be first to put my hand up.

PS Hope my post didn't read that I was saying the dogs didn't have allergies they may well and sound as if they do.

I was just wanting to point out that all westies don't suffer from allergies.

I would definately change the food to raw tripe and maybe a bit of mixer through it and if you want "dog food" put a bit of Butchers through, this food has no additives and over the years ive used this.

Westie skin!!!!! vets!!!!! I wish they would stop saying about westie skin, its not always westies that can have skin problems, all breeds of dogs can get this, although I must say I had never really seen a westie with bad skin until I took one of my pups to the vet for her 1st jag and there was an older westie in with hardly any fur at all, I felt so, so sorry for the owners, and asked where they had originally purchased the westie from, no surprise when they told me, it was what we call an "iffy" breeder.   I commented to the vet when I went in to see him about the dog and he even said, well we only see the ones with the problems, we dont see the healthy ones.   dont think a lot of people believe westie folk when they say that they have not really seen skin problems, but unless your dogs have it then we dont see it. Like Blue i'm touching wood as in 16yrs ive not had this problem. Good luck Pam at Border Union will be watching the results.

Thanks Blue, was just wondering curious about the skin thats all i've heard people say that the skin should be black, dont know why though.  As you said though Marguerite all dogs can suffer with allergies, when my sister first got Charlie 5 years ago, they advised her to get him insured straight away because westies have bad skin and she asked them why they do and they said it's because they're white, i dont believe that though.  I've come to the conclusion though regarding the skin that if it's pink then they are more prone to have allergies, when i put Luicy on raw she couldn't stop scratching and her skin went pink now that i've chained her diet to a more suitable one her skins gone back black although i can only comment on her as i haven't got years of experience breeding them or nothing.

Warm regards Susan

I believe most wire haired breeds will suffer if clipped rather than stripped.

The dead undercoat and top coat needs to be stripped out, clipping just shortens ALL the hair and does nothing to thin it all out, thus whilst the dog appaers shorter coated, the coat is JUST as dense as if nothing had been done.

Then of course as the undercoat and top coat are the same length, it can matt and make the dog itchy.

Could this be the problem?? or part of it, and certainly part of the reason westies are supposedly prone to skin problems?? (being one of the most popular wire haired terrier breeds and the most likely to be clipped rather than stripped).

Food is another massive cause of itchies -- take the dog OFF cereal based foods, put it on an elimination diet of just meat and a couple of veg and see if that makes a difference, it will take time though!

Em

Hi,
It's nice to hear that Pebbles isn't suffering from the dreadful "Westie Skin" what ever that is.  I still have her on the Eukanuba her vet perscribed and nothing has changed, but I did notice that yesterday after cleaning the house, her eyes got redder than they have been.  I'm going to purchase some none chemical household cleaners and hope for the best.  She also has an appointment tonight maybe I'll have her vet check for grass mites. 

What type of foods have tripe, burns, james, and wafcol?  Excuse me for sounding so out of touch, but the only foods I know of are Science Diet, Eukanuba, Wellness, and the other more advertised food. 

Thank you for all your help.

There the same as science plan or eubakunba a complete food but they dont have any additives, tripe you can by from your butchers or pets at home.  I hope pebbles gets better.

good luck, warm regards Susan

Thank you so much for clearing that up for me.  I took Pebbles to her vet last night and she is clear of mites.  So I'm back to square one, with food allergies.  The vet wants me to keep Pebbles on the Eukanuba since it wasnt given a fair chance, being that I was giving Pebbles treats along w/ the food.  So another six weekes of Kanuba. . .

Thank you again.