Hi

I'm posting this on behalf of my mum and her 12 year old male Golden Retriever.

Over the past few months Ben has been losing his hair, mainly on his underside, with his stomach now completely bald.  When the hair falls out his skin becomes black, dry and flaky.  His tail and feathers on his front paws are becoming really thin also.

He's fed on Hills Science - Senior Adult with Chicken twice a day and gets raw veg to supplement.  For a while she tried Salmon oil in his food to try to get the moisture back but Ben wouldn't eat his food.

The vet has tested him for Thyroid which has come back clear.

Has anyone seen something similar?  Do you think she should change his food to something wet to get the moisture back into his skin or is there anything else someone can suggest?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks
Lisa

I was thinking thyroid problem, sometimes test results come back normal if the levels are borderline, might be worth having another test or at least getting the sample analysed again if that is possible.

I don't know very much about pet foods as I feed my dogs a raw diet, but I don't think Hills is one of the best foods.  I'm sure someone will be along soon to advise.

Adding flax seed oil and vit e oils help with the coat so it might be worth adding these supplements too.

Has the vet tested him for Cushings as well? That's another possibility.

My initial thought was thyroid, as Perry mentioned. Thyroid problems are notoriously difficult to get an accurate reading and it often depends which tests the vet does. Jean Dodds at Hemopet in the US (http://www.hemopet.org/) is THE expert in this field and it's well worth getting the samples sent to her for a full panel test. My vet sends the samples for me (I've got one Dobe with hypothyroid and one that's borderline).

Would also have a skin scrape in case it is demodex.

I would also suggest it might be Cushing's Syndrome.  My 10 yr old golden had Cushings diagnosed earlier this year.  I found this site very useful to explain what was happening, sadly we couldn't save her.  But it isn't always bad news with Cushings and can be controlled with medication.

http://www.canine-cushings.co.uk/diagnosis.htm

Thanks for everyone's replies.  I'll pass the information on to my mum and hopefully we can get to the bottom of this soon.

Thanks again.

Lisa

hi this is a long shot but could it be that the dog may have developed an allergy? with food etc.