Hi,

I've got a brindle Mastiff cross bitch appx. 18 months old. We rescued her at appx. 5 months and she had already been spayed, we were told she was a Mastiff at the time but she hasn't grown enough and looks like she might have a bit of Staffie in her. She weighs appx. 40KG, is very docile and loving and loves to roll in fox poo, she has Advocate once a month and a Drontal tablet every 3 months. In the last week i've found 2 patches on her flanks where the hair is thinning, they were hard to see because of her skin colour but seem to be getting slightly worse, there is no other hair loss that I can find and she is not scratching. I have also found some small scab like areas (not where the hair loss is, more on her neck and cheek) and I was worried that she might have Mange so 2 days ago we went to the vet, he thinks because of the Advocate is is highly unlikely to be Mange. He took a blood test to check for Thyroid problems and gave(sold) me a bottle of Malaseb to use. Today I have found one of the scabs on her side and one where the hair is thinning where I could have a better look at it, it looks like a small boil/ large spot. Do dogs get acne? Could it be something as simple as that? or does anyone have any other ideas? I get the Thyroid test results in a few days but I think he just wanted to rule that out. I'm more worried than I would be normally as I also have a 10 week old puppy and don't want him getting the same if it's contagious/mange.

Thanks

The loss of flank hair is one of the symptoms of  under active Thyroid (more common in neutered animals) and in short coated breeds neutering can cause this, with or without the link to thyroid issues.

A proper full thyroid blood test would be advisable.  Does she also seem to feel the cold, lack energy etc?  These are also common symptoms along with the thinning hair on flanks, with under active thyroid in those dogs (mainly Dobermans) that I have known.

Hi ,
I have  a Samoyed that i rescued a few weeks ago with what sounds like the same symptoms, we thought he had midgy bites as he went through the bushes, his coat is short as he was very matted when we got him, now he has spots that have pus coming out of them and lots of bald patches.
My vet gave us anitbiotics and malaseb to bath him in , he is slightly better, my vet thought thyroid or hormonal, he had a T4 test that came back clear in january but if he is no better when we go back to the vets he will have further indepth thyroid tests .

ask the vet about lupus.

Just the T4 test is not enough always to discount thyroid problems I believe.