[grenade252]

I have a nearly 4 month old Lab/Rott mix puppy. Lately he has been itching a lot. I've combed and checked him for fleas, I couldn't find any. He had a skin disease a couple months ago but that has gone away. He was on Prednisone and Clavamox.

I've been feeding him Iams Large Breed Puppy food, I recently ran out and he was been eating Purina Puppy Chow. I'm going to get more Iams today to get him back on it, I've read into Purina and it doesn't sound too good.

I also just noticed he is losing fur around his right eye, you can see a circle around it where the fur is thinner, and some other small areas on his face. When he had the prior skin disease it scaled over a lot, this isn't happening this time.

Could it just be that he has dry skin/dander, and the switch to Purina is making him lose some fur? Or could it be something else? Is there any shampoos or moisturizers I should try before taking him to the vet? Last night I bathed him with Magic Paws Puppy Shampoo with Aloe.

Thanks for any help.

 

[spotted nikes]

Try a grain free food witha an alternative protein source to rule out food allergies. Go to www.dogfoodanalysis.com for some ideas. Try to find a 5 star or better food.

I'd also bring him back to the vet to make sure there isn't something else going on, due to the itching/hair loss around eyes.

 

[grenade252]

I just bought some new food and shampoo for him. There is only a k-mart, wal-mart, and 1 pet store near me so my choices were limited. I got Natural Balance Grain Free Sweet Potato & Bison food and Dermaplex shampoo. Here is the link for the food http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dogformulas/BisonDog.html. There was one other grain free food that was $10 cheaper but I can't remember the name. Once I start getting low on this food I might order one from the link you gave me. His hair loss isn't getting any worse so I'm going to try the new food and bathe him more often with the medicated shampoo to see if it helps. If it gets worse I'll take him to the vet. Thanks for the help.

 

[spotted nikes]

If you don't get results with that shampoo try Microtek anti itch shampoo. It works great. Search this forum for "Chow hair loss" and you'll find a long thread about someone who's chow was losing patches of hair, been to numerous vets, no result. Changing to TOTW (really any grain free alteranative protein food) and Microtek baths every 4 days for 3 weeks, then once a week for a couple of weeks then every 2 weeks then every month,) made the dog's skin issues go away, he put on weight and grew fur.