I hope someone can help me out...

[eidroj]

I have two rotties. One female who is 8 years old, and one male who is now almost 3 years old. I have never had any skin problems with our female, but lately we've noticed that there is just something not right with our little guy. We've had our share of problems with him. He's gone from having a broken leg to a broken hip and now we've noticed this skin problem he is taking on. I'm pretty sure he is part German Shepard. (well at least he looks it to us)... We wouldn't know because we adopted him from the local animal shelter, and he ate his papers that were hanging from his cage haha ... Anyway... we've noticed for a while that he sheds so much more than our other rott, it's pretty excessive. He also smells pretty bad, but just within the past week we've noticed that we are pulling wads of hair out all over his body. Also on the surface of his skin there's this kind of a whitish colored crust, and when we pull some of the hair out the white, crusty stuff is left on the roots of his hair. We've never experienced this with any of the rotts we've owned, so I hope that someone out there will read this and help me out if they can.

Thanks a lot,
Jordan and Tucky

[Brooke&Ryan]

What has the vet said about this?

If I had a dog that I could pull wads of hair off of, I would be getting to the vet pronto. That is just not normal.

[Anne]

I too would have this dog to the vet urgently.

How is this dog fracturing these bones...that's a worry. How did he break his leg and then his hip?

[eidroj]

We're taking him to the vet this Wednesday. I was just wondering if someone out there had ever experienced anything like this. Maybe 'wads' was a bad choice of words. It's not that he has bald spots from where we pull the hair from, but he's shedding excessively. Either way he's being seen by our vet this week. And to answer your questions Anne... we're not sure how he broke his front leg, but we have a cabin and there are a lot of rocks around. So we were guessing that when he was out playing he might have done something to it then. The surgeon said it was a clean break so he might have just jumped on it wrong. I'm not sure... he was only about 14 months old when that happened to him. We thought maybe it was early signs of elbow dysplasia so we went to get him checked out and found out through x-rays that it was broken. And when he broke his hip was RIGHT after his arm healed which broke my heart. We were on our way up to the cabin and had both dogs in the back of the vehicle, and this baby deer ran out in front of us sending our other rott falling on top of him. She's a pretty big girl and he let out a yelp. As soon as we got home the following day we took him to the surgeon and found out it was broken. He's been our little money pit, but I love him so much. He's just had some rough luck in the first years of his life. I'll do anything to have him be healthy and happy.

[frontierrots]

My dogs shed a TON twice a year. Clumps, wads, tufts, hunks. WHILE they are shedding they also seem to shed skin as they get very itchy and dandruffy. But after the shed all is well again. I also notice this with lots of the dogs that come in for a groom while shedding

And I might add that not much sheds more (of the med-short coated dogs) than a Lab or a German shepherd except a mix of the two

[Anne]

My old adopted girl is shedding like mad at the moment and I find daily brushing a big help. She loves to be brushed so that makes it easy.

[brunie's mom]

What food are you feeding your dog? This could be one of the problems. If he is shedding and smells....I would suspect poor quality food.

I would also be worried that there may be more going on with your male dog. It's very unusual for a dog to be breaking bones from these small incidents. Most dogs can take alot more than a twist or a bump before a bone breaking. Have you had complete blood work done up on him??

Gina

[Dugganmom]

Duggan and hershey are shedding alot right now i think it is because it is summer. I would be concerned about why your dog is breaking bones so easy. Keep us posted as to what happens. Good luck! Jenny

[moondog]

I second the bloodwork recommendation. A thyroid deficiency or Cushing's disease are possibilities, as is a food or environmental allergy. You do need a vet to do some testing to help you sort it out, though.

[eidroj]

That's the thing... BOTH times we had him in for surgery we've insisted on doing bloodwork to find out what was going on. They told us both times that there was nothing that they found to give us any answers. We just take it easy on him now. It's so terrible because I used to take him on long walks and now he can only walk a few blocks before he slows down so we can take a break because of his hip. And about the food we feed him... we've been feeding him Nutro since the day we got him. I just can't wait to get him to the vet. The day isn't coming soon enough. I don't know how much more my vacuum can take haha