Why Has She got Bald patches??

I am currently dog sitting for a 3 year old Schnauzer she is pedigree and called star.

Star has two bald patches at the back of her body these do not iritate her.

At home the owner has two children the youngest is a boy who has bad temper tantrums, so Star gets abused we have tried to stop him but he wont listen.Could these patches have anything to do with stress.I am really worried because she is clearly mistreated timid and when loud noises occur she hides under the table or runs upstairs.

i also found out yesterday she has not had her boosters since she left the breeders .

I want to try and somehow get her off the owner.

Please help me understand
Thanks x

The poor dog

I believe it is possible that the bald patches are a stress related thing, though it could be an allergy or even from the way she lies (and what she lies on).

I would suggest a vet visit to get her throughly checked over.

If you can't persuade the owner to give Star up, try and encourage to the owner to set aside an area where the dog can go and the children can't so that she has a 'safe haven' when things get too much. A crate could be good for that but you've still got the problem of making the kids understand that they are not allowed anywhere near the crate....ever.

Hi Shannon welcome to Dogsey. Being a Schnauzer person myself I found your post very upsetting .

Is the skin in and around the bare patches clean and health, not red or scaly?
Yes stress can cause hair loss and I am thinking of one condition in particular but I won't go into details just now.

If the person wishes to get rid of the dog the breeder may help, or contact Schnauzer Rescue (look for it on Google).

You could also impress upon the owner that all dogs have a tolerance threshold and if this is exceeded a dog may bite with disastrous consequences for the dog and the child .

Thanks both of you

the skin is not red it is black and does not bother her at all

The owner says that it is something to do with when shes in season.

i think the owner has tried something like that she sleeps downstairs under the table in a basket (when at ours on the bed) but the youngest still hits her when he thinks nobody can see

x

As Mini says, you really need to impress on the owner that this is an accident waiting to happen.

If she cannot guarantee that Star has somewhere safe to go where the child cannot torment her, for the sake of both the child and the dog, I think she must look to rehoming Star.

Good luck in your efforts - at least Star has you trying to look out for her.

Well we are trying our best im just soo scared she is going to catch some thing as shes not up to date with her boosters and i really dont want her getting hurt

thanks for the support we are thinking of calling the rspca but dont know what they would do.

Not being up to date with boosters is absolutely no cause for concern at all.

One of my dogs has vaccine damage and I will now never vaccinate again, so I actually think this owner is doing her dog a service - especially if it already has skin issues, vaccines will only serve to irritate and make that worse.

As for calling the RSPCA, they put more dogs down than they save so they'd be the last people I would call!

I don;t think the RSPCA would do anything - as long as the dog has food/water and shelter.

Re : the Bald patches...could be an alergy/could be hormonal/could be thyroid/ could be stress....the list is quite long.

I hope you manage to sort out somthing for this dog.