why is our doggy going bald

hi we have a 4 year old westie (pippa) we bought her about 2 yrs ago, she has been fully spayed, because of an infection, (before we got her.) she is still very nervouse even now, but she,s started loosing her hair on her back near to the tail and on her side. the vets given her steroids . and her groomer says she only has a single coat, not a double one.................help

Could it be mange?

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/mange1.html#Demodectic

Hello

Hair loss may have any of a number of causes including: Flea allergy. Seasonal alopecia. Thyroid problems. etc.

Did the vet give you a diagnosis? Did he take skin scrapings? Is he doing a blood test? Did he say why he has prescribed steriods?

Hi ron4haze firstly welcome to Dogweb..there are a number of reasons dogs lose their coats including hormonal /fungal/pests problems, the only way to be sure is to have tests done by the vet to eliminate various possibilities.

Westies as you probably already know have two layers of coat, a soft dense undercoat and a top wire coat, single coated means your dog does not have both coats .

NB. Sorry SB posted at the same time

Westies are known for having skin problems, my advice would be to get her on a diet with lots of real enzymes and vitamins (not synthetic or man made food) and do not continue to vaccinate. If the vet disagrees tell him to look in his VET manual ''do not vaccinate if [the patient] already has a known immune deficiency''.
Did the vet tell you for what reason he put your dog on steriods? Hair loss can be a side effect of taking steriods!!!

I would be inclined to return to the vet and ask them to do bloods(Thyroid) and scrapings, I wouldn't mess about with anything else until then. It is very easy to misdiagnose when you haven't seen the dog so my advice would be to return to the vet asap.

The vet has probably tried to cover all bases by giving steroids (prob Preds?) but further investigation is better.

Once sorted you will more than likely find that your dogs coat comes back.

he says she has a skin condition ie exma , the steroids is for the inflamation, she,s only been on them for about 2 weeks

Hi there Ron,

Glad you decided to join! I knew you would find lots of answers here!

thank you all for your replies, we think or perhaps know that pip, has been used for breeding purposes from a very young age, when we got her the reason for her sale was that she was no good to them now that she,s been spayed, all this in two years is a lot for her.pips very loyal to hazel my wife, but very wary of men me included. im weening her off the steroids now slowly , when she goes back to the pdsa i will ask them to do some checks,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,ron and haze

Any other problems or symptoms, like loss of bladder control or pot belly?

I had an elderly dog that developed baldness along his back and lost all the hair on his tail. But he was quite old and also lost control of his bladder and developed the pot belly. He was still very active and fun loving. On taking him to the vets they said he had Cushings Disease

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...s_disease.html

and he had to go on medication. (Lysodren). Unfortunately he didn't respond too well to the drug but he was 14.