Lab losing her fur???

Question

I have a 1 1/2 year old lab that is losing her fur...I thought at first that she was just getting a collar rub, so I switched the collar to a different one, but the hair loss continued to grow and is now across her chest and neck and the fur is getting patchy looking on her back (but she doesn't have any actual bald spots). Her skin is starting to flake along her back as well.

Does anyone have any ideas what this could be? We live in a rural area and had a disagreement with the local vet (when we got our beagle spayed she "fixed" a non existent hernia on her instead of the one on the male dog we were getting fixed too and then tried to charge us $150 extra for it...and she has the worst scar I have every seen and it then got infected cus they didn't get enough antibiotics. They also treated my husbands old lab and accidentally gave him the wrong shot and he ended up getting a heart attack (he was only 4). so we aren't on good terms with them and its a 1 hour drive to a different vet plus I work weekdays (I get their shots through the horse vet, but they won't treat dogs for this kind of stuff)

Answer 1

does she lay in dirt because my black lab named onyx laid in dirt and she bites up her back side  

Answer 2

Treat it to the other vets. Not a horse vet. Don't let her eat chicken bones or anything with chicken.

Answer 3

first of all you can sew them for that. ur lab is probably losing hair from the lack of water she isnt drinking or she could be stressed if u r using doggy shampoo try switching it most of the dog shampoos people buy r from wal mart and it is like useing dish soap on your hair drying it out. you dont have to go to another vet u can just go online to petsmart.com or petsrus.com they can get u what u need u can also get meds. over the internet too for ur beagles scar. and last if its stress its probably do to u having another female dog with her, like the teenage girls get stressed from each other as well. try seperating them for a few days see if she changes, and if shes scratching you may have fleas or a young stage of mange.

Answer 4

There's no way around it, you are going to have to take the dog to a vet.  The hair loss you describe could be ringworm (the MTG may or may not be effective against it) or mange or allergies or a number of other skin conditions.  A vet needs to do further diagnostic tests to determine what the problem is and how to treat it.  If you do not trust the local vet, then you will have to make arrangements with another vet to get your dog seen.  Many vets have weekend hours if you can not get time off during the week to go to the vet.  It sounds like this condition has been going on for a while, so if it has to wait another week or so before you can get into the vet it probably won't cause any real problems (it's not ideal, but if there's nothing you can do about it then you do the best you can).