German Wirehaired Pointer Club of America

[waylonsmama]

We're new GWP parents, adopted our sweet boy about three months ago. He is (of course) the happiest, cutest and sweetest fellow we've met, but he has had some health issues and the latest is that he is pulling his hair out. He even has a couple of almost bald patches and his tummy is pretty much all white now.

When we brought him move from the shelter he was 13mo. and scarily thin. The vet found that he had giardia so we treated for that and realized he cannot tolerate gluten (neither can I, so we bought food with no wheat, barley or rye). This helped his tummy out and gained a much needed 6 lbs. over the months, but the vet discovered two weeks ago that he still has giardia plus another possible parasite (possibly trichamonas). And the reason we'd brought him in was not even his stomach but his skin, he gets a bit of eczema and he had been itching like crazy, he'd cut his skin from itching and the vet said it's a staph infection.

His tummy was fine before he started back on antibiotics, now it's not so good. His skin has healed from the infection, and we've been keeping him from scratching so he is now biting his legs raw and he seems to be taking off the hair.

Has anyone seen anything like this, them pulling out their own hair? Plus, underneath, his skin's all dry and pasty. I have been giving him olive oil in this food for weeks. I also tried bathing him in a mild shampoo with calendula oil, it helped with the scratching, but not the hair pulling/biting.

[ctperk]

Have you ask the Vet is he is allegeric to the antibiotic? Mine was, had him at the vet a couple of different times and both times when they started him on the antibiotic....he'd start itching.

Mine did bite at his legs at bit too. Another vet tried telling me it was food allergies so we switched to a high end, allergin free food, but did not help, I started him on Propac suggested by the breeder I bought him from and he has not had any skin problems since.

[waylonsmama]

Thanks so much for you reply! I hadn't heard of the Pro Pac, so will definitely try it out!

Since I first posted my inquiry, we've switched vets and been really happy with the results.

We've tested, treated and retreated for sarcoptic mange, thus ruling that out. And we've found a correlation between his tummy troubles and beef. So now we have him on a wheat-free, beef-free Primal Pet Foods raw diet, and there are no more tummy issues--it's amazing! No more giardia antibiotics!

We've narrowed it all down to food or environmental allergies. We're hoping that several more weeks on this new food will put a stop to his itching as well, but we're also moving cross-country so if it's environmental, it's possible that will improve as well.

Thanks so much, and I will def. make a not to try Pro Pac in the future for him!

Kristen