Dachshund with Cushing's: Why is her tail losing hair and itching?

One of the things that Cushing's disease affects is the normal metabolism of hair follicles. Normally hair follicles "turn over" or produce hair quickly enough that we don't see areas of hair loss even though dogs (and us) lose hair daily. When a dog has Cushing's disease, the hair follicles are not regrowing hair as quickly as possible. (And often they do not shed the hairs normally.) Cushing's disease also affects their immune system, so it is more likely that dogs will get overgrowth of normal yeast and bacteria that can invade the hair follicles and cause the hair to fall out. So, what I would suspect occurred is that Buttercup had an area of hair where the hair follicles had a yeast or bacterial overgowth that invaded the hair follicles. Instead of shedding normally, those hairs stayed in place and allowed the bacterial/yeast overgrowth to spread until the hairs were mechanically removed with a brush. And since her hair follicles were not regrowing hair normally, the area is now bald. If there is any crusting, itching or redness that develops, I would certainly have your vet examine Buttercup. Otherwise, i would recommend regular bathing and brushing to remove dead undercoat and prevent future skin problems. It will take time, but fur should regrow in that area as long as the skin there is healthy. Good luck! I hope that was helpful and answered your question. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hello and thank you for using our consultation service. dogs that are his age and breed can sometimes get conditions or diseases that can cause all of the dermatological symptoms you are experiencing. Some of the possibilities include shedding, food allergies, breed specific pattern baldness, flea bite dermatitis, ringworm, etc. In order to find out exactly what is going on, you need to have your local veterinarian do a complete physical examination as soon as possible before this gets worse. Your vet will want to do some testing such as a skin scrape, ringworm culture, bloodwork, etc. so that they can make a correct diagnosis. Although this certainly could be considered shedding, it is fairly unlikely because there are patches missing in different places. Therefore, this is most likely a condition or disease that needs to be diagnosed by a veterinarian. I hope I have provided you with the answer you needed. Have a great day.

At his age I would consider an endocrine problem such as Cushings disease or s low thyroid. These can cause hair loss and skin infections. Your vet can do a skin scraping to check for parasites and lab work to check for the endocrine problems. If there are raw spots now you can apply some cortisone cream until you can get him treated

Hello. Thanks for contacting us about Scarlett. Biting the tail could be due to a few things. She could have an allergy which is causing her tail to itch, or she could have impacted anal glands which causes general discomfort around the tail area. Anal glands can be emptied by your vet. Hair loss in younger dogs like her is usually due to the dog biting the area as you suspect. I would have your vet check her skin and anal glands and go from there. I hope that helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

It is difficulty to say without seeing it; however in general hair loss on the tail can be caused by ringworm, alopecia X, Cushing's disease, or even allergies. For further info on what the cause could be, you could opt to do some skin testing (i.e. impression, biopsy) +/- bloodwork to look for underlying causes. I hope that this helps and best of luck determining the cause for Mishk's hair loss. Take care.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This is possibly due to allergies. It really comes down to figuring out what is causing his allergies so that they can be treated or the specific allergen avoided. A secondary infection is likely and also needs to be addressed. The hair is expected to grow back when the allergies and infections resolve. There are many things that can cause allergies though in most cases they can be broken down into 3 big categories: flea, food and environmental allergies. Allergies are usually worked up in a stepwise fashion starting with flea allergies as this is the easiest and cheapest to take care of. If not on a flea preventative, then it would be a good idea to get started on one. If already on one then it would be a good idea to change to something else (there are many new products out in the market). If not improved in 1-3 months then it is time to move on and check for food allergies by switching to a novel diet (new protein and new carbohydrate). If that does not seem to be the issue then you are left out having to check for environmental allergies which require blood and/or skin tests. Allergies can be very frustrating to deal with at first but so rewarding at the end when we are able to treat them effectively!

It's very unlikely to be cushing's, he doesn't seem to have most of the characteristic signs. it's more likely to be an allergy, maybe not to fleas though. allergy meds such as apoquel should probably be attempted next.