Why is my dog losing hair and getting light patches on her tail?

Great question. Hypothyroidism is very common in labradors but can easily be diagnosed with a simple blood test performed by your local veterinarian. Seasonal alopecia can also occur but typically can be eliminated with routine bathing and grooming. Since your dog is un-neutered, much of your dog's nutrition is going into energy and activity, so be sure to feed a high quality diet with plenty of fat for energy and haircoat production. Usually the better diets are highly digestible and produce low stool volume compared to cheeper diets. Bottomline, if you're worried about thyroid disease, ask your veterinarian to pull blood and rule it out, otherwise feed great diet and bath/groom as needed to control hair loss. If the coat doesn't look right, then schedule an appointment to have it examined to check for other possible causes such as parasites, allergies, or nutritional causes, Good luck and thanks. Steve Popish, DVM

That lesion on Lily could be several things including fleas, allergies, skin mites, bacterial infection, ringworm (which humans can get) or endocrine disease. There are a couple things you can do at home and they can help but they may not address the underlying cause. You can try adding in an omega 3 fatty acid supplement for dogs, this can help improve the skin health. You may also try changing her diet to something like Royal Canin or Nutro as they are aimed at skin health. You can wash the lesion once a day (not her whole body, just the lesion). Also protect the area from trauma by having your pup wear an elizabethan collar at all times. If the lesion is not improving within a week or if it is getting worse, have her examined by the veterinarian. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

A bald spot could be caused by allergies, skin infection, mites, ringworm, etc. You could bath him with a medicated dog shampoo and see if that helps. If not, have your vet examine him to determine the cause. He may need an antibiotic, anti-histamine, corticosteroid, or other medications to help treat the problem. You could also add Free Form Snip Tips to his diet and see if that helps to keep his skin and coat healthy.

It looks as if your dog has a skin infection, most commonly caused by an allergy, a skin mite (Demodex) or fleas. 

The allergy could be a due to a protein in your dog’s food or an environmental allergy like to dust, pollens, grasses, etc. 

The allergy causes your dog to itch and chew at the skin which breaks down the skin barrier. This then leads to infection. Skin infections are typically characterized by large areas of hair loss, redness, crusting, flaking, and pustules. A thorough skin examination by your veterinarian should be able to determine the cause of the itch so it can be treated appropriately. A skin scraping and skin cytology should be performed to rule out mites and to determine the type of infection present (bacterial vs fungal). Your dog will most likely need antibiotics/antifungals longterm to help clear up the infection and possibly an allergy/anti-itch medication like Apoquel, Atopica, or Cytopoint to give some relief while the infection clears up. A medicated shampoo will be beneficial as well. I would also recommend he be on a good flea control routinely too. Once the infection has resolved a long term allergy medication (like Apoquel or Cytopoint) can be given on a regular basis to prevent any future problems. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck.


Hello. Hair loss in dogs can be normal (shedding) if it is being replaced by new hair growth. This is normal and will occur, and clean up can be controlled by brushing your dog's hair every day. If patches are being lost and the skin is showing, you should check for fleas/mites. A skin scraping may be necessary. If that is not the cause it could be due to infection, allergies, or other causes.

This can be from an injury, scratching from fleas or an allergy, or may be due to her being hypothyroid. Low thyroid levels can cause dogs to have a rat tail look. I would check her for fleas, see if she’s scratching or rubbing the area due to allergies and consider getting a thyroid panel done to see if she is hypothyroid. If her thyroid level is low which is common in older dogs, then there is a daily supplement that will get the levels back to normal and the fur should fill in on the tail. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Daisy.

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!