Hair Loss

[willnmindy]

My boxer, Jackson, is now 3 years old. About 4 months ago he had about five spots extremely small spots show up on his truck.....hair loss...the areas were completely bald exposing his black skin. Now, his entire trunk is thinning. No hair is growing back. On each side of his trunk there is a distinct line from his hind legs to just below his neck area. There is no thinning of his hair on the under side of his trunk (belly and chest area). Only on the top trunk area. It is very easy to tell extremely thin areas to minor thinning areas. The vet told me it was a seasonal hair thinning. He has never had this before. My other boxer, Jake, who is 4 years old has not had this issue. I am worried that it may be something else. He is not urinating excessively, the areas he is losing hair is not irritated or itchy, he does not drink water excessively, no loss of appetite, no loss of energy...he is the same old Jackson, but with these weird hair thinning areas. Does anyone have any advice or recommendations?

 

[gmacleod]

The vet told me it was a seasonal hair thinning. He has never had this before.

Your vet is probably correct Seasonal flank alopecia is fairly common to boxers (and several other breeds too). And it doesn't matter if he hasn't had it before - it's a condition that more commonly begins around the age of 4 than affects younger dogs. Your guy is 3, so he's not really atypical

Obviously, it's hard to say for certain that that's what it is without seeing the dog or at least a photo. But your description of the symetrical hair loss beginning on the flanks, combined with the dark grey/black skin sounds like classic SFA. If you'd like to see some other examples, go to the gallery here and type seasonal alopecia into it's search - you will find photos of several dogs that way. My dog is also a sufferer, and his darkened/thinning patches are visible in several photos in my gallery also (in case you want more examples - but the others are closer shots).

 

[balthazar]

Willnmindy, your not alone. My boy will be 3 in september and he has developed it for the last couple months. Two spots, one on each side, just in front of his rear legs.
Like yours, he has no side effects, same ol bathazar.

Had him tested for mange, but came back clean.

Poor guy, I know he doesn't care, but he looks funny as heck. I guess since I'm bald, he just wants to look like me.

 

[ChristyA]

Sophie had this problem for a few years when she was younger. The vet did every test in the book and they all came back fine. Her hair is thin in that area, and the skin is still black.
Christy
Dexter and Sophie both 9 1/2

 

[Cleo's Mom]

This year my Cairo has this( or what I think is this after looking at the gallery). My concern is that he just turned two. It is on both sides on his trunk. Could he just be young and getting this or should I be worried it is something else. Can I buy the supplement or do I go to a vet to buy this. It looks exactly what I see in some of the gallery pics.

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

My dog had something similar to this and he turned out to be hypothyroid. Did your vet do a thyroid test?

 

[Cleo's Mom]

I did take him to the vet. He did not do a blood test because Cairo has no other symptoms and the spot are symetrical on both sides. He did not however tell us about the supplements.

 

[The4legged1]

Dixie has the same hair loss symptoms. The vet did bloodwork and the thyroid came back in the normal range. He also did a scrape on both sides and said that looked normal too. She is still a spaz and seems to feel completely normal...just looks a little funny. The vet gave me some supplement that is supposed to help stimulate hair growth. We'll see.