Skin Color Changes/odor

[lmj144]

Hi, I am a new Husky Owner member. 

My 2 year old husky has a couple new changes:

1) She has what appears like hair loss and brown color (appears dirty) of the hair on her elbows, her anus/back of tail and her abdomen. 

2) She has a general foul odor that despite several washes and having her anal glands expressed by the vet, will not go away....

Has anyone ever noticed this and if so do you have any idea what could cause it? I am not sure if the two are related or not.

She used to have a beautiful white coat with grey markings. 

I want to be sure she is ok and if she is not I want to make sure we get her the treatment she would need. 

Thank you for your help. 

 

[Mazz]

Welcome to Husky-Owners. All I can offer is some ideas. The odor could be caused by the food you feed your dog. Same could be true concerning the skin and hair issue. Some dogs, Huskies included, can have food allergies. Allergies in dogs do not necessarily manifest the way they do in humans. Lawn chemicals are another issue that impact dogs. The chemicals can be easily absorbed through their pads. Once in the system, the liver has to deal with filtering the chemicals out. How that works specifically, I have to admit I don't know. But the body has to expunge them somehow.

So, what are you feeding? Bare in mind that many Huskies have allergies to corn, wheat, and soy. Our Zoya is allergic to grass of all things, and both corn and wheat are grasses. So we feed her a kibble that is free of corn, wheat, and soy. But then some dogs are allergic to chicken. I would recommend, if the food you currently feed is grain based, that you consider a slow transition to a grain-free kibble. Taste of the Wild is one that many on this forum feed their Huskies, but there are others as well. A transition from one food to another should be done over the course of 7 to 10 days, to avoid tummy upset.

Have any lawn chemicals been applied to your lawn? We do not treat our lawn with chemicals. One reason is we are on a well, but the big reason is the dogs.

It may also help to give your dog a daily dosage of an Omega 3 oil. This helps with opening the pores in the skin, makes the skin less dry, and aids in their digestion. It takes about 30 to 60 days to begin seeing results from adding Omega oil to the diet.

Hopefully some others will give you some ideas and a big heart Husky Welcome as well.

[Jase]

Hi Lindsay, Welcome to the Forum.

 

Mazz has given you excellent advice above, it does sound that this is likely to be diet related to me. 

 

The other thing that it could be is a fungal infection, but I would have thought that the vet would have said something when you visited? But I suppose they could have missed it. 

 

Please let us know what you are feeding and also what her bath regime is? 

[Jakeo]

Did your vet notice these spots when she was there to get anals expressed? Seems odd the vet would not point that out..

 

My first thought: have you seen her licking at those areas? Brownish color can appear from saliva staining, and constant licking will make hair fall out or break/get shorter (looks like a bad shave job kind of).

If yes: have you seen fleas? Is she on flea prevention? Allergies, as mentioned above, can be a cause whether the allergy is from plants or food or parasites. Some dogs can be so allergic to fleas that they start biting/scratching/licking like this from just one or two bites. As for food, if you decide on a different diet keep in mind it will take 4-6 weeks to see much improvement (if any). If it's plant related, you can try benadryl. I'd call your vet to see what a safe dosage would be for her weight.

Another thing to keep in mind: if she has been licking/chewing these areas for a while, it's very possible she has a secondary infection going on too (like staph). Typically looks red, crusty, and scabby. This would require antibiotics to treat, and can be more reason for her to be itchy and uncomfortable. So even if you treat the main cause, you still may need to clear up any infections before you see her stop chewing herself up.

Foul odor can go along with this. Kind of a yeasty smell.

 

Good luck with her! Hope she's better soon

[lmj144]

You guys are fantastic! Thank you for the ideas!

Zoe is grain free fed, we use Blue Buffalo brand but it is chicken based. She has been on grain free her whole life, the only changes were when she was under a year we had her on turkey and now she is on chicken. We also offer a variety of wet foods, but again all grain free. 

We do protect her against fleas and tics however live in an area that has a lot of deer....so perhaps that could be something.

In terms of her bathing regimen, right now since she is so stinky, we bathe her about once a week, but prior to this all happening, it was more in an as needed basis. We gave her a flea bath and washed her with regular dog shampoo about 2 weeks ago, but since then just normal baths. 

She does chew/like in her anal/tail area a lot, no scooting. 

Thank you for the help!

[Jase]

The are just some ideas to put in the mix.

 

Flea bath/shampoos are a waste of time, much better to use a good internal flea medication some of these are also wormers so even if she does no scooting as least the medication will remove the worm and flea irritation from the equation.

 

Maybe try a fish based food like Taste of the Wild - Raw feeding is also worth considering but this takes a bit more fiddling about.

 

Try a Calendula Tea rinse instead of a shampoo, it won't rob her of protective oils, has anti bacterial, anti fungal and anti microbial properties, it also smells fresh and will immediately relieve itchiness - let me know if you need directions on this or do a search on my posts.

 

Consider adding probiotics and perhaps apple cider vinegar to food. 

 

It is obviously impossible to diagnose over the net, but try and avoid the frequent shampooing if possible you ideally want the protective oils in the skin to do their job. Having said that you may need to use an anti fungal shampoo like malaseb - but these shampoos are very harsh and should only be used as a last resort.

 

Best of luck with it and maybe you could take a pic or two of the affected areas.