Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

I have a 7 year old female Pit Bull. She is losing an excessive amount of hair. She is not eating like she normally does. This has been going on for two weeks. She is very healthy but i'm afraid she is going to starve herself. The vet said she won't but to change her food. I did. She still will not eat. I have tried canned food, moist food, and hard food mixed with egg. She will eat human food but I don't think it is healthy for her. Is it? Please help. I don't want her to get sick. Also, what kind of food is best for dogs. I have used Science diet, Iams, and Pedigree.

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

TAKE HER TO THE VET! Sheesh. If you were bleeding from the ears and your left leg turned purple, would you go on Yahoo Questions to figure out whether or not you should see a doctor?

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

If you had read my question more carefully you would have read that I had already taken her to the vet before i wrote this. He attributed the loss of appetite to stress from our move to another state. But thanks for the great answer. It was very informative and helped me a great deal :( Report It

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

She might have mange, take her to the vet, if it gets worse the treatment is longer and painful if it's on the whole body, so hurry and get her there, Good Luck

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

Take her to another vet for a second opinion.

Thyroid and cushings are things I can think of off the top of my head, but there must be dozens of possible reasons.

You can give your dog a diet of human food but you should try to locate a pet nutritionist for the best foods. you can also google dogs and natural or people food, that might have some ideas.

Cooked meats, veggies, cheese, eggs, those are things dogs will usually eat.

Good luck.

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

Contrary to popular belief, "human" food will not hurt a dog. Keep away the spicy or sweet stuff and they will be fine.

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

7 years old has she had any blood work done? shes getting up in age and my guess would be she might have a thyroid problem this is a syptom losing hair had she gained or lost any weight recently? check her skin does she have dark pigment spots in various areas? if you havent had a blood panel done on her i would advise it highly that will give you all the answers youll need to resolve this problem . i work for 4 vets. start 1st with the bloodwork good luck to you and e-mail me on her progression krazyk9kutter@aol.com

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

Well, I would not eat dog food either if my owner gave me people food and I would keep refusing my food if I figured out that if I do not eat "my" food my owner will give me his/hers. Your dog has got you trained! lol!! Your dog will not let itself starve to death. Since you have taken the dog to the vet and ruled out sickness, you should do the following: put the food down and give your dog 10 minutes to eat, if she doesn't eat remove the food and do not give her anything else repeat the same for the next meal. you should offer food 3x a day following the same thing each time. Hunger is a powerful motivator so you dog will eat.

It is harder on the owner than it is on the dog when doing this, but I promise your dog will eat what you want her to eat if you do this.

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

OU812 Is an idiot use the 9mm on him he obviously has no ability to be anything other than prejudice.

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

Hmmm... 7 years old, hair loss, poor appetite... has your vet run a thyroid test? It's not uncommon for older dogs to have hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid). The test is a blood test that your vet can send to a lab and usually get the results back in about 3 days. If the test shows that the thyroid is not producing enough hormone, your vet can prescribe thyroid replacement medicine called levothyroxine-- it's usually a pill that you give once or twice a day. The vet would need to test your dog periodically to make sure the levels are good, but once it's stabilized, the dog ought to do really well. If the thyroid is low, that can be the reason for the hair loss. If so, the hair will usually begin to grow back fairly quickly after starting meds.

All the foods you mentioned are okay. You could spend big buxx on expensive super-premium food, but it won't do any good if your dog won't eat it. In general, as long as you stick with a good reputable brand that isn't the "cheapest of the cheap", you should be fine. Try to stay away from highly colored food... the brands you listed aren't colored much if at all, so no worries there. You can try flavoring her dry food with a little low-salt chicken broth to see if that helps.

But I would get a recheck visit and suggest a thyroid test. Many vets don't run these as often as they should-- we see a lot of "borderline" hypothyroid dogs that benefit from low doses of thyroid meds-- these are dogs who tested on the low edge of normal, yet showed symptoms even though the test was technically "normal". (Same with hyperthyroidism in cats.) It's worth a look-see to confirm or rule it out. Even if the test is obviously normal, you still have a baseline-- and a thyroid test SHOULD be a regular part of a senior pet's annual or biannual routine (along with heartworm and stool tests).

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

As for the hair loss, you can try a multivitamin supplement. The supplement should contain omega fatty acid 3. Flax seed oil, fish oil, cod liver oil, salmon oil, etc, are all good sources of omega fatty acids. Other vitamins/minerals to include are vitamins A,D,E, Bs (2,3,6,8, etc), potassium, calcium, zinc, magnesium, etc. Any pet store will carry a supplement that has all I just listed and more.

Most commercial dog food is poor quality. Most dogs don't get their nutritional needs met through them and it shows in their skin, fur coat and nails. The dog foods you listed are rather poor on the quality scale. A vitamin/mineral/omega fatty acid supplement will make up for whats not adequate in the dog food.

When my dog doesn't eat I mix her food with a small amount of chicken soup broth, or something similar. If your dog is healthy other than not eating she may just be finicky and not like the food. Try getting a premium grade food from a pet store or feed mill. In general, anything you can get in a grocery store is low quality.

Good luck!

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

Try Natural Balance Dry or Wet food - there is no better food out there.

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

hi

Pit Bull losing hair and will not ear.?

Pitbulls are notorious for food allergies and this is the most common problem of allergies in pits. The food you are feeding is the wrong kind of food. The ones you mentioned are so full of fillers and preservatives that are not good for your dog. Science diet is a crappy food and the only reason that the vets promote this food is they get a 40 percent profit for all they sell. They are pet doctors not nutritionists. I have not known any pit to like science diet from experiance.

Try an all natural dog food like innova, wellness, canidae, solid gold etc. they are great dog foods, and none of the poisonous crap the dog food companies put into the food.

I feed mine the raw diet but research that before you decide it. In the meantime pour a gravy mix over the dogs food and mix it in. In order to rid of the allergies switch to a food with no corn.