Our Golden Retriever is 9 years old and 100lbs (down from 137lbs; been dieting). He has allergies so needs at least 1 (no more than 2) cortisone shots per year especially around Summer time. He also has hypothyroidism which he takes pills for.
I don't want to focus solely on this, but I read in this thread:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/210 , that excessive amounts of cortisone can cause excessive thirst, excessive hunger, and hair loss. Taz (his name) has a great deal of hair loss the past few days. We have literally combed off 3 wal-mart bags full to the top of hair, and yet somehow he has no bald spots, no red spots, no skin bleeding, no cracking....etc.. He does have dandruff and has had staph infection of the skin before. Today we brought him to the vet to get checked and they say he's absolutely fine.
We just cannot believe the amount of hair he's losing. We bathed him to get rid of the bulk of it, but it just seems to keep on coming. Now we are in South, LA and the weather here has been insanely screwy changing from 80 degrees one day and then 40 degrees the next over and over and over again. There was even a record breaking amount of snowfall here in middle December and within the next few days it was back up to 80 again.
We were wondering if his body doesn't know what to do as far as the coat goes. He isn't scratching, but he has been biting his leg (prior to bath). We and the Vet looked at that and I see nothing. His skin is light pink everywhere between the coat, except on his belly near his groin has turned pretty white..... almost no pink there at all where there is normally. Mean anything?
He seems fine, but I can tell you this... I can take just 2 fingers, pinch his fur and I pull up a clump/lock of hair easily..... yet he still doesn't seem to go bald in that spot. Is this just a second shedding of hair? normal? or maybe he's got something wrong?