Hair loss about back legs/itching/scratching

[mrystntn]

Hello. I have a pit bull mix (bait dog) that is between 10 and 11 years old. Three years ago, and almost $6,000.00 later she was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis. She could not walk or stand and was practically skin and bones because she would not eat, drink, or go to the bathroom.  Since her diagnosis she has been alternating days with 5 mg of prednisone and 25 mg of azathioprine.  Because of the long term side effects of these medications within the past 2 months I have been slowly decreasing the amount of these medications in hopes that something else could eventually be used to treat her rheumatoid arthritis. She is down to 2.5 mg of prednisone twice a week and 12.5 mg of azathioprine twice a week.  Within the past 2-2 weeks I have noticed that she is losing hair above her hind legs and itching/scratching to the point where she has an open scrape above one leg. She also is also scratching the bottom of her mouth.   I give her prescription flea/tick prevention religiously so I know that I can rule that out.  I had all the tests run a few days ago and she is coming up with a clean bill of health.  My vet is having me increase her prednisone. My concern is that the hair loss, itching, etc. is a result of these 2 medications being taking for 3 years now and that this is the start of something else caused by these 2 medications. Any thoughts/ideas/input would be greatly appreciated.

[deadgamegrrl]

Good luck and let us know what the vet says!

[mrystntn]

Thank you for the information. It is greatly appreciated. I am expecting a phone call today from my vet and will bring those skin topics up. Thank you!!!!

[deadgamegrrl]

I don't really know if I can help, but wanted to let you know you are not alone.  I had a pit bull with RA too, that did finally go into a long period of remission after using the medicines you have.  She was on a much higher dose of prednisone though, and had terrible side effects from it. But she did get better!
Have you had a skin scraping done?  The only thing I can think of is since her immune system has been supressed by the steroids, she has developed some sort of fungal or staph infection, or even mange.

Hang in there!