My 5 year old yellow lab has spots on her fur near her ribs that look like hair loss, but on closer inspection its her fur, thick and shiny as the rest of her coat.... as time goes on she gets more and more. Today I found small polka dots on the top of her left paw. Does anyone know what could be causing this? She is healthy and eats a balanced diet.
Aloha. I too think Deramaxx has caused severe hair loss in my older dog, KonaBoy, who weighs 127 pounds. He's been on daily (100mg) Deramaxx for 4 months, which has taken away his pain from arthritis in his rear hip/legs.
KonaBoy is our 11 year old Ridgeback/Shepard, KonaBoy, who has been losing hair in clumps all over his back, resulting in a polka-dot look, with a very dull and dry coat. These hairless patches show skin which is extremely dark, sticking out prominently from his light golden brown coat.The fur around these patches comes out easily in clumps
KonaBoy is not itchy and has no other symptoms.
Our other dog is a 6 year old Lab/Rottie, Magic, who has a beautiful and shiny black coat without any hair loss. They are on the same diet, water, and air. One month ago, we switched them both to a home-made nutritionally balanced diet, without impact of the hair loss.
Magic is not on Deramaxx. I think that the only difference is the Deramaxx, which is given daily to KonaBoy. Two months ago, I visited the vet about KonaBoy's hair loss. She said KonaBoy had a "yeast/staph infection" and gave him 7 days of antibiotics, which did not clear up the hair patches. She did a full blood workup at that time, reporting that KonaBoy is completely healthy. I'll report this continuation of the hair loss to the vet again.
I'm replacing the Deramaxx with one tablet daily of a combination of Chondritin, Glucosamine, and MSM.
Any feedback is appreciated. Mahalo!
Good idea. It sounds like a possible allergic reaction. Maybe rimadyl would work better?
My 8 year old golden retriever has been on deramaxx for 1.5 weeks. She has been losing clumps of hair everywhere and has started itching, something that hasn't happened before. I'll be calling the vet tomorrow.
I have no idea if any studies have been done on your question, but I've had 2 severely arthritic old dogs on deramaxx for years with no problems and full, beautiful coats.