loss of pigment

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ARC's MADE- YA LOOK

Moxie

Barked: Mon Jan 7, '13 8:51am PST


	Any other dogs out there experience this? It started on my mouth and gums. They were pretty and black when I was young until about 2 years old. Now I have loads of white spots on the pads of my feet. Total loss of pigment in cirlce-ish spots. My fur is still all black and tan like a pretty Beauceron should be... but my human is getting worried. The vets say Vitiligo, but give us no course of action for treatment or cause. When I look it up online I get the same thing. Mystery disease, possibly autoimmune related... common in Rotts. HMM... Anyone else know anything? Have a similar problem? Know any answers?! Thanks pups!

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UKC- Ch.Endless- Waltz de- Nanrox

<(-How do you- Dew?-)>

Barked: Mon Jan 7, '13 5:34pm PST


	Hmm, that is interesting. I don't know as I've seen a loss of pigment in a Beauceron before, but auto-immune disorders yes! Does she have any other medical problems that are usually auto-immune related, allergies, digestive problems, demodex, etc? Interesting her coat color is fine, my girl is in great condition but suddenly started after about 1 year getting single strands of white guard hairs in her coat, growing to small spots on her face (under the ear, just above the eye), and it concerned me, until I next saw our friends male (just under a year older, not closely related) and he had the exact odd areas of white guard hair on his face! It did remind me of Vitiligo but hasn't spread, just a few single/double white strands of hair. Her pigment is normal, all over dark except inside the mouth of coarse. The only time I've really seen a decrease in pigment is with an auto-immune problem, I remember watching the color decrease in a friends collie who had demodex, her lips are all pink now but doesn't look like it's spread in the last year.

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Toto, CD,- RN, CGC

We don't do- doodles!!!

Barked: Mon Jan 7, '13 5:44pm PST


	I really hate when people post on these forums and say "I don't know", but... I remember years ago there was a problem with Eukanuba dog food causing lack of pigment, not only that but also causing black coats to "rust". Turns out, the problem was a lack of zinc in the food. I have also heard about other cases where zinc has been found to help with pigment issues. I know my yellow labs lost pigment during the Winter, not just on their noses which is typical in many breeds, but they also lost it on eye rims and foot pads. Many breeders swore by zinc, but I'm not sure it did much, HOWEVER, that was a pigment loss due to either cold OR decreased sunlight. In my thinking, that might even be a lack of vitamin D??? Especially since most of the vitamin D our dogs get is from sunshine. I know adding zinc has to be done carefully since it is not water soluble, excess ends up in the liver I believe? I really don't know, but I think it may be worth a good google search for zinc and/or Vitamin D deficiency????? edited to add: I just went to look at your page and noticed all the snow. Has this pigment loss only begun with the beginning of Winter??? If so, I would suspect it is "normal" Winter loss of pigment, which, at least in my labs, got more pronounced as they got older. If so, Spring will be here soon!!!! Edited by author Mon Jan 7, '13 5:47pm PST

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Henry Miller

He's a tramp,- but they love- him!

Barked: Tue Jan 8, '13 7:08am PST


	So strange to be reading this now. Last night, I noticed Henry's belly freckles were pretty much gone. I don't know when this happened! I found pictures from not that long ago that show his freckles. He's been having some allergy issues on his belly for the past three months, so I guess I have been focusing on that and didn't notice that the freckles were disappearing. I've been rubbing Zymox on his belly and dabbing neosporin on some places that got bad. He been all clear now for a couple weeks, but his freckles are GONE!! What caused this?

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ARC's MADE- YA LOOK

Moxie

Barked: Tue Jan 8, '13 11:57am PST


	This isn't just a winter thing. It is cold here now. It began a year and a half ago when the lips & gums started loosing pigment. She has always been on Orijen or Acana, including the other 2 dogs in the house. Moxie is the only one with any pigment loss. It is pretty dramatic on her feet and gums. Extremely noticable because everything was black. Last year we had almost no winter at all, with only 4" of snowfall. I wouldnt think the cold could do it... perhaps Vitamin D because she doesnt spend hardly any time outside in the winter. I just wonder if I should be more concerned about this. She has regular white fur where scars have occured, but none elsewhere. We have a vet appointment next Tuesday and will have it checked out again then (different vet) and hopefully get some answers. Im just wondering there must be something going on with her and I'd like to fix it if at all possible. Could LYME cause something like this? She did have lyme, but was treated.

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Seth

984872

Barked: Tue Jan 8, '13 3:47pm PST


	I have known a couple of people who show dogs that had their dogs nose turn lighter. They found out it was being caused by the food they were feeding. One of them found out that the food they were feeding had beef in it and that caused the problem.

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Uno

I'm huntin'- wabbits

Barked: Tue Jan 8, '13 7:44pm PST


	I'm not certain what it could be, but Uno has a white spot on his nose that popped up about 3 years ago and has slowly grown in size, right now it's about the size of a match head and shaped like a heart. I haven't been able to find any info online either.

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UKC- Ch.Endless- Waltz de- Nanrox

<(-How do you- Dew?-)>

Barked: Thu Jan 10, '13 12:45pm PST


	"I really >hate< when people post on these forums and say "I don't know"" And what's that supposed to mean? Excuse me, I own the breed and am simply stating I've not see that kind of pigment loss in this breed before so "I don't know" on that front, and then gave examples of "General" cases of other disorders. And this is why I stopped coming to this forum, the "elitists" . -------- To not end on that note, the only other thing you might want to look up, although I'd say she's to old for it to JUST be showing up, look into Sheltie skin disease. Her grand-sire is a litter mate to a dog who is the sire of a dog suspected as the carrier when a litter of affected puppies was produced a year or two ago. If you want or need any further information on this condition and it's inheritance in the breed, feel free to private message me at any time !

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Toto, CD,- RN, CGC

We don't do- doodles!!!

Barked: Thu Jan 10, '13 2:53pm PST


	EXCUSE ME, I was referring to MY FORTHCOMING ANSWER, not anything anyone else said. I meant that I had heard about zinc deficiency but didn't know anything else about it, but felt it was still important enough to post so the OP could look up more information about it. There weren't even any other answers when I posted, your post was not even there yet so I obviously was not referring to you!!! FURTHERMORE, IF you had read my ENTIRE POST you would have notice I did come back to the "I don't really know" statement, ABOUT my answer. No apology needed. Edited by author Thu Jan 10, '13 2:57pm PST

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ARC's MADE- YA LOOK

Moxie

Barked: Wed Feb 27, '13 8:07am PST


	Sheltie skin disease... hmm... I have never heard of it. And thank you for the info! Do you have any links on it? When I quickly googled it, I just came up with DM in Shelties but I will keep looking. The vet is still saying "Vitiligo", and that her eyes/nose will be the next to loose pigment. But they say there is no treatment because it is just a "cosmetic" issue. But I can't help but think if it is autoimmune related that it can't just be cosmetic. Thanks again for the help!

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loss of pigment

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