Hey guys! So I am new to the akita world. I have owned only Dobermans. I am not familiar with the hair coat of these beautiful dogs. I am Also a veterinary nurse. I have a 3month old male Akita puppy. He has recently Started scratching and chewing really bad. Along his back he is missing chunks of hair. The skin under is fine no breaks or flaking signs. He is current on flea medicine and has been scraped for mites, that was negative. He is currently on ivermectin to rule out demodex or scabies. He does not present like a food allergy dog either. So my question is can this hairloss be due to his puppy coat shedding? Help! Thanks in advance
This doesn’t sound like anything I’ve experienced with any of my Akitas. He must have either food allergies or some type of parasite on his skin or coat. At 3 months old he wouldn’t be losing his puppy coat yet. What do you feed him?
Ok,He so I'm not crazy. He should not be loose his puppy hair. He was on puppy chow large breed; however, I am in the process of changing it to Purina pro plan savor chicken. He really didn't like the puppy chow hardly would eat it. He seems to be doing good on the proplan. And maybe it's just my imagination but he seems to be improving but he is also on the ivermectin to treat mites. I did recently buy a new puppy shampoo and used it on him it seemed to make him itch more so I stopped using it rent steam off to make sure I got all the soap off and then a couple days later I use aloe oatmeal shampoo in the time between the two shampooing is whenever his hair seem to fall out more I mean he's not like completely bald but there are a couple patches and the hair is thinned so I feel like it might be allergic reaction to the shampoo as well but he's had a rinsing of just cool water and then a medicated oatmeal bath since that has happened the oatmeal bath seem to help soothe his skin but he also still itches and scratches it has completely boggled my mind
I just looked at the puppy chow ingredients... that is not a good dog food IMO. Whole grain corn, chicken by product meal, corn gluten meal... this food has no real meat. Was the breeder also feeding puppy chow? if it was the puppy chow causing the problem it could take a month or longer for his symptoms to clear. Also chicken is the most common allergen for dogs.
I also looked at the pro plan ingredients and that’s better then the puppy chow but IMO still not great quality. Chicken, rice flour, whole grain wheat, poultry by products, soybean meal, beef tallow, corn gluten meal, whole grain corn, fish meal....
My female doberman had a HORRIBLE reaction to puppy chow. She was allergic to chicken. To the point she had to be on a prescription diet at 6months. His breeder was the definition of a puppy mill. He had Akitas, pomskys, huskies ECT all in one facility. All the pups stayed in kennels he didn't even know what grass was. He had no personality he was petrified of everything and everyone one. Very face shy. He fed him dollar store feed and sardines and canned mackerel. Mostly the latter. I only decided to get him after seeing his situation. When I first fed him he didn't know what hard kibble was.
I only had him on PPC because it was the closest thing I could get at the time I got him. I thought the breeder was going to be reputable after I talk to him but once I saw the facility I quickly knew he was mine I expected to get a little bit of his previous food to swap him over gradually to the food that I chose but that was not the case so I had to stop and get the first puppy food I can find. He hadn't been eating the best when he was on puppy chow. Very slow to finish the bowl. He was very thin, he didn't even know what treats were. He wouldn't eat them. As I swapped him to the Proplan he began to eat great finishing the whole bowl of food. What are your food recommendations?
Well I’m not sure what country you live in, but I’m guessing the US, based on the times of your posts. Acana, Orijen. Wellness, and Nutrisource all have grain and grain free options, and I think are all pretty quality foods with good ingredients. The wellness grain free is called wellness core. Zigniture is a grain free, chicken free and potato free food, and the same company makes inception, which has grains. Not all grains are created equal. The foods that have grains that I’ve listed have grains that I consider good. Also none of these foods has any corn. Stella & Chewys and Instinct are also good. I am lucky where I live as there is a very large independent pet food store that sells pet food at or below the prices you can find online.
You are correct. I live in the United States. Are you in the US? . I do believe I have seen Wellness at a local store before.
Yes I live in the US, California. What state are you in? What made you decide to get an Akita? They are very unique in their temperament, very strong willed. Bore easy with repetitive training, but very intelligent. They need a confident trainer, but no heavy handed stuff, they do not respond well to that. I’m glad to hear that you rescued him from the puppy farm. Sad that people do that. Is he doing anything that you could report him for? Sounds like the dogs are living in poor conditions, not being properly socialized, fed crappy food. Bred just to make him/her money. Grr, I hate people like that.
If your Akita puppy is scratching and chewing a lot, and you've ruled out fleas and mites, it's possible that he's going through a normal shedding phase. At around 3 months old, puppies start transitioning from their soft puppy coat to their adult coat. During this process, they can lose chunks of hair. As long as the skin looks fine and there are no other signs of irritation, it might just be a natural part of growing up. However, if things get worse or you're worried, it's always a good idea to consult a vet for proper advice.
It always amazes me how much effort they put into the post to make it seem legitimate in order to slip in their link... It's like Goerge Constanza - if he just put in 1/3 of the effort used to not work into actually working, he'd be a happy man. I have stopped clicking on these links. I suspect they have cookies to track where the clicker came from. If they get clicks from here, they will keep posting here. Annoying little mosquitos they are.
You could be right. Like all the fake Lost Dog posts on F'book. What do people get out of that? I'm not sure that reporting them is working. One link that I reported was still live the last time I checked.
I don't know if it works either. When a forum doesn't get much traffic, mods can lose track of it - they get involved with other projects, etc, and forget to check in on the forum. I have noticed that if the spammer gets called out, they usually disappear. If the posts go without comment, they go crazy with spam posts.
