Seasonal Flank Alopecia
Submitted by mike dubis on June 11, 2011 - 6:50pmmy 3 year old male bully lost hair last year and it grew back. this year, around january, he lost hair on both sides and it has not grown back. i have given him 12mg of melatonin for the last month but it does not help Is it Seasonal Flank Alopecia?
Any ideas
Mike Dubis
Hi Mike, glad you made it.
It does sound like seasonal flank alopecia to me. Try getting him out in the sunshine for a little longer period of time daily, but not in the heat of the day. I believe SFA is caused by a vitamin D deficiency and sunshine is what is needed to balance that out. Just my theory though.
Amy and Sophia
Amy i did'nt know about
The vitamin D. I also will start loulou on that too.
Karonelaine
Plain ol sunshine!
That is what Vitamin D is! Just take them out in the sunshine a little longer if possible. That will help a lot:-)
Amy and Sophia
sunshine
Plan ole sunshine. Along with what you are given him. My loulou had that I didn't like given her the melatonin made her sleep a lot so at the end of winter in texas I started putting her out in the sun as much as I could and her hair is growing back. Even if she only get 10 mins. Every 45 mins to and hour she out side. I don't know what next year will happen I do know starting this sept she will go back on it 3 times a day to help stop this from showing up again good luck. I was told by a friend on this board Sunshine is the best thing for her.
Karonelaine
Rex had the same thing
After ruling out anything else wrong with him, the vet suggested melatonin, but told me i would not see any results for 3 months. 3 months later Rex's hair grew back. He has had this problem a couple of times and each time the melatonin worked less and less. I also have made sure he gets plenty of sunshine. Good luck.
Jllian and PorkChop and our beloved BullyAngel Rex <3
Member of SFA Club
Our little guy has had seasonal flank alopecia for about two years. Our vet suggested melatonin as well, which we did for some time and it did help his hair grow back. Then, when winter came around we were back at square one if not worse on both sides. He's out in the sun a bit each day, but we live in Texas where it is extremely hot, so we battle w/ him becoming overheated as well. The good thing is it is only cosmetic and not harmful, however, I do wish his hair would grow back. Poor guy. The melatonin hasn't worked for some time and our vet suggested upping his salmon oil intake to see if that helps a bit.