If it's not one thing . . . .

it's another! We finally believe we got to the bottom of Sharla's oily and smelly skin. The vet has diagnosed her with a skin condition called Seborrhea. Seborrhea can be caused by an underactive thyroid, which we found out Sharla does have! Essentially, Sharla started itching like crazy and started to lose all of her hair. It was quite sad!

Since then, she's on two pills every day (one for her underactive thyroid levels and another for Seborrhea) and she has a special shampoo. Is it helping? I'm not sure. I can say her skin is a little less oily and smelly, which is a plus, and her hair loss has seemed to stop (maybe it's because there's not much left to lose). The vet believes Sharla does have a severe form of Seborrhea that will most likely be a lifetime issue that we'll have to deal with and manage.

Anyways, here's Sharla: "Mom, if I give you puppydog eyes, will you take me out of the bathtub?"


Here is Sharla as we started to notice she was losing some of her hair. It got much worse than this, but here is the start of it all.

As a side note - one cause of an underactive thyroid is: bad breeding. Sharla was born in a puppymill, so it's no surprise.

Recently, we also found a bump on her butt. Essentially, it's a tumor . . . on her anus (called Perianal Adenoma). When female dogs are spayed later in life (Sharla was spayed when she came out of the mill - about 7 years old), they can develop these tumors on their anus. For the time being, we've decided not to operate. Operation on this area is one of the most dangerous operations, as it's an extremely sensitive spot for dogs with a lot of muscles in that area. The vet believes it's not anything serious, so we're at a wait and see stance right now - hoping it does not increase in size. Again, all this because she was in a mill for so long. I get angrier and angrier at these millers every day. When will it end? When will the cycle of greed end?