Seborrhea in dogs is a skin disorder that involves the hyperproliferation of the epidermis, sebaceous glands, and hair follicle infundibulum. Usually, dog breeds like dachshunds, basset hounds, American cocker spaniels, golden retrievers, german shepherds, and west highland white terriers are likely to be prone to seborrhea. Such disease likely begins before the age of two years and for the dog’s entire lifespan.
Mainly, there are two different types of seborrhea in dogs: the seborrhea sicca and seborrhea olesa. A particular dog can have the seborrhea sicca in the specific skin area, and they can have the seborrhea oleosa on the other side. The best thing is it isn’t contagious, and sure signs can help you recognize such disorder in your dogs to prevent spreading it out. So let’s hop into the details below to uncover the signs of such disease in dogs.
Uncover the clinical signs of seborrhea in dogs: –
- The primary seborrhea is the one that is usually characterized by hyperkeratosis that commonly ends up showing scaly and itchy skin in affordable treatment for fleas. You will notice the red colour that is occurring due to the inflammation of the skin.
- However, the seborrhea sicca products the dry exfoliative scales; on the other hand, the seborrhea oleosa will produce the greasy and adherent scales. It is easy to notice the affected areas as the dogs usually deal with them on their flanks, face, back, or fold areas like armpits, feet, etc.
- In some cases, the dogs will shed a lot of hair compared to the ratio that it usually does, which indicates something is wrong. Moreover, the dogs with seborrhea are producing the traits of smell that is due to the lesions. The smell gets strong if such disorder is complicated to another level where the bacterial or fungal infections have expanded.
- You can notice the smell of grease as you pass by a dog suffering from such things. Secondary seborrhea shows the signs like crusts, pyoderma, papules, scales, hair loss, and follicular boils.
- The darker areas on the skin occur due to chronic skin irritation like chronic infections. The thickened areas on the dog’s skin can easily cause chronic itching, so getting the vet’s help will be suggested.
The causes of seborrhea in dogs: –
- Rare people are aware that primary seborrhea can be hereditary, and there are multiple breeds that are likely to be prone to such disorder compared to other breeds. But the fact is that any dog can be affected with primary seborrhea. It is a congenital genetic disease that develops the condition at a young age.
- The condition can get worse as the dog gets older. Therefore the secondary seborrhea is more common than the primary one. It is the one that can be caused by the disease condition in the internal organs and other health issues.
- The experts call it idiopathic seborrhea when it is quite hard to find out the identity of it. There are multiple reasons that such things can happen. The common reasons are the allergies for the parasites like few food components, environmental conditions or more.
At last, it will be suggested to prevent such disorder at the initial stage so that your dog won’t go through the worst circumstances.
