Pico's Story

Pico at 10 months. 

Hello!


My name is Sarah and my husband Yigit and I are the parents of a precious 20-month old Black and Tan Pomeranian named Picardy. He is named after the musical term "Picardy 3rd" because he is the third member of our household and because my husband cannot pronounce "th" so it sounds like "Picardy Turd". Also, we are musicians. We call him Pico.


We adopted Pico as "special needs" because of his potential Black Skin Disease or Alopecia-X. At 18 months, he had woolly coat and had a large bald spot on his chest. He was neutered in early September and immediately began to grow guard hairs. For the past 2 months, we have seen his chest bald spot grow in with guard hairs, and guard hairs throughout his body. However, he has also began to bald throughout his body.

Pico at 18 months
(and nicely groomed!)

Pico is the sweetest, most docile dog in the world. He's super mellow and loves to snuggle and give us kisses and cuddles.  We regularly are stopped and asked if he is "real" (yes, he is) followed by "Do you let him sleep with you?" (yes, we do). He is our child and his needs come before our own. We would do anything for Pico and want him to be as comfortable and happy as possible. While hair loss is no problem for us, he's very small (3.5 lbs) and he gets so cold! Even with the heaviest hand knit sweater, Pico would be warmer with his own coat. This post begins our journey of treating Pico's hair loss.


After much research, we have decided to try the DERMagic treatment. People swear by this skin treatment to cure hot spots, hair loss, rashes, and even Alopecia X. The chemist who developed the product seems legit and the product is all natural. Plus, it is headquartered in the Seattle-Area, and we like to reduce our carbon footprint, so it feels good all around. There is nothing to lose in trying this treatment on Pico.

Check out the woolliness of his coat!
Also, check out his cozy. 

We also decided to take a look at his diet and up the amount of protein and fish oil in his diet. He has been on Natural Balance L.I.D Venison and Sweet Potato dry food. Today, we decided to start a raw diet with a very generous sample pack of Primal Pet Food raw frozen food. We'll see what he likes. Other cool things about Primal Pet Food?! They sell 2" beef marrow bones! We try to order these for Pico regularly from the butcher at Whole Foods, but they seem to always fail at understanding "we'd like the bone cut into 2" pieces". So basically, I'm stoked! We are also going to up his pro-biotic intake.


THANK YOU to Jennifer at Health Mutt--the awesome new pet store in Roosevelt--for a great discussion on her own experience with canine hair loss and for all the samples! Pico thanks you for the treats and snazzy new sweatshirt.


Here are some pictures of Pico through the ages...we will post each week about his progress. Thank you for reading and I hope you find this helpful in your own journey with Pomeranian hair loss.

The blad spot on Pico's left body. 
The black patches are new hair growth. 

--Sarah and Pico

Pico on an outing wearing his
 rainbow sweater!

For more information on Alopecia X and BSD, check out this page. 


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