Fri, Sept. 10, 2010 - Hardee's hair loss

Each day, Hardee continues to lose more hair.  His hair loss seems to be localized to his head, face, and muzzle area.  I do get more hair in the brush when I brush his body, but I haven't noticed any bald spots anywhere but his head and face area.  The bald spot that is the most noticeable is a big area under his right eye where he even seems to have a small sore that has scabbed over.  The skin showing there seems to be a little inflamed also.  I do see the missing hair areas and thinning areas more when he is wet.

I did talk to Hardee's radiation oncologist about all the hair loss.  He said he was not expecting that to happen, and he seems to think that it might be because of his breed.  His suspicion is that dogs that have hair, instead of fur, would be more likely to lose hair during radiation.  He hopes that the hair loss is not permanent, but he is not sure.  Hardee is the first Portuguese Water Dog that he has radiated, and only the third dog to get the gamma knife radiation for a nasal tumor.

Also, I talked to Dr. Proulx about why Hardee would be losing hair other than where I thought he would be radiated for the tumor area.  The loss of hair on top of his head and the left side of his muzzle back above the corner of his mouth had me stumped.  Dr. P said that the radiation enters him from numerous different angles and positions so that accounts for those hair loss areas.

Hardee seems to be in some pain.  He rubs his face whenever he can and on whatever he can find to rub it on.  Also, he'll just let out a big yelp before he goes to rubbing which leads me to think he is in pain.  I feel so badly for him.  I am helpless and want so badly to take this from him.

We are in So Cal currently, getting ready for our water trial.  We had a short practice yesterday that went better than last week's practice.  We are still not where I hoped we would be towards competing but that's understandable given all the circumstances.

Yesterday at water practice, I thought that Hardee might finally be developing the mouth ulcers because he was refusing water.  I purposely fed him kibble for dinner (though I have soft mush with me also to feed him) to see if he refused that.  He didn't, so maybe no mouth ulcers yet.  Remember that I am using his refusal to eat or drink to let me know when he has the ulcers inside his mouth.  My other choice is to wrestle him and pry his mouth open, and I don't want to grab his muzzle because I know it hurts him.

I'm still playing it by how I think Hardee feels as to whether or not we'll compete the next 2 days.  I think I know my dog well enough to know if he doesn't want to do this.  I don't hold any hope of passing though.  Until then, I'll be busy being the chief ring steward in charge of all the volunteers.  I have to make sure that all the volunteers are lined up and ready to do their jobs.  Tons of volunteers are required for a water trial, so lots to do.

Hopefully I won't be too busy to find some happy times with our boy this weekend.  Because as you know, it is all about joy and all about Hardee!!