From a distance he looks like any Akita

but he isn’t – he is an Akita living with SA.

In addition to everything he now has a “normal coat-dropping period”

Overall impression – a beautiful Akita

From a distance you notice the head and tail – looking slightly shaggy. His skin is dry but not extremly dry (it does not disturb him at all – no itching or scratching) and no dry flakes or inflamed areas. The smell exists but not that bad, more like the breeds that are bred for water smell – all the time.

Currently he is dropping his coat but a majority of it looks like “normal” dropping of coat, even though it looks different to what HIS shedding usually does.  Of course some areas are also affected by SA.

  The head

On the outside of the ears there is no under-coat but a healthy skin in good condition. On the inside of the ears he is slightly dry but does produce some sebum. We apply additional oil whenever needed.

We do not give him full oil-treatments, no we treat the areas that need help. Currently only with oil.

The area of the face where the coat is thinner expands, but in a very slow pace without inflammations. The forehead which was struck the hardest (along with the tail) is now in a better condition. It has started to grow some fuzzy under-coat.

He hasn’t got watery eyes – his mucous membranes seems to be in good shape currently.

 The neck

The SA-affected areas has spread “from head-back and from tail-forward” which means the neck is affected but at a later stage then the head and tail. I believe the Atopica slowed down the process, which means head and tail already “were lost” but for the rest of the body it made a difference.

If combing a parting one can see the increased amount of sebum as well as the decreased amount of under-coat. Now it is mixed with “normal coat-dropping”.

The torso and back

The Torso is this far unaffected – just normal coat-dropping. The majority of the back is unaffected except the area close to the tail.

The legs and paws

The legs and paws seem currently to be unaffected which gives us some hope of that the medicines help slowing down the process.

 The tail and the area around the tail

The tail was in a bad shape already when I saw the veterinarian the first time, but I had not noticed since the affected area was “inside the pretzel”. This means that it was already inflamed and flaky with loose hair stuck to the flakes. So obviously I understood he would drop all that coat – sooner than later.

The back-area closest to the tail is affected. Under the tail/anus the skin is affected but I have avoided to pull the hair on purpose as even loose hair helps him when it is cold.

 Nose/mouthTeeth and gum OK so far (can be side-effects from the Atopica).Nose is OK- not runny but he is sneezing a bit.