Bruno Update

It's been quite a while since I wrote about my sweet baby boy. He has grown much and worried me more in the past few months. The boy seems to be trying to freak me out! First, in late spring/early summer he changed his eating habits in what felt like the blink of an eye.

Where he had once attacked his twice daily meals, he suddenly began to look 'em over, sniff 'em out and then walk away as if the food in his bowl was in some way foul. This went on for nearly a week before I emailed the vet (who responded that I shouldn't be concerned), and then ultimately took him in for unaffordable X-Rays to make certain he didn't have a blockage. He didn't... of course!

Fast forward to the last couple of weeks in which we noticed Bruno developing spots along his torso where his coat was jumping ship. This didn't seem natural or desirable to us, but life got in the way and we weren't able to get him to the vet to check it out.

Last week Bob dropped the boy at our muchly-trusted groomer (because we had company coming and no time to deal with the grooming otherwise). When I picked Bruno up that afternoon, the office folks at the groomer's reported on what they referred to as "hot spots" (the lost hair Bob and I had already noticed and worried over). They sold me a $10 tub of cream and suggested we apply it twice daily to the spots. The groomer guys and I briefly discussed my fear that the spots could be due to a nutritional imbalance, because Bruno still hasn't regained the robust eating habits of his first months with us.

We never applied the goop from the groomers (preferring to have a DVM's opinion before we did so) but we finally managed to get the dog to the vet this morning. The answers to our numerous questions and worries boiled down to "I dunno".

What we did learn is:
1) Bruno is not infested with mites or other bugs that would cause the loss of hair.
2) The vet isn't the tiniest bit concerned about Bruno's drop in food intake. (And maybe she's right about that... the boy managed to gain 10 lbs. without eating much at all... he's tipping the scales at 118 lbs. today.)
3) We're doing everything right, but maybe some antibiotics will help with the coat problem, which remains undefined.

BTW - the antibiotics are human-type time release capsules, and they are meant to be given twice daily with food, which Bruno does not eat regularly or predictably. It'll be a breeze to administer them, I'm sure. Groan.

None of this makes any sense to me... Bruno is our first Dane, but he's not our first dog. We're not completely canine ignorant! I just don't know what to think about the food intake OR the hair loss. He doesn't seem the least bit unhappy or uncomfortable, but something feels "off" about this whole situation. I wonder if it's maybe time to seek a second veterinary opinion.

I would love to hear opinions from my fellow dog lovers!
XO
Jodi