Kelly is a 4-year old female Chocolate Chihuahua who weighs between 8 and 9 pounds... She's obviously had puppies somewhere along the way in her lifetime, but ended up in the shelter and sat there for almost 5 weeks - most of it in isolation because she has alopecia...
For more on alopecia, this is a great website to visit here, but basically in layman's terms, alopecia is an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss... It is not contagious... But the condition is aggravated by conditions such as fleas, etc. so while she sat in the shelter, we can only assume that it got worst...
Once she arrived here, she got two medicated baths in one day, so I'm sure as much as she doesn't care for baths, by the time we get this cleared up with daily baths, she'll learn to love them! She's on meds too and a good diet of nutrition now, so in time, her hair will grow back in... The predominant areas of hair loss is behind her ears as you can see in this photo below:
Sadly, skin conditions like this are like a kiss of death in the shelter system... With staff levels and tight budgets, they simply don't have time to give a dog daily baths with medicated shampoo, add in vitamin E to their diet or put the needed lotions onto the affected areas... The general public does shy away from dogs like this, so Kelly ended up on the kill list right before we made the decision to rescue her...
Kelly is VERY sweet and friendly... She took a particular interest in the puppies when they were out romping in the Xpen during the afternoon... Her tail was wagging non-stop as she watched them play, so maybe she recently had puppers of her own...
Kelly is getting along with the other dogs her size, but she doesn't really care for dogs much bigger than her... She's learning to eat politely and share, but in isolation, many Chihuahuas practically wig out so I'm not surprised she's having to relearn what it is like to live in the canine community again... Five weeks in isolation would cause effects even on the most balanced of dogs...
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