Alopecia refers to hair loss. Despite what your vet may say, this is not normal. Dogs have fur for a reason and when it is missing, there is a problem. There is also a cause and typically, alopecia is a symptom of vaccinosis, an adverse reaction to vaccines.
When my English Bulldog, Sheldon just turned 1 year old, he started developing alopecia on his head and these little bumps on his ear tips. I took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with alopecia, which was dismissed by my fancy, head-of-practice, Brooklyn vet. At the same time, she diagnosed the bumps on his ears as vasculitis, which is an autoimmune disease in which blood vessels become inflamed. He even had necrosis, which is when tissue literally dies. Of course, the only treatment that she recommended was steroids, which she said he would need to take for the rest of his life. When I asked her what the cause was, she just shrugged and said, "he's a bulldog."
I found her response to be totally unacceptable and refused to believe that my perfect, champion English Bulldog would needs to be on meds for the rest of his life. So, I turned to the good old gram and food Sahara Lotti and her English Bulldog, Bob. I reached out to her and told her what was going on. She suggested he was having a reaction to vaccines. Honestly, I totally didn't believe her at first. I thought there was no possible way this was a reaction to a vaccine because he hadn't received one in months.
I was so so WRONG. I started my own research and found this article titled "Focal cutaneous vasculitis and alopecia at sites of rabies vaccination in dogs,"published in the National Library of Medicine changed my mind. It documented the lesions that occurred on the skin of poodles 3-6 months after receiving a rabies vaccine that affected the dermis or skin including "epidermal, follicular, and adnexal atrophy, hyperpigmentation, chronic septal panniculitis, fat necrosis, and focal lymphocytic nodules in the deep dermis and subcutis."
This was Sheldon. The last rabies vaccine he had received was 6 months before and he had the same exact symptoms including alopecia, lesions and necrosis. He was on steroids at the time and I took him off them once I realized that keeping him on them would only mask the symptoms and not actually heal them. I also took him to an integrative vet who prescribed 2 homeopathic remedies: nux vomica 30c to help his body detox from all of the medication he was on and Lachesis 30c to help his body detox from the rabies vaccine.
I was still extremely skeptical that this would work, but I gave it a shot. I was truly shocked that his necrosis started to improve within 3 days and the bumps on his ear tips started to go away. I was thrilled that at 2 weeks in, his fur started to grow back. I was elated at 1 month in when his ears were completely healed and his fur was back to normal.
If your dog has alopecia or any symptom for that matter, think of it as your dog trying to communicate with you and telling you that something is off. It's up to you to figure out what it is. To help you get started, please visit Bobzilla's Healthy, Happy Life Made Simple.