Atopica – Week 11 (Cure for Alopecia X, Black Skin Disease)
April 3rd, 2009
We’re up to week 11 of Kiki’s atopica journey for her Alopecia X and the rate at which her hair is growing is surprising. It looks like she’s been dunked in Miracle Grow….
Here’s a face view:
Chest view:
Side view:
Tail view:
Back view:
Atopica – Week 10 (Cure for Alopecia X, Black Skin Disease)
March 25th, 2009
We’re into week 10 of this amazing journey of Kiki’s hair regrowth and week after week the difference is unbelievable! The photos speak for themselves. Yay Atopica! For those of you that just happened upon this post, please feel free to read up on Kiki’s story here: History of the Hairless Wonder.
Her face is getting fuller:
It’s hard to see, but her tummy is getting some faint white hair regrowth:
Her back is almost completely furry except for the shoulder area:
Her little tush is starting to get hair too 
And finally a close-up of her tail and back (you can see how full and long her hair is getting )
Atopica – Week 9 (Cure for Alopecia X, Black Skin Disease)
March 14th, 2009
Well it’s week 9 of Atopica and it looks like Kiki has been dunked in Miracle Grow! It’s amazing how much hair can grow in a week. I just can’t wrap my mind around the fact that 9 weeks ago I thought my little baby would be the hairless wonder forever….and look at her now. She’s becoming a little red head! For those of you reading this for the first time and want to here the whole story you can read up on it
here.
Full Body:
Tail:
Back:
My little monkey stretching:
Atopica – Week 8 (Cure for Alopecia X, Black Skin Disease)
March 9th, 2009
First off I have to say that I am the most inconsisent blogger (Sorry!). It’s been four weeks since my last update on my little hairless wonder and I may not be able to call her that soon. She has so much hair!!! When she’s indoors I don’t notice the progress she’s made, but for this update I decided to take her outside to snap some photos….the progress is AMAZING! For those of you tuning in for the first time, you can read the history of how my little monkey became the hairless wonder
here.
Neck:
Lower side view:
Lower back view:
Tail view (no more rat tail!):
Back view:
Atopica – Week 4 (Cure for Alopecia X, Black Skin Disease)
February 5th, 2009
So we’re into week four of Kiki being on Atopica and her skin continues to get pinker (is that a word?) ! I’m amazed at how fast her skin is getting healthy looking again. Below is a picture update on how good she’s starting to look, you can see how her skin is getting lighter and now there are only little black speckles on her skin.
If this is the first post you are reading, please feel free to read through the history of Kiki and her Alopecia X condition here.
Side view:
Tummy:
Tushie Shot:
Tail:
Atopica – Week 3 (Cure for Alopecia X, Black Skin Disease)
January 29th, 2009
We’re into week 3 of Kiki’s Atopica treatment for her Alopecia X (AKA black skin disease, dog skin allergies). For those of you who are not familiar with her story you can read the history here and you can see week 2’s results here.
Here’s a full back shot of Kiki:
Lower back:
The same side of the neck as last week with more pink:
A new tail shot showing more pink:
Tushie shot:
Kiki’s upper back, there’s a lot of fine hair growing in:
We’re so happy that it looks like the medicine is working…
Atopica – Week 2 (Cure for Alopecia X, Black Skin Disease)
January 29th, 2009
So, I’m a ditz and completely forgot to take a good before picture and week one picture to truly show progress. However, I didn’t really get that excited about the whole idea until the Atopica started working. For those of you that just happened upon this post, please feel free to read Kiki’s story and how she got diagnosed with Alopecia X (black skin disease – it’s a skin allergy).
Here’s a shot of Kiki’s ratty tail which is starting to get pink again.
Here’s the first bit of pink skin on Kiki’s neck:
A close up of her tail:
You can see how the black is starting to fade on the edges of her tummy:
Well, we’re crossing our fingers because this looks like a good sign…
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January 29th, 2009
Almost two years ago my Pomeranian Kiki went to Petsmart to get her summer groom. We usually gave her the lion cut around the summertime to keep her cool. At this time Kiki wasn’t too keen on getting her hair brushed and usually had a few tangles behind her ears because she likes to keep her ears back. When we got to Petsmart I picked out the length of hair cut and the groomer took a look at her and said because of the tangles they might have to cut shorter. At the time I didn’t think of it since I figured they knew what they were doing…..
When I went to pick my little monkey up at the groomers a few hours later I could not believe what I saw. I had a bald dog!!! I’m not talking “oh she’s she cute with her short hair bald”……oh no…..I’m talking “omg, I have a Mexican Hairless Pomeranian” kind of bald. Literally my little Kiki had hair on her head, tail and feet (although on a side note….she did look like she was wearing little Uggs which made the feet adorable). I was stunned at what they did to my Pomeranian and pissed. *I will look for some pictures and attach them later* They kept telling me they had to cut that short there was no other way, but there was no way Kiki was that matted.
Well, time went on and Kiki’s hair just wasn’t growing back the way it should. It was growing back woolly, she was rubbing her back on the carpet and anything else she could scratch her back on, and her skin was turning dark. I was able to take her back to the groomers two more times (not Petsmart….my sister found this great groomers called Hug ‘n Pups) and the second time they groomed her they with scissors because they said she had clipper burn from Petsmart. Each time she got groomed her hair grew back less and less until the point she had little tufts of hair left, her skin had darkened, and her tail became all ratty (she chewed on it a lot). *Again, I’ll attach a picture as soon as I find a good one.*
Well, about a month ago Kiki got a Dermatologist appointment for an unrelated allergy issue. At this point a lot of you are probably thinking why the hell hadn’t she thought of this sooner? Trust me, I have, but I didn’t have the money to invest in a Dermatologist and I figured it would be way too expensive since there are a whole three in Arizona. Also, being bald doesn’t seem to bother Kiki….she’s just known as the Hairless Wonder. So a friend of my sister’s told me about the Dermatologist she takes her dog Rickey too for skin allergy issue and after calling them to see if they can help Kiki’s other allergy issue (they thought they could) I made her an appointment. It was a little pricey $130 for the initial appointment, but I needed to go to a vet that knew more about allergies than a standard vet (this is a whole other set of posts….stay tuned).
So my fiance took her in for her appointment and after one look at her the vet said she had Alopecia X (black skin disease) from clipper burn and there’s a medicine that he’ll prescribe that will help her. Could it be that simple? (Another side note, I had asked my former vet about a year ago when trying to figure out why she’s bald if that’s what she has and the vet said no and did a Thyroid test instead that came back negative and changed her diet…..yeah that didn’t work). So, Kiki got her medicine (Atopica – 25mg)…..it’s a little pricey….$55 on Dr Foster’s and Smith….and it looks promising…..
Stay tuned for picture updates….
UPDATE: To everyone who has landed on this page and has not seen updates, I’m so sorry, I should have posted links to my other entries.
To see Kiki’s amazing progress check out some of my other entries.
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