Puppy with weird head...anyone seen anything like this? - Page 2

Love the grumpy old man look.

these are brotherss, the black boy has a very good reputation as a police K9. And, his partner also happens to do the recruiting for police k9s here in nY, I would be willing to bet jenn, that your boy would be more than welcome Into the program.
    Chris does not care about the color of a good dog, he Is only interested in good dogs,(in fact he tells me to stay off this site).

   I have a blue yorkie with alopecia, 

Ok, I just examined him very closely along w/his brother who looks almost identical and the short-coated black and tan/red male. They never had thick coats as pups. In fact, their coats were so different that I thought at first the other pups might be coated. If anything, their coats are improving. They had "rat tails" as little pups. I've seen this in other pups...a Czech litter I raised for a friend had really mole-ish coats when young but they matured ok. They're starting to get wispy guard hairs and their undercoats, though short, are quite dense. They (none of the 3) do not have a lot of hair on backs of ears and on tails, but honestly not much less than the sable female...I think the color of their coats matching the color of the skin underneath is a bit deceiving and makes it look thinner than it really is. 

They say linebreeding and inbreeding throws some wild stuff...I'm thinking total outcrosses are throwing the wildest $h!+ I've ever seen, LOL! I guess this sort of thing happens to keep a breeder humble? 

 

All my research on any type of alopecia gets me nowhere. He doesn't match any of these. I'm wondering if this is just a congenital fluke. It's never changed in shape or size, it's just more apparent now because he's getting more hair everywhere else. http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2111&aid=421
 

Can't tell you much, Jen.  The only case - in a GSD - that I know is in
an all(self)-Blue neutered male, currently aged about 3 years.  He was
received by us when he was full grown, but not yet one year.  He isn't
a very big dog, & he's a long coat.  Some white on chest.  We got him
from a Rescue, but with enough info on his vax certificate (birth date,
location) for me to work out exactly which puppy he was from the appro-
priate registration record.  He was from one of these kennels that I have
been moaning about, who breed very badly (lots of inbreeding, not much
health-testing, etc) in order to churn out odd colours for sale to pet homes.
No doubt that he is pure GSD (provided the pedigree is correct, and I have
no reason to disbelieve that), but not a 'well bred', typy GSD, in any respect
ie not just his colour.  His entire forehead was 'thinning' from the time we
got him.  Enquiry to his old family's vet was non productive (on anything).
We tried all sorts of treatments and supplements to try to improve matters
but eventually gave up.  I'd thought it was nutritional, and that with us & on a
good diet he would improve, but as far as I know (not working there now) he
never has.  In fact at one stage he went almost completely bald from between
his ears down to his stop, but it came back a bit and regained soft, thin downy
coverage.  I too had always thought BDA  did not affect GSDs;  but in the
end my Vet concluded nothing was making any difference and that it was a
genetic problem.  I then discussed it with the widow of our leading GSD 
geneticist (Dr Willis);  she has a Blue chihauhau who has the alopecia, and
told me that it was colour-linked, and could occur in GSDs.
PS  Never appeared to be any damage to the skin, [spots, flaking or whatever].

That bottom picture is just adorable... grumpy old man all the way.

I'm afraid only time may tell. I guess I would expect not such an odd pattern. It literally looks like someone sawed his head open and sewed it shut. 

I don't mean I think it's impossible he's got some "blue" thing going on; it just seems imPROBABLE due to the fact that those things happen more often in lines that have it anyway- it's just more prevalent in those colors out of those lines. Thus, the kennels like you say would have it happen more often, due to breeding off-color to off-color (or colour,lol). I asked my vet and am waiting on another opinion. They thought blue alopecia was unlikely (but not impossible) because of this being a total outcross w/no skin issues on either side in the parents and parents' siblings, and the age of onset, as well as the bizarre pattern. It typically doesn't start right at/after birth, hence, the theory that he's just got some weird congenital defect OR it is a traumatic effect from being sick/medicated. The only genetic alopecia that starts at puppyhood is the black hair one (forget what it's called already) and that type, apparently, has not been previously identified in GSDs. 

I find these sorts of things interesting, and that's why I post this stuff. I guess it would be in my better interest to keep my mouth shut and pretend every puppy is 110% flawless, but that's just not real life! 

I appreciate your input about your experience, Hundmutter. 

Dawulf...you can have him if you never tell anyone who you got him from. 

Other vet just wrote this- I thought it was funny. "The hairline sounds like a manufacturing issue...it must be under warranty but I assume someones loves him the way he is ;)
That's all fir now folks!"

That's one gangsta looking pup..maybe a closeup of the line would help...

LOL!!! I'll try, Guddu. 

It honestly doesn't look like anything- perfectly smooth, normal skin. When he was born, I just thought he had a very short, tight, maybe mole coat, and it was just a wrinkle in his head. It's only recently that his growth has really started to be rapid and more hair is coming in, making it that much more obvious. I'll see if I can get a close up.