Golden Ret. Skin

Question
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Followup To
Question -
I have a 1 1/2 year old golden.  I just noticed that he has two spots on each side of him where he is loosing hair.  The skin color is almost a purple/maroon color.  I took him into the vet, and they did not seem to know what it was.  He is not bothered by it.  He does not try to itch it or does it hurt him when you touch it.  
The vet told me to give me Melatoain vitamins.  
Might you know what this is?
Answer -
If your vet prescribed Melatonin, then it may be a seasonal flank alopecia, sometimes called Alopecia X.  Goldens do not usually get this disease as it is mostcommon in what we call the Nordic breeds, like Huskies, Malamutes, etc. I would ask the vet to do skin scrapings to look for demodex mange, which can also show up this way.  The vet can always do a skin biopsy to see what type of skin disease is present.


The vet did a skin scraping, but said she did not know what it was.  I see Melatoain is like a sleep pill, how can this help?  Do you think this is something where I can wait for the month to see if the pills help, or if I should be a little more concern and have them do a skin biopsy which they would have to put him to sleep?  My biggest concern is that he gets his hair back. Thank you

Answer
As long as the skin is not itchy or reddened you can wait.  Many of these skin diseases have to do with the length of the daylight hours.  The body controls many functions including sleep from a secretion from the pineal gland in the brain....melatonin.