Dalmation with sudden weight loss, massive coat shedding, itchy raw skin rash

Question
Hi - my boyfriend's 4 yr. old Dalmation has been on thyroid medication for 6 months and doing well, until recently.  About 2 weeks ago he started losing weight (without losing his appetite), shedding tons of hair from all over his body, and he developed a skin rash that itches and bleeds when he scratches it.  The vet has taken lots of money so far but no answers. He doubts that it's thyroid.  Do you have any ideas on what this coud be?  The dog is a great dog - we love him and want him to be ok.  Please email me with any ideas or suggestions on websites I can go to in order to find out more information on this.  Thanks so much.

Answer
Hi Janice;
The first thing you need to do is get another Veterinarian.
Has that one run any tests?
It sounds like he has just looked at the dog and made a diagnosis.
the skin rash sounds like an allergy.
They can get infections with allergies, and if something isn't done, it can kill them.
Veterinarians are just like human doctors.
There are some great ones and some that shouldn't be practicing.
Do you live in or near a large city, where there are specialists?
I live in a Dallas suburb, and in this Metroplex area we have specialists for everything in the Veterinarian field too.
My Veterian that has taken good care of all our animals for 30 years runs tests until he finds out what is wrong.
He always tells me what he thinks it is, and tells me which tests he would like to run, if those don't pan out, before he runs them.
Some are just interested in the money, and don't really care about their patients.
I require a Vet that feels my animal's pain as I do.
These are like our children to some of us, even those of uas that also have 2 legged children.I m as particular aboyut my Veterinarian as I was about my children's Pediatrician.
Our's is very good, so he knows which things will be most likely, and which tests to run first, to not just soak un with bills.
If your Vet has run every conceivable test and still cn't find out what this is, then I would think he would do another thyroid test, or be sending you to a specialist in diagnostics or something.
If you feel your Veterinarian is just not trying hard enough to find out what is wrong, by all means see another one as soon as possible.
Does your Vet have the dog on antibiotics or anything?
I would think that would be immediately done as soon as the skin problems came up.
Charlotte