Omeprazole side effect??

Blondie has been loosing lots of hair lately. I thought it was just natural shedding, but I just found a large bold spot on her. The shedding is pretty bad. Her coat is getting thinner and thinner.
Could it be a side effect of omeprazole?? I looked it up and prilosec causes hairloss in people...
What do i do about this? Anybody has experienced this??

Sorry to hear you have another worry. I would get her to a vet right away to assess if there are other possible causes as there could be many. If the medication seems to be the cause, then I'd talk to your neurologist.

Sorry to hear about Blondie's hair loss. I have never heard of omeprazole causing hair loss in dogs, however, as Karlin said, I would check with your vet or even give Dr. West a call.
I hope you get this figured out soon.
hugs,
Irene and Jack

I read only it causes hairloss in 1 percent of people. I called Dr. West and he said he wanted me to get her checked out by dermatology to rule out anything else first. I made an appointment on the 13th. Oh well, if she goes bald I'd still love her just as much.:-D

i wanted to add to my post i just made that it doesnt seem to bother her.. No itching, etc.. Nothing has changed in her diet, only omeprazole. Ofcourse wanna make sure it's not mites or anything.. so a skin swap would probably be a good idea...

My Scarlett is also on Omeprazole (along with Gabapentin and Previcox). I noticed a few months ago that her hair was getting very thin and I assumed it was the drugs she is on. I took her in to have her bloodwork done and everything was pretty normal. She was spayed about a month ago and her coat has started to thicken back up. I am not sure why she was losing her coat-- probably a combination of reasons. Don't forget that it's natural for them to blow a lot of their coat at certain times of the year or, different points in their cycle if she isn't spayed (not sure whether your girl is spayed or not).

When she was losing her coat, I added some of the Isle of Dogs Royal Jelly supplement to her food and that seemed to help and didn't interfere with her meds:

http://www.iodogs.com/p-349-no-91-royal-jelly-coat-supplement-250ml.aspx

This line of groomng products is great for their coats!! Check out the shampoos, conditioners, and grooming sprays. Expensive, but can be diluted and lasts forever.

Good luck!

Blondie isnt spayed yet.. Im planning on doing it soon before she turns 4..
Probably in march, a hundred days past her next cycle.
Just want to wait a bit, she has been through a lot lately.
On top of it all, we had to visit to ER on tuesday. She was vomiting constantly, the last two times being blood.
Ugh. They didnt find anything... A stomach ulcer is unlikely on omeprazole.
Maybe she swallowed something or something made her nauseaus and the intense vomiting then made her throw up blood.
They x-rayed her and then ultrasound her , but found nothing..
She seemed fine after an hour. Anyways, it's really been one thing after the other. I got her wild salmon oil as a coat supplement... Read it works well... The shedding seems a tad better. Not sure if its wishful thinking. But i like to be positive.

Blondiemonster said:

Oh well, if she goes bald I'd still love her just as
much.:-D

Click to expand...

Oh bless you :hug: that comment really got to me. We have to opposite here, masses or extra hair, cotton coat at that, and I can only put it down to the meds.

I am so sorry Lynn, you and Blondie have been going through so much. I know when Jack was on a higher dose of Omeprazole, 10mg he would often throw up clear liquid, but that went away as soon as it was reduced to 7.5mg.
Like you said maybe it was something unrelated, either way, I am happy to hear Blondie is ok now.
I give Jack grizzly salmon oil, I get it from amazon.com because it's much cheaper than at the little pet stores around here. It seems to make his coat a bit shinier and he loves the taste.:luv:

Pauline,

Can we borrow some of your doggies hair? hehe Or maybe we can knit a wintercoat out of it for my balding Blondie Or ofcourse there's always "hair extensions" i*no: @ jacks mom: Grizzly is what I got too!! glad to hear you like it. Did u ever contact the compound pharmacy?

Come help yourself. This was one single brushing session, we got about four times that amount over the whole summer not including what's in my Henry vacuum.

Lynn

I haven't checked out the compound pharmacy, still cutting up prilosec/omeprazole with my handy dandy pill cutter I plan to soon.

lovecavaliers said:

I am so sorry Lynn, you and Blondie have been going through so much. I know when Jack was on a higher dose of Omeprazole, 10mg he would often throw up clear liquid, but that went away as soon as it was reduced to 7.5mg.

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Same thing with Scarlett-- on 10 mg, she would throw up a clear/yellowish liquid (again, had her bloodwork done-- all was fine). I cut her down to 5mg and she rarely vomits-- I also try to give her snacks throughout the day so her tummy has something in it at all times. I just wonder if the 5 mg is enough to really help her.

We've been giving Geordie his Omeprazole in two 5mg doses that are 12 hours apart. This has been ok'd by his neurologists and it's been working well for over a year now. It's important to keep the cerebrospinal fluid pressure down to help control the progression of SM, so you might want to discuss this option with your vet/specialist.

A few years ago, Geordie's coat was thinning, and I found that giving him 1 teaspoon of raw wheat germ every morning mixed in his kibble has helped immensely. Each kernel of wheat germ is loaded with vitamins, oil, and enzymes. The germ of the wheat kernel is not the part that causes allergic reactions, either. Raw wheat germ should be stored in the freezer to keep it fresh.