Bald Butt, Bald Belly- And Biotin.

[ahicks51]

We serendipitously discovered that Minerva (age 12-1/2) has grown remarkable butt fuzzies (longer and thicker than ever) and now has belly fur for the first time ever, having started her on high dose biotin (10,000 micrograms, or 10 milligrams) several weeks ago. Perhaps the two are unrelated, but if anyone wants to try it, we bought this stuff off of eBay. I have no financial affiliation with Natrol or any other vitamin supplier.

 

10 mg of biotin- particularly for a 60-70 pound greyhound- seems very high, and I suppose a lower dose would work just as well for most dogs for butt fuzzies. But the human dose in a recent MS trial ranged from 100 mg to 300 mg/day (!), so we're careful and watching for any potential adverse effects at 10 mg. We're trying to find out if perhaps the progression of hind-end weakness can be ameliorated the same way as MS symptoms were through use of high-dose biotin. Just a hunch.

[NeedlenoseJake]

Interesting! I'd love to see photos of her highness's fuzzy butt!

[macoduck]

Other than growing hair, have you as yet noticed any improvement in hind end weakness?

[ahicks51]

Other than growing hair, have you as yet noticed any improvement in hind end weakness?

 

I'm not expecting improvement quite so much as I am hoping it will slow the progression.

 

She's also on CoQ10 based on an Iranian study showing that high doses of that compound work in MS, too. And she gets a slug of olive oil with dinner; "true" olive oil contains oleocanthal, which is an anti-inflammatory. If it burns the back of the throat (but not the tongue and the rest of the mouth) when slurped, it contains oleocanthal. Much of the Italian oils are fake, so I stick with Californian stuff as the labeling requirements are much more rigidly enforced. She's also on Rimadyl, which is probably 95% of any improvement we've seen.

 

Just a hunch, and I really don't have anything by which to compare it to so it would be pure speculation on my part. We've had Minerva 10 years this month, and she's our grande dame; not much experience with older greys. But I thought the biotin thing was interesting.

[ahicks51]

Interesting! I'd love to see photos of her highness's fuzzy butt!

 

Her Royal Majesty's Royal Hiney:

 

 

And the underbelly in question:

 

 

Neither of us can remember her having a well-furred belly before. Plus, she's been shedding like crazy ever since we started the biotin.

 

Some notes on the hind end- the day after I first posted about this, The Lisa tells me she was play-fighting with Tito, rearing up on two legs and hopping over him. Again, probably 95% Rimadyl (which she has been on for almost a year), but hearing of her bounding over a large dog like Tito is pretty cool.

 

Biotin for humans with MS is supposed to take 8-10 months to kick in, so I'd be fooling myself to say any signs of improvement could be ascribed to biotin in the short time (~4 weeks) we've been using it on Minerva. But the fur...!

[NeedlenoseJake]

She has a wonderfully fuzzy heiny and belly!

[seeh2o]

I am fascinated by this topic, thanks so much for starting it. My girl is 12 years, 4 months, suffered from an FCE last Dec. She's had an amazing recovery and continues to get stronger with regular cold laser treatments and acupuncture as needed. I am guessing, with age, there will be some naturally occurring back end weakness, especially now after an FCE. I'm wondering if this would help her, even prophylactically. Do you have any links to the studies about how it works with humans with MS? If so, would you share the links here? Also, do you know if there is any toxicity with Biotin for dogs? Thanks in advance.

[ahicks51]

CoQ10 for fatigue and depression in MS.

 

The biotin study. 91.3% improved clinically- that's pretty remarkable.

 

I suspect both are just feel-good measures for me that have little effect on long-term decline in dogs, but- hey. We do what we think is best.

 

Rummaged up this old study in which dogs were fed HUGE doses of biotin, but they didn't look at toxicity. Plus, it was 3-5 weeks. But they were feeding 5,000 micrograms per 10 kg weight, which (for a 66-pound greyhound) would work out to 15,000 micrograms, or about 50% more than I'm feeding Minerva.

 

In a collaborative study with small-animal veterinary surgeons, dogs with fur and skin conditions were treated with biotin (approximately 5 mg biotin/10 kg body weight/day) for 3 to 5 weeks. In total 119 cases could be treated which were reported to show symptoms such as dull coat, brittle hair, loss of hair, scaly skin, pruritus or dermatitis. Cases requiring other treatments with e.g. glucocorticoids, were excluded from the study. In 60% of the cases all symptoms were reported to be cured after the biotin treatment and in a further 31% an improvement was noted; in only 9% no effect was recorded. All breeds responded but to a variable extent: e.g. in Poodles the response was lower (no response in 6 out of 11 cases) than in Alsatians where all improved and 14 out of 29 were completely cured. The results confirm the favourable effect of biotin for treatment of fur and skin conditions in dogs.

 

Linus Pauling went a little wonky in his later years, claiming high dose vitamin C would cure us of everything. Since then, the Pauling Institute has been a good source of exactly how much of any given vitamin you can take without overdosing. This is the site for biotin. Being a water-soluble B vitamin, overdose is very difficult in animals, and while biotin- present at thousands of micrograms in supplements- seems like it is at a high dose, it's still milligrams. The "Toxicity" section there may be of interest.

 

Plus, the quantity need not be the 10,000 micrograms we're providing. Maybe 1,000 ug would be plenty.

Edited June 13, 2015 by ahicks51

[macoduck]

Interesting read. I have been debating about taking Biotin since I have type 2 diabetes.

[Feisty49]

I've heard good things about the positive effects of Biotin. I've been taking Biotin for myself for 16 months or so and my nails are no better or worse. The same with my hair. I'm going to finish the current bottle but not replace it.

[seeh2o]

Thanks for posting the links! I'm thinking about it for my girl who had an FCE last Dec. She had a lot of hind end weakness after, but is so much better. I've been taking her for cold laser treatments, we're down to once a month with them now. I'll ask the vet when I go next week.