for a veterinarian....
My 3 yr. old female vizsla mix has been having health issues since August. It started with skin itching and alopecia. we tested for food allergy by placing on RX food for 8 weeks. No improvement. Then we notice hardly visible hind leg tremors. Then over a period of about 3 days she became stiff and difficult to lift hind end up. She was taken to the vet school and many tests run. The dermatology dept. determined that she had scabies and began Revolution every 2 weeks for 3 treatments. She was also placed on Cipro, Gabepintin, another antibiotic ?, and a non-suppressive dose of prednisone. She improved. The tests for tick borne infection came back negative and she was taken off of the antibiotics. She continued the Prednisone for another 10 weeks or so and was gradually taken off. She seemed okay until about 6 weeks after coming off prednisone. Her skin and alopecia worsened about 3-4 weeks ago and I am noticing tremors of all limbs as well as stiffness in hind legs as of the last 1-2 weeks. The diagnosis given at the vet school for the stiffness was immune mediated polyarthritis with no known cause. I believe the skin condition to be part of this and I am not so sure about the mites. All scrapings were negative. I wonder if the prednisone was what improved both the skin and joint stiffness. I don't know what to do now. The vet school is extremely expensive and still no answers. My regular vet seems to be very confused about it.