A five-year-old Pomeranian, bald and lethargic from full Black Skin Disease, was six months away from being unrecognisable to his own family — once his owners started the Dermagic system. This is the letter they sent us.
A Pom in trouble
In September 2011, Mary and John Houska wrote to Dr. Adelia Ritchie about their five-year-old Pomeranian, Sir Winston. Two years earlier he had started losing his hair. As the disease progressed he slept more and more during the day, his appetite waned, his social skills faded, and walks — still his favourite thing — became shorter and less frequent.
By the bitter winter of 2011 his back, belly and tail were almost completely bald. His owners were dressing him in sweaters and coats to keep him warm. The vet had suggested melatonin and thyroid medication; neither helped.
They had, in their own words, all but given up.
The first bottle
On 17 September 2011 the first bottle of DERMagic Skin Rescue Lotion arrived. The Houskas started the regimen immediately — with cautious hope rather than confidence. The product was guaranteed, so they reasoned they had nothing to lose.
The first thing they noticed was the state of the skin changing with each bath — the scale, crust and build-up that accumulates on exposed skin lifting away, leaving healthier skin underneath. That part is the dependable bit of topical care: bald skin picks up secondary yeast and bacterial overgrowth, and clearing it changes how the skin looks and feels within weeks.
Six weeks in
On 29 October 2011, Mary recorded in her journal that hair was coming back. Sir Winston was more lively, more energetic, more interested in food. He had also started to enjoy his application times — the daily lotion massage had become a moment he looked forward to.
By late autumn 2011, healthy pink skin was visible on his chest and hair was growing in across his little body.
Six months on
By 18 March 2012, six months after that first application, Sir Winston was unrecognisable. The Houskas’ family who had last seen him at Christmas were “absolutely amazed.” Friends who remembered the bald, miserable dog from a year earlier said, “That isn’t the same dog.”
Mary’s full coat. Pink skin. Healthy weight. Restored energy and sociability. Even his hearing seemed sharper.
What we can and can’t claim from this
Sir Winston’s owners were delighted, and we’re glad to publish their letter. But we’d rather be straight about what a single case shows.
The skin changes — scale clearing, irritation settling, the surface looking and smelling healthier — are what topical care reliably does, and they show up within weeks. Bald skin is exposed skin, it picks up yeast and bacteria, and that is a treatable problem.
The coat is a different matter. Alopecia X is a hair cycle arrest, coat status waxes and wanes without any intervention, and high-quality controlled evidence for any treatment is extremely limited — melatonin, trilostane, deslorelin or ours. So we can tell you Sir Winston’s hair came back over six months on the lotion. We can’t tell you the lotion is why.
What the case does show is the shape of a sensible approach: topical rather than systemic, no steroids, and consistent daily application over months rather than weeks.
The Houskas closed their letter with one regret — that they had lost another Pom to Black Skin Disease before they knew about Dermagic. We share it.
If you have a Pom in the same position, our breed guide to Pomeranian alopecia and how to treat it naturally covers the diagnosis to insist on, how to get lotion through a double coat, and why you must not clip. For an honest comparison of every treatment route — including the ones we don’t sell — see Alopecia X treatment: what works, what doesn’t, and why.
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DERMagic Skin Rescue Lotion
Start treatment — dermagic.eu →For guidance on treating Alopecia X in your own dog, email customerservice@dermagic.eu or call +44 7425 388643.