I can't imagine how uncomfortable he must be Corinna. I'm sorry you are both having to endure this condition. I wonder if running a humidifier during the cold winter months would help him? I know that when Lilly started gaining weight and had some pretty bad skin conditions, we had a thyroid panel run on her, as apparently both of those were pretty strong symptoms of thyroid disease. Thankfully, hers was not her thyroid, but I was glad to know that (we've had the test run twice now and it was in normal ranges both times). Lilly is having some pretty rough times with her skin right now and has pulled every hair out of the base of her tail and the surrounding area. I believe it is a wintertime allergy thing as it happens almost every year. We had to get back on Prednisone for a while, but I hope she won't have to do that for long.

Good luck with Merlin and keep us posted on how he is progressing.

Logan