This is Jerry.
In his first year, Jerry — our indie, adopted right as the world went into lockdown — started losing hair in clumps. Mange, the vet said. An immune reaction to allergens, managed with steroids. It worked, for about a month. Then the itching came back, the scabs came back, and so did the ₹8,000 vet bill. Every month, for a while.
We weren't willing to keep him on steroids for life just to manage symptoms nobody could actually explain. So we found a vet who worked differently — one who ruled things out instead of just prescribing. Was it genetic? The food? Something in the house? An underlying condition no one had checked for?
Turned out it was almost all of it. New food, a pet-safe floor cleaner, a thyroid test that finally found something real, and an omega supplement alongside it. His coat came back. The flare-ups mostly stopped — and when they don't, we actually know why.