Itchiness caused by estrous?

[Katem]

So Pig started her heat cycle on 10/29. I believe proestrus lasted until 11/7 or 11/8. She has very little discharge now and the swelling of her vulva is going down, so I suspect she's nearing the end of her cycle. I've noticed that the skin around her mouth, especially the corners, appears red and irritated. There's some hair loss/thinning that also seems to be spreading to around her eyes. She's itchy, but only scratches her mouth and has just started scratching around her eyes/ears today. Her mouth has been affected for just over a week or so. At first it was so slight that I thought I was imagining it, but in the past few days it's become obvious

There has been no change in her diet and the rest of her skin/coat is fine. No issues with her stools, no vomiting.
No new toys, detergents or bedding have been introduced.
One of her water bowls is plastic, but she has never shown any problem with that before.
None of the other animals in the house are showing any signs of itching or skin issues.

I'm thinking that since it seems to have coincided with her heat cycle, the two might be connected? Possibly demodex? I'm going to call the vet on Monday to see how soon they think I should/can come in.

I snapped a few pics with my phone, but she's trying to sleep curled up into a ball on the couch and just isn't feeling very cooperative. I'll post them after my phone charges.

 

[Katem]

I forgot to post the pictures. The first two are from 11/13. Bottom two are from tonight. Her eye looks much better now. The only way you could tell there's any hair loss/pinkness is if you shine a light on her face and look very closely. Her mouth actually looks about the same, but I put bacitracin on before taking pictures tonight and that seemed to make it appear more red.

I asked one of the techs at work about it and they didn't seem very concerned. It hasn't spread and hasn't really gotten any worse, but I'm bothered that it's not getting any better. The earliest I would be able to get her into our regular vet's office would be next week. I'm just torn whether I should give it another week or find a new vet with an opening sometime this week.

 

[JessLough]

Hmm... Rosey's never really gone through anything like that, and she has been intact her whole life. If it's not getting any worse, she is acting normally otherwise, and it's not bugging her *too* much, I would probably just wait until you can get her into a normal vet.

 

[DogKisses]

Have you given her any new chews?

 

[Katem]

There are antlers and hard rubber chew toys around the house that she'll sometimes gnaw on and she's raw fed, so part of her diet is RMBs. Nothing new though. She's been raw fed since she was around 10 weeks old, never had any issues before and I haven't introduced any new proteins. I checked inside of her mouth and there's nothing stuck in there, no bumps or cuts.

The skin around her mouth has no odor, it's not hot to the touch and it's dry, almost like chapped lips. It doesn't seem to bother her too much. She'll scratch at it, but not incessantly. She has no problem eating, wrestling with Bear, holding things in her mouth etc.

For right now I think I'll wait until I can bring her in to our regular office next week. She already turns into a whimpering mess on the exam table, I can only imagine what it'll be like if she needs a skin scraping.

 

[wishbone]

Poor girl, hope its not serious. Probably an allergic reaction, please update us when she came from vet..