Thank you Al and Renee for your explanations. It is all helpful to know even if, in Miya's case, it turns out it's actually not ZRD. Like Jane, I always appreciate how everyone takes the time to research and post when one of our huskies isn't well.

Jane, please let us know how it goes at the vet.

Jane, I feel your pain too much. lol. Sofie has the same issue with her mouth, although I have maintained it's a lack of grease for her. I don't feed as much fat to Sofie as i do Miya. Miya can handle fats far better, Sofie gets loose stools with too much fat, but her mouth gets crusty like Memphis. I suppose it is still an allergy, I just have shrugged it off thinking if I added salmon or fish oil she would be better. For me, I probably need to go to Acana as well, what has put me off is the high fiber in Acana, and well, like I said she doesn't do well with fats, ugh........I have spoken to TOTW, they have reassured me all is good. I do know that TOTW can stain a little in the mouth area, Miya has the stain, but looking at your Miya it looks more red than stain. Having ZRD isn't the end of the world, and I am unsure, but I don't think there is a specific test that you can do prior to the symptoms showing. Please let us know how the vet visit goes.

@Renee these darn shepherds haha it is a pain when they have allergies and especially you dont know the cause!
Hmm that's too bad she doesn't handle fats well, I think the fish formula has 5 fiber instead of six but compared to totw at 3 that is a lot higher fiber. You could always try Acana out..

-UPDATE-

I just got back from the vet, nice place. Anyways, the vet said that he does think it's some sort of infection going on and wants to try putting miya on antibiotics to see if it goes away It does look better since I took the pic. He doesn't think it's zrd but he said if it comes back, they'll do more invasive testing like a scraping to get to the bottom of it. So hopfully it goes away in the anti biotics. Shes up to date on her vaccines now, so thats a good thing also.
I mentioned if it might be the food, and he said not likely but I can try changing it to see, I told him I changed to Acana and he said its one if the best foods out there so that was nice to hear.

Sounds good, J! I think it's better than having to deal with ZRD anyways. Vet didn't have any clue what may have instigated the infection?

Thanks me too, I hope this just clears up in the next week. Noo he didn't really say, all he mentioned was how it can be tricky to pin point a skin infection like this, like how or why it started type of thing.. but in his words lol you get what I'm saying. Without going further with testing, there's not much I can do. Just hope it doesn't come back.

Just wanted to leave an updated picture




Her mouth seems to be 90% healed and the fur has grown back. Not sure what was causing it still ..but I'm glad that she is healthy and her mouth isn't bothering her anymore