Hello everyone, I'm hoping someone here can help.  I have a 4 year old male husky who has been suffering with my vet is calling Zinc Deficiency.  He's been on a high zinc diet, receives 90mg of zinc supplements daily along with fish oil.  This winter has by far been the worst for him and has been pretty much on steroids since November.  The weather did get cold in Jan and it looked like he was finally on the mend until today after 2 days of warmer weather and rain.  I let him out this morning and he came back torn up (literally within 10 minutes).  Now I wait on the vet yet again for more prednisone and the cone of shame has returned to his now unhappy face.  This is killing me and I dont know what to do for him, he has to be in pain.  I'm hoping someone here can offer some advice.. I'm willing to travel to see a specialist if there is one out there.

One of our ladies here will be a lot more help than I can be but, for myself I have to ask, "torn up" ... ???  Maybe it's my lack of knowledge but how could a ZD result in getting torn up (and I'm picturing something like getting caught in a barbed wire fence torn up ) to the point that he requires a cone??

Our Boy has a Zinc Deficiency, it affects the areas around his eyes the most, sometimes around the mouth.
if you search this site im sure you can find some past threads along with mine that have images. look for ZRD.

where are the issues on your pup?
can you share any images?

A picture would definitely help. Here is a link to our how to upload a picture thread. Uploading Pictures

Zinc usually clears up if it's something nutritionally. I've not heard of treating zinc with steroids. Seems more an allergy thing or a skin infection issue. Prednisone will make the skin thin sometimes so animals on it could take damage easier if they are trying to reach through a fence after something or aggressively digging.