Periodic but persistent dry, flaky skin on mutt

[onelanerode]

We picked up a lab/terrier/God only knows what else ~4 years ago from a rural county shelter. He was ~10 months old at the time and malnourished. He had crusty, flaky skin and missing hair when we adopted him, but our vet at the time tested for mange (negative), did a skin scraping (nothing remarkable), dewormed him and said he thought the skin issues would resolve with time and good nutrition. At vet’s suggestion, we added DermCaps to dog’s diet for about the first 6 months after we got him. He picked up weight quickly and got neutered, and the crusty skin/missing hair resolved.

He started out on Canidae’s all life stages food, and over the last four years has been on Solid Gold, TOTW, California Natural, Natural Balance, Canidae grain-free and maybe one or two other high-end kibbles. He’s currently on Natural Balance venison and potato and has been for the last year and a half, and he’s not getting anything else regularly. He does not have a sensitive stomach and eats anything you put in front of him happily (but lettuce is not his favorite :lol: ).

The dry, flaky skin has persisted, usually worsening immediately after a bath (we’ve tried Jeffers oatmeal shampoo, Earthbath hypoallergenic, Johnson’s baby shampoo and a few others) and in the winter. He is 5 now and this winter his skin is flakier than I’ve seen it. None of the four vets who have seen him regularly believe he has a food allergy (our other dog does, so I had asked about this possibility).

He has always had a somewhat oily feel to his coat, though when he is clean he has a lovely shine to his black coat and looks blue in bright sun. He has always had a bit of a smell to him (not bad, necessarily, but a more “doggy” smell than our other dog). Because of the smell and greasy coat, and the amount of digging/rolling he does in the yard, he gets a bath about every 4-6 weeks, a frequency approved of by the vet he sees most regularly (she said no more frequently than monthly).

His weight is perfect, his teeth are cleaned as needed, and all his bloodwork is normal. He isn’t a super active dog, but he plays in the yard with our other dog daily and goes running with me ~3-4 times a week. His energy level seems normal to slightly above average, and none of the vets he’s seen have remarked on anything else being abnormal aside from the dry skin.

So we have tried switching foods (different proteins, different carbs), with no marked difference for better or worse. We have tried different bathing products, including a regular conditioner, with no improvement (the conditioner made the greasy feel a lot worse). We have tried a vet-recommended topical product whose name I cannot remember, and that did not appear to do anything but exacerbate the greasy feel of his coat; we were still getting flaky skin. The DermCaps were great for the initial skin funk/poor haircoat, but once that resolved (about two months into having him), the flaky skin persisted. I even tried switching to the Arm & Hammer hypoallergenic detergent (I usually use Era), because I wash their bedding about every 2 weeks, but that didn’t affect things either.

If he were your dog, what would you be considering at this point?

[Big_Grey_hunter]

Our lab used to get dry flaky skin in the winter. We started feeding fish oil pills and the problem went away. I doubt it will as simple as that for your dog, but it might be worth a try.

[onelanerode]

The DermCaps are basically fish oil …

[OTV]

Are you sure it’s dry skin and not a skin condition?

If it’s dry skin, I can sympathize. My dog has dry skin too and come winter, it’s a brutal process trying to keep him comfortable. He has the blue-black coat too, so dandruff on him is very noticeable!

Here’s what we do:

• fish oil pills. I’m not sure what’s in dermacaps, but I’ve found salmon oil to be the best for skin and I stay away from cod liver oil for dogs. If the dermacaps are in gel capsules, there’s a good chance the oil isn’t getting released into his system. Dogs have a hard time digesting the gel capsule around the oil so unless they bite into it and break the gel cap (it’ll make a popping noise), they’re not receiving the benefit of the oil

If your dog is swallowing them whole, you can prick the gel capsule and squeeze the oil out onto kibble. OR, since that’s a PITA, you can get liquid fish oil that comes with a pump and just pump it out onto his kibble. Grizzly’s is a good brand. I tend to get the human grade fish oil from Costco.

My dog gets two fish oil pills (2x 1000mg) a day in the summer. In the fall and winter, he needs 3 to combat his dry skin. He usually ‘pops’ the pills himself.

• raw egg. A raw egg once or twice a week makes a huge difference in a dog’s coat. You can feed it shell and all. If you’re worried about salmonella, you can always hard or soft boil it and crack it over kibble.

• humidifier/air purifier. I got one more for my benefit than my dog’s but it’s made a huge difference for us both! No more dry skin for either of us!

• For baths, I make sure I rinse super well. Nothing dries out skin and coat like residual shampoo. Get as much pressure as you can for the rinse out and scrub the coat from the neck down (like grooming a horse). You can also cut it with some apple cider vinegar or plain listerine.

• Fish. 2-3 times a week. Depending on your dog’s stomach and ability to handle new food items, I’d look into supplementing his food with some fish. Mackerel and herring are very oily fish so they’re not only great for coat and skin, but dogs love them. You can also get sardines packed in water and top kibble with them or use them as a high value training treat. I scoop them out with a spoon when i work on recall.

• Tripe. Generally, one of the best things you can feed a dog. Plus, the canned tripe (Trippets is the brand) has varieties for coat supplementation. The duck, salmon, and green beef varieties do a fantastic job of helping with dry skin.

• Brushing. I brush my dog 4-5 times a week and always with a spritzer. I was using vetrolin shine this summer, miracle groom in the fall, and just switched to healthy hair care.

All of the above keeps my dog’s skin under control. I need to be more careful in the fall and winter since it can get out of control quickly, but if I do everything as outlined above, there’s little difference in his coat and no dandruff in the winter. I found the raw egg, tripe, and fish meals made the biggest difference.

Also, if you’re washing his beds (or your linens, if he sleeps on your bed) make sure to do a double rinse so there’s NO detergent left and dry things without bounce sheets. My dog is highly allergic to bounce sheets and scratched himself bloody one time when a bounce sheet got caught in his bed. He slept on it for 4 days and literally scratched so hard he had sores around his mouth and ears.

Hope some of that helps!

[MunchingonHay]

I know the dermcaps are pretty much fish oil, but try WILD salmon oil. You can get it in a pump that is stored in the fridge once opened.

Day and night with my BC/Lab cross. If I used the cheaper fish oil it would not clear up. The WILD salmon has a better quality to it.

[lolalola]

Along with the fish oil, add some flax seed oil. Flax is very good for skin. My dogs and I take the same flax and fish oil caps. You may also want to try brewer’s yeast and MSM, both good for the skin.

[Wilko1917]

re the odour of your lab X : Labradors have a very oily coat, as do many gundog breeds that are required to retrieve from water. This is the source of the smell.
My son has a Welsh Springer Spaniel, and the breeder of his puppy recommended feeding him a small can of sardines mixed in his food every week. He does nicely on that, and if for some reason they forget to give him his sardines, he becomes dry within a couple of days.
Oh and reading some of the replies, the sardines are those that are packed in oil, not water.
Good luck.

[onelanerode]

Good call on the Bounce sheets; I do use those in the dryer because his bed is fleece. This time of year, everything is extra zappy. I’ll wash his bed this weekend and skip the Bounce sheet.

I am 95 percent sure we are not dealing with a skin condition. His vet checks his skin at my request at his annual checkup (early December), and he isn’t itchy (at least, he is no itchier than our other dog, who does not have dry, flaky skin).

Wilko1917, I had wondered about the retrieving breed coat/water thing, but the Lab mix is only a guess. (He isn’t really a fan of water either.) He is not obviously one particular breed, but he came from a rural area where the two most popular dog types are pitbull/bully breeds and hunting dogs, so I am assuming he is some sort of combination mainly of those.

I did pick up some Grizzly salmon oil today; at $12.50 for a month, that is worth a try.

I may also see about getting a humidifier … poor dog isn’t the only one with dry skin right now.

[TKR]

Some great suggestions. Have you tried a tea tree oil shampoo or any spray on product for a dog’s coat after the bath? What about a pro or prebiotic? Not sure how it might help, but if it is digestive, it might. Good luck – kudos to you for taking such great care of him and going to so much trouble to find a cure~!`

PennyG

[Doberpei]

Could your dog possibly have some Shar Pei in him? I had a Shar Pei mix, and she had dreadful skin, and always had a slightly doggy smell, made worse when she was wet. She had case of mange when I adopted her from the shelter, and never really got rid of the crustlies around the edges of her ears. She always looked like she had dandruff, but it her skin wasn’t so bad it made her itch.

Shar Peis have notoriously bad skin, and even though the hair might be oily, the skin isn’t. I think they might be allergic to themselves. (Her fur irritated my skin, and the breed is high on the allergy list for people).

[onelanerode]

Shar Pei would not be among my guesses, but I am not great at guessing mixed breeds! :no:

Day after we got him: http://goo.gl/3et0U

Following spring: http://goo.gl/0j4Pj

Keen little face: http://goo.gl/8mqUM

[JanM]

Don’t underestimate the drying effect of the indoor heat, and especially hanging out in front of a heat vent can have on a dog’s coat this time of year. And make sure that when you bathe the dog you don’t do it too often, and that you wash every last speck of soap out or the poor dog will be so itchy you won’t be able to believe it.

The fish oil, and especially the wild salmon oil sounds like a great idea, and I hope that solves the problem.

[onelanerode]

Well, poor dog’s skin had been progressively getting worse, so he saw our vet today. DH took him in, so this is second-hand info.

Vet thinks he may have a skin infection–the big nasty flakes are limited to his topline, and elsewhere is the “regular” dry skin this dog has always had–so we have been sent home with a two-week course of Cephalexin and a bottle of Mal-a-Ket shampoo to bathe him with every 5-7 days.

Vet got to see him at his worst, so to speak; he was due for a bath and was fairly greasy and smelly. She asked if he was always this greasy, and mentioned the possibility of sebhorrea, and we’d need to do further diagnostic work to determine if it’s primary or secondary sebhorrea.

He is due for a recheck in two weeks, and if at that point it is looking more likely that this is sebhorrea, I’ll request a review of his diet to make sure he is getting the nutrients he needs.

[Emryss]

You might consider bathing in Neutrogena (or a generic knock-off) T-Gel shampoo. It doesn’t stink as much much as dog tar & sulfur, but it sure does the trick for seborrhea or plain ol’ dry skin. I have had pretty good luck with pre-treating dry skin with Neutrogena’s sesame oil (mixed with cool water) and then bathing about 1/2 hour later (I spray it into the hair/coat and brush it in.) This worked for a lot of sensitive doggies at my shop over the years.