Winter dog skin

[starhorse]

My poor little mutt is struggling with winter skin again. Lots of itching. She does fine except for winter months in New England - I assume it is related to the dryer air and heat on in our house.

We have done rx meds for when it gets really bad to help her skin heal, but right now she’s just starting with the itches. We have done scrapes and allergy tests to make sure it’s not anything underlying.

We have her on a decent quality food with limited ingredients (Merrick Lamb), a humidifier going but I’m looking for other ideas - maybe adding a fish oil or something? If that would help, would love specific brand recommendations.

Thanks all

[Marla_100]

I’ve had dogs with dry skin, not from heat, but from poor diet. What I’ve done:

Ground flax mixed in canned food
Raw eggs- I give 6-8 per week for 75 lb. dog
Canned Salmon w/ juices right out of can
Canned fish- whatever type you can get
Good multi-vitamin daily or a good hair/skin vitamin for dogs

[SuzieQNutter]

You can use permoxin on dogs. It works on flea allergies in dogs and Queensland itch on horses. Or anything that is a problem but not a wound. It can be used if they have scratched down to blood. It stops the itch which stops the scratch which stops the itch.

It is cheap and is only mixed with water, you can mix with something else on the label, if you want it to dry quicker. It cannot be used on cats.

It is gentle enough to use that a vet told a friend that it was okay to soak a weak rescue puppy covered in ticks. Permoxin also kills ticks.

[S1969]

So this is a winter only problem - no itching in the summer? Or just less?

Fish oil is always good; Nordic Naturals is considered the gold standard for quality.

It could be another kind of allergy - mold, dust, etc. If it is really bad I might consider allergy meds rather than just trying to control the skin damage.

[starhorse]

Sorry for the delay. Just saw this. I’d say typical dog itches in the summertime. Like she scratches occasionally but nothing like winter. As soon as heat turns on, she’s itchy.