Dry skin (1 Viewer)

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Boone

Boone

Joined
Feb 19, 2008
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105
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791
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Boone, nc
My dog has really dry skin. The worst area is on his back near his tail. I've switched his food over to a formula that is supposed to help with sensitive skinned animals. I also give him fish oil pills once a day. Despite the change in diet he still has the same if not worse skin. Does anyone know what this might be or if there is something i could do to help it?

If not i'll take him to the vet, just trying to avoid paying for a visit to have them tell me to change his food.
 
You don't say what breed. Sometimes conditions are common to a breed. It may be a food allergy or food intolerance.
 
he's a mut i guess something like a german sheppard red tick mix. I kinda thought that it was something with his food too but after i noticed his skin i switched him to the sensitive stuff. Its not helping much.
 
I suspect food allergies. Common place for dry skin is right on the rear end above the tail with food allergies. Either have him tested to find out exactly what it is or put him on a very simple dog food with minimum ingredients... you'll have to play around for which food works best if you don't know what the allergy is.

Mom's dog had the same thing and after spending a year tweaking his food she finally had him tested. He wound up being allergic to beef, pork, dairy, potatoes, and something else. Even though his regular food didn't necessarily have these ingredients. his treats did. Cheese used to be a regular snack, now no more.

If it were me and I didn't want to pay for the testing, I'd put my dog on something with a lamb and sweet potato or brown rice base, then focus on having as few ingredients as possible.
 
If you have the patience and are careful. I highly recommend the raw food diet. The domestic dog is not that far removed from wild canines as far as their digestive tract is concerned. This goes along with what the last guy said, reduce intake of extra's. I believe in whole foods only, try to keep processed foods to an absolute minimum.
 
Dog food: Blue Buffalo Wilderness. 100% grain free.
 
For regular dry skin my vet said to add 1 tablespoon of safflower oil to my dog's food morning and night. Safflower oil is high in vitamin E.
 
We feed our GSDX Wellness Core Ocean blend (kibble) and every otehgr day or so we mix in a 1/3rd of a can of the Wellness Core Ocean blend canned stuff. Can be bought at PetCo or PetSmart. Grain-free, fish-based. Plus we also give him fish oil (poke it with a pin and squirt onto his food).

I assume you're not washing the dog alot? Frequent washing will prolly make the situation worse.
 
Careful with assuming grain-free is the way to go. For some dogs it is, but for some it's worse. Corn is hardly ever good allergy-wise, but some grains are actually beneficial. Don't forget two things: 1. Dogs are not wolves, even though they came from them and have similarities... they are generations away from those ancestors. and 2. Even wolves eat the stomachs of their prey and get their veggies/grains that way... those things are actually very important to their diets.

RAW/BARF would be the way to go if you know how. I worry that despite all my research, I'll neglect some important aspect of what is necessary to a dog's diet. I trust a good dog food balanced by animal dietitians more than my uneducated best-intentions.

Most people who have their dogs food-allergy tested are surprised to find certain MEATS are the culprits. Chicken, wheat, eggs, corn and soy are the most common allergens. Followed by beef, pork and whey.
 
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kllyjansen said:
Most people who have their dogs food-allergy tested are surprised to find certain MEATS are the culprits. Chicken, wheat, eggs, corn and soy are the most common allergens. Followed by beef, pork and whey.
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x2 I spent a few years trying to figure out what was going on with Prado. Lots of reading, diet figuring, trips to vets... finally found a specialist who knew what was up and why she was even allergic to expensive hypoallergenic dog food. Part of her issue is a genetic predisposition to bowel problems that flare up when given anything other than her dog food - and the rest (why she gets large hives) stem from an allergy to specific proteins - which constantly changes depending on how long she eats a certain brand of food with a particular type of protein. Tried her on RAW - it was great and she did well on it at first - supplemented with pumpkin and mineral oil when her entire digestive system slowed to a crawl. On the raw she got to the point where she would yelp in pain when relieving herself so that's when I got the referral to the specialist and we decided to take her off Raw, although most dogs do really well on it.

Anyway, good luck. It'll likely take awhile to figure out the best diet for your pup. Hopefully, when you figure out what works, it doesn't change. ;)
 
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Boone said:
he's a mut i guess something like a german sheppard red tick mix. I kinda thought that it was something with his food too but after i noticed his skin i switched him to the sensitive stuff. Its not helping much.
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Prado is a Rhodesian x Shepherd mix. The internal vet med specialist told me the Shepherd genetics is partly to blame for her digestive sensitivities.
 
growing up we had a shepherd mix that would lose his hair right above the tail. Tried everything to fix it. Changing foods, adding oils, nothing worked. Finally my dad said if none of this stuff is working I am getting the cheapest food I can. He bought o'l roy from Walmart and the hair grew back and the dog stopped biting back there. Not a huge Walmart fan, but it worked.
 
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