Skin issues

[Carol Creamore]

Hello, my name is Carol Creamore and I am the proud owner of a 7 month old Brindle male Mastiff. We seem to be having some issues with his skin, the food we are using is Ultra Rotations Lamb and Potato by Nutro. His hind end is very dry and itchy. We have been adding fish oil to his diet and coconut oil on his skin. This is the second food we have tried on him, the first one did not agree with him ( too many ingredients to pinpoint what was bothering him) We switched to rotations which Lamb is the main ingredient , potatoes and chickpeas no corn , wheat or chicken.It is one of the better brands. If anyone has some suggestions would be appreciated. Thank You.

 

[NYDDB]

I'm not sure since I feed raw, but another member here just had to take her dogs off of a food that also had chickpeas in it, due to itching. I can't imagine that chickpeas (or any pea product) would help the situation...

 

[Oscar'sMom]

How long has he been on the food? Did the itching start with the new food? Maybe look at any treats or bones he gets regularly too. Look at the ingredients...I didn't see the lamb based specifically with a quick google search, but the other flavors have chicken fat and meal further down the list. Maybe that isn't helping ?

 

[Iulicris88]

My puppy had a very itchy back when he was eating royal caning gastro; it was especially bad between his shoulder blades where he'd develop scabbing from all the scratching. It got alot better when we started feeding him Acana Pacifica but the skin was still dry and had some dandruff. Lately, thou, he rarely itches anymore and his dandruff is gone. The only thing i can think of is that, since we finished all the shots, we've allowed him to spend alot of time outside. The air inside was probably too dry because of the heating and it dried out his skin, which led to dandruff and itchiness. Either that, or he needed some time after changing his food to completely recover.If your dog spends alot of time inside and you don't have a yard where he can stay, maybe you could use a humidifier. Also, try not bathing him to often, as it can make it worse. I prefer to clean mine with a warm cloth and then massage a few drops of argan oil into his fur. Also, about 10 minutes of brushing his coat every day should help remove the dirt and improve the oil secretion.

 

[tmricciuto]

I never thought about putting Argan oil on my girls.

 

[DennasMom]

Do you know if they have a chicken sensitivity? That lamb food has chicken-fat in it... LOTS of 'non-chicken' foods still use chicken fat....

How much fish oil are you adding? A 'therapeutic' dose would be about 4x a human dose. If you've tried that much for a few weeks, you should have seen results if that was going to help.

I've also read that giving fish oil can deplete Vitamin E. The lamb & potato food has fish in it, so you might not need the added fish oil - especially if you don't see any improvements while taking it.
You might also check the fish oil you're using, to see if it already has Vit E added... some do.

 

[spiritDDB]

We are dealing with skin issues too....it's rough. We were trying a completely raw diet briefly which I think is great if you can manage it. We did seem to see some improvement quickly, but she still seemed to be hungry a lot. Decided to supplement with a limited ingredient dry food, which we found at a local store. The brand is Dr. E's and it is grain, chicken, and potato free (I was worried about yeast problems with the potatoes so we decided to try that and see. Good luck!