HI,Great to become a part of this forum dedicated to Labs.My name is Jane ,an Ex pat Brit living in southern Spain.We are the proud owners of Blacky,a beautiful six and a half month old black Labrador.Blacky has been going to training clases since he was 4 months old,and is almost 100% house trained.In August we are participating in an amature obedience competicion (just for the fun).My only concern with Blacky is that he suffers itchy skin and dandruff.We feed him with best quality dry dog food and additional salmon oil.Have tried all types of shampoos.Can anyone help?Thank you.
Hi from Hattie 8 years and our rescue boy Charlie 5 years. All breeds of dogs welcome here not just Labs Blacky is gorgeous, that was Charlie's name when he came to us! Poor Blacky having itchy skin. How often do you shampoo him as washing him too often will remove the natural oils from his coat? My dogs don't suffer but I do put tinned Sardines with the olive oil onto their kibble 3 times a week, maybe you could try that. Good luck with the obedience competition. xx
Hi Jcb, welcome to the forum! I've not been a member myself for very long and have found everyone to be welcoming, friendly and knowledgable. Blacky is a lovely pup. We have a 14 week old chocolate lab named Bailey and are firmly in the crocopup stage. I have to remind myself I love this dog each time he launches himself at my hands, legs and clothes. I don't have much advice regarding Blacky's skin problems except that when our previous lab, Cooper lost all the fur on his belly we began evening primrose oil capsules twice a day which seemed to help. He was also prescribed phenergan by his vet. Good luck!
Hi @Jcb - a very warm welcome to the forum. What has your vet said about the itchies? And what have you tried already to help this? Can't be much fun for Blacky with the itch. There are lots of theories from mites, sand flies, pollen, food....... Probably as many ideas as people you ask. It is always good to get advice from someone with knowledge, and someone who can also take a look at Blacky's skin - so the vet! We will, however, no doubt be able to come up with lots of theories on how we solved it in our own dogs!! Good to hear he is doing well with his obedience
Thank you for your reply,The vet thought that a vit deficiency was the cause,recomended the salmon oil and gave us some special shampoo.I will take him in this week for a routine check,so i will ask again.I might add that its very hot now in this part of the world and i dont think that helps! I see that your from Fife, my mothers family are from Inverkeithing and Rosyth.
Ah....lived in Rosyth for a bit in my 'teens (Naval brat ) Did the vet do bloods to confirm a vitamin deficiency or was it just an educated guess? I would have thought if you are on a middle range food or higher this would be pretty unusual as they are pretty well balanced I think, although others on the forum are more up to speed than me on such matters. There are a few threads about itches. One of the more recent ones is here http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/allergies-dry-skin-itchy-dog.13410/
Hi and welcome to the forum. My girl (Willow, black) has quite dry skin, which I use salmon oil for. I think the climate plays a big part, though, as, when we recently had a holiday in (very wet) Brittany, her coat was FABULOUS. We live in Andorra, which is generally very dry as far as humidity goes, and we've just bought a finca in Spain (southern Catalonia). Since spending time here, her skin is a lot more flaky She's not scratching herself, but I would like to resolve it, so I'm going to take her to the vet here for advice. Her brother, Shadow, also has a bit of dry skin now on his tummy, although it's harder to see against his pale fur. That's why my gut feeling is that it's environmental rather than dietary, especially since they are fed on different kibbles because I already changed Willow to a sensitive food to see if it helped.
