Molly has developed awful dandruff in the past few days. She's never had this before, in fact has quite a soft shiny coat. I use salmon oil in her food as she did have sensitive skin as a pup and it seems to have helped. She was spayed (laparoscopic) about 3 weeks ago and I'm wondering if this dandruff can be caused by hormonal changes as a result of the spay. Has anyone else experienced this?
Hormonal changes can have an impact on coat texture but I’m not sure about it producing dandruff. I’ve not heard before that it does. I’ve also never had a bitch though... Sometimes sudden dandruff can be stress related. It can come on really quickly. In addition to the spay has anything else changed in her life recently?
I don’t know what the actual cause is, but the Pig gets a bad bout of dandruff after a stressful event. So absolutely a spay would trigger something like that, because it’s both physiologically and psychologically hugely stressful. She also has it after home boarding when we go on holiday, and she had it after Christmas too when we had lots of family and small children round and her routine was disrupted. And she also gets it after an illness, when her immune system has taken a bit of a beating. I think it is quite normal and clears up fairly quickly usually.
Thank you both for your replies. I hadn't realised it could be caused by stress. Yes, I guess the spaying was stressful, she's never been away from us before, apart from the operation. Also we did have a bit of an incident with the awful cone thing which got caught on a wire and pulled a laptop off a table over night, probably scared the living daylights out of her, poor little Molls. Hopefully it will clear up soon
Stress is a massive trigger with my dogs. Even after an overnight stay in kennels, their coats would be awful. I don't ever put them in kennels anymore. Willow always suffered with a bit of dandruff; getting more fish oil into her diet helped a lot, but I noticed this summer that her coat has been fabulous, with no hint of dryness. I always put some of it down to environmental factors, with the dust we get down here, but the only difference between last summer and this is that she's now medicated against anxiety, and that seems to have really helped settle her skin.
Moo started the druff when she got sick it was really noticable. Its calming down a but now. I've also noticed that they are goibg through a stressful event the loose hair
Well, your replies virtually confirm it as stress caused. It seemed odd because it came on so suddenly. Thanks again, your replies are much appreciated.
Oh also, just thought, it can coincide with the central heating coming on after the summer too as it dries out the air...
It seems to work the other way too. His dandruff seems to be gone only a few days after he came home. He’s been medicated and resting lots but no white flakes.
This is what I was thinking. Brogan only got dandruff at the onset of winter after we moved to Europe where it was colder/dryer than in California. I'd just add more oil to his diet and that seemed to work the trick.
Glad your boy is flake-free now Johnny Walker. Unfortunately Molly is still dandruffy. It can't be the central heating in our house because its been on occasionally for several months, this being a very old cold damp cottage, so I don't really know if she's long term stressed - for some reason - or there's something else. She gets a tin of sardines every couple of days and I add salmon oil to her grub because of her previous sensitive skin, which is either clearing up or the effects are reduced due to the fish oil. Will just have to monitor and hope it clears.
Sometimes it can be related to a slight food allergy. Duggan had flakes when we first brought him home so I did a bunch of research. We ended up changing his food and he cleared up. Also bathing them too often is believed to be cause as well.
