Dry skin & losing hair?

[PomeranianCrazy]

Hey everyone! Silvia has been losing lots of hair for a week now, and everytime I brush or rub her I see white flakes. So i know she has dry skin, cause I can tell it by flakes on her belly. Anyways, I read this thread about dry skin and hair loss.
http://www.dogforum.org/showthread.php?t=6794
But I was wondering if there was any threads on med. baths? Exp: Like oatmeal baths or something like that. I thought I read a thread on oatmeal baths but I can't find the thread. Any information would be great.

Also, Can you find Fish Oil Capsules at your local Wal-Mart?

[skunkstripe]

PC I would stay away from baths, they might dry out the skin even more.
You can find fish oil capsules at WallyWorld near where the vitamins are.
Is she losing hair perhaps because it is getting warm?

[PomeranianCrazy]

PC I would stay away from baths, they might dry out the skin even more.
You can find fish oil capsules at WallyWorld near where the vitamins are.
Is she losing hair perhaps because it is getting warm?
I'm not sure, I don't know why she's losing hair. I'm think the weather, because it has been really hot here lately. I hope its the heat doing it.

[KatzNK9]

Is she shedding? or losing patches of fur?

[PomeranianCrazy]

Just shedding, but her tail hair is almost gone on the end. Its never done that before.

[KatzNK9]

I have to assume you're certain that there isn't a flea allergy problem that is causing the dried (or irritated) skin & she's been worm-checked & there's no possiblity of tapeworms. I still wouldn't correlate loss of hair to these issues unless we're talking about an extreme case & that's hard to miss so I'm discounting that idea entirely.

That almost sounds like the reverse problem to me on her tail. Tails (especially in cats) often get a seborrhea (an over abundance of oil) which is responsible for hair loss. I think I would give her a really good super-suds medicated bath. After a good bath treatment, I would avoid further bathing after you are certain that she's extra clean from head-to-tail.

I'd then add some skin & coat supplements to her diet & see if she makes any improvement.

It is common for parts of their skin to be dry & parts to be oily so even if her body appears scaly & dry, that doesn't mean there's not extra oil in her tail.

Not sure I helped here but at least I've given you some other ideas to consider.

I'm not an expert by a longshot as concerns dogs; however, I'm applying my cat theory here.

[PomeranianCrazy]

Thanks for the help. What kind of medicated bath should i give her? Oatmeal bath or what? No sure Thanks alot

[Areias]

I second what KatzK9 said. Is she itchy at all? Or just dry skin? One of mine has a flea allergy, he eats away hot spots on himself-it can be caused by a single flea bite, they don't necessarily have to have fleas to get like that. Is the skin red or inflamed?

As far as shampoo, oatmeal is OK, but it's more or less to "soothe" skin rather than moisturize. No matter what, make sure the shampoo is soap free, and it says so on the bottle, as soap drys skin out.

I would use...let's see.. "Relief" by DVM pharm, they sell it online at petsmart, I'm not sure if exactly in the store-your vet probably carries it.

Edited to add: Maybe you could snap a pic? :)

[BratBoxers]

Fish oil is great for skin & coat but if you feed caps you must add Vit E caps also. I use flax oil but fish oil is much better if you can find a health food store they may have the oil.

[KatzNK9]

OK ... I called my best friend (my partner in cat breeding since 1990) ... who is the ultimate resource for issues like this. She's had a couple of cats who have had this problem. She also suggested that she'd take the dog in for a vet check but this is likely to be the action the vet will take anyway.

Her prescription is:

Sebolux Shampoo - WEEKLY until it has cleared up
Dermacaps - for a coat/skin supplement

She disagreed with me on the issue of not bathing after the intial bath. She feels the skin needs more medicated treatment over an extended period of time & it is likely to take weeks of treatment. She reminded me that a dog/cat with healthy skin isn't going to be negatively impacted by weekly bathing with a quality shampoo designed for use to treat skin. The key here is to treat the skin from the "inside out". She was right, of course. I'm sorry I didn't think of that earlier.

She suggested the Dermacaps because that is what she has used with her cats & her Dobermans (but I don't think the other supplements are a bad idea if you'd prefer those).

OK ... that's my 2 cents ... others will likely disagree. I do know that there's nobody on the planet whose advice I value more than hers & she definitely has experience in treating similar things in cats.

[KCat]

as others have said/implied - flaking isn't necessarily dryness. Ming has to have omega oils or he flakes. But his skin is otherwise beautiful. No redness, no irritation that we (the vet looked) can see at all. His current diet just doesn't have the fatty acids he needs so I supplement. There are several on the market and other than the carob-flavored* one, any one of them would probably help even if there is an allergy issue. Bay did better on this as well although she had allergy problems which required other things to control it. In her case, twice-weekly baths were a must for a while.

If the shedding is not seasonal, then fatty acids can slow that down as well.

*it just didn't seem to work as well.

[Doberman's]

When Rudy became Hypothyriod hair loss is one of the symptoms and he had it bad. His skin became flaky and dry, he lost hair on his back, tail, head and stomach areas. He also had the other symptoms that go along with the condition such as weight gain and he was terribly lethargic, but Hair loss seemed to be the first symptom.

I would have your dog tested by the Vet for Hypo-thyriodism juts a as precaution. It is a simply blood test.

[PomeranianCrazy]

Thanks everyone.