Veterinarian Holistic Medicine Archives

my dogs sensative skin, and feet

Reciently my 6 year old Pitbull has been having trouble with itching her fur and now she is having trouble with her feet. I give her a bath about every 1 and half weeks, that seems to give her a couple days relief. I use special dog shampoo that is made with oatmeal. She just is itchy all the time. But I really can't afford to pay vet bills if I don't have to. I would like to take care of it with out going to the vets if I can. Do you have any ideas how to help my itching friend?

Follow Ups:

• Re: my dogs sensative skin, and feet (Archive in Veterinarian, Holistic.) Walt Stoll 06:22:38 9/22/03 (0)
• Re: my dogs sensative skin, and feet dd 02:34:12 9/22/03 (0)
• Re: my dogs sensative skin, and feet tony 17:39:55 9/21/03 (0)

In Reply to: my dogs sensative skin, and feet posted by Billi on September 21, 2003 at 00:54:54:

what kind of food do you feed your dog? most cheap stuff is made with corn meal that some breeds are allergic to, and it causes hot spots. (itchy dry patches). adding some flax, fish, or hemp oil to their diet may help.
also, bathing a dog that often washes away any natural oils in their skin, and apparently this causes problems too.
this is not written out of experience but i have heard about these things, as i have a rotti who cannot eat cheap dog food. i'd like to eventually to get him on a whole foods diet but due to some circumstances i just cannot right now. he does eat a lot of our leftovers though and thoroughly enjoys them.
wishing your puppy lots of luck, tony

In Reply to: my dogs sensative skin, and feet posted by Billi on September 21, 2003 at 00:54:54:

Hi Billi,

Have you considered that perhaps you are bathing your
dog too often? Read about it on the net. It isn't good to
bathe them very often. Regular brushing can really help
their skin as well. Is her skin dry? Fur thinning?
It could be numerous things. You may try changing
obvioous things, one at a time, to figure out what is the
actual cause. I would first stop bathing so much, and
then really look into what you are feeding your dog,
maybe next look at any chemicals used outside or in,
laundry detergent, stress, etc..

The food is very important, as Tony stresses.

Good luck.

dd

In Reply to: my dogs sensative skin, and feet posted by Billi on September 21, 2003 at 00:54:54:

Hi, Billi.

Listen to DD & Tony.

My bet is that this is an allergy, too. However , my approach would be to start only feeding your pooch whole foods (See The Whole Dog Journal reference in the holistic vet archives.) Look for chemicals in the stuff you bathe her with AND, for the quickest relief (while you are doing that) start giving her omega 3 fish oils at least 2000 milligrams twice a day.

I give my Laborador 2 of the ones I take for myself, twice a day; her itching almost immediately disappeared and has not recurred for 6 years.

Let us know how he does.

Walt