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Dandruff and itching

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RekaEddie

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Hi

I have a 6 year old cocker and we’ve been taking him to the vets 3 times in 3 months because he is itching and scratching a lot.
He has bad dandruff now too.
He is on grain free diet and gets oily fish often.
I dont know whatbelse i can do?
I keep reading about illnesses but they only make me worry more

Thank you
 
Hello and welcome.

Itching is sometimes caused by diet, exactly what food is he getting (brand, and flavour)?
 
He is on Lilly’s. Cottage pie, the venison one, lamb hotpot beef goulash and English breakfast
And his dry is Core lamb flavour

His treats are grain free lillys no chicken flavour and dental stick. The oesigree ine because they stopped the one i used to get.

Thats all
 
Okay. There doesn't seem to be much chicken (except maybe the dental sticks), which is good because that's a common irritant.

Did your vet suggest an antihistamine in case it's an allergy? If so, did that help?

.
 
He had a dose of steroids because the vet thought it was allergy. It heloed a little but after two weeks come back.
The next time they said he has skin irritation and found fleas on him which shocked me as hes groomed every 7 weeks, i brush him twice a week. He was covered in scabs on his belly and back and had lots of dandruff.
He then got a pump to add to his food, coatex i believe and some antihistamines and some tick and flea tablets. He was always wearing the tick and flea collar ever since he was allowed as a puppy and never had any issues with it.
So he had his dose of all and he was fine.
Scabs gone, hair is growing back nicely but the dandruff appeared again yesterday and its a lot.
 
Wow! Your" Lilie's" ingredients look ok, but do be aware of RICE as this is also a grain and can cause problems with some dogs. What make of dental stick are you using ?
I wonder if it may be worth trying another make of wet tinned product.
There is always "Natures Menu" tins (Beware of RICE in some of their products) and "Millies Wolfheart" offer tins too.
It is possible that a different brand may have just a little difference that suits better.

Would you be able to manage" Honey's" ready made products for natural feeding.
Their products can be Raw or cooked.
I believe their customer services are VERY helpful and they do not try to sell their products!

We have a household full of Cocker Spaniels and I have used Raw meats for over 40 years. We have no itches or scurfy skin, no allergies.
 
I am willing to pay anything to make sure he is healthy.
I will look into that because i never heard of them.
Also will try another brand.
The toothstick is pedigree which i dont like. We tried edgar ones and the wainwrights ones but he doesnt touch them.
I have seen a lot of advertisements on chews like petlab, nutripaw and scooch but i dont want to give him something im not sure about just in case he reacts to it badly.
Raw food im not a fan of because im vegetarian so i don’t deal with it well as selfish as it sounds.
But will try their cooked option.
He never had any issues in the past. He was always complimented on his beautiful shiny coat so i was surprised when it started to be fair.
 
Take care with the grooming sessions. Too much shampooing can remove the natural oils which can lead to itchy skin.
Our lot are NEVER shampoo'd but they do get a lot of warm water showers in the shooting season, when they come home after a days work very muddy and wet. I use NO products on their coats/skin, they remain shiny and waterproof.

Could your scabs be from bashing around in the brambles. Our lot get very badly scratched in the shooting season, their undersides and chests get very scratched and scabby because of soo many brambles scratching them. Just a few scratches and scabs on their backs. Again just clear water for cleaning.
Chemical treatments are kept to a minimum, we only treat for fleas and ticks when they are seen. We do not use monthly topical treatments on their skin with chemicals if there is nothing to treat!
 
That is a fair point. He gets groomed every 7-8 weeks and i brush him very often. I dont tend to use chemicals on him and the groomer said she uses hypoallergenic shampoo. But still can be the case.

He is a show type one so brambles will never be an issue, he is too lazy for that much activity 😊

He loves his walks but never anywhere he would get scratched.

I really don’t know and the more i try to figure out what can cause it the more questions i have.
I just want him to be comfortable and happy.
Although his behaviour hasn’t changed, he is happy and healthy and playful and eats well so baffles me.
 
Anything "Pedigree" eek! and if you have no Idea what is in any other dental sticks, don't touch them!

Are we able to see any pictures of him ?
I think I can say that we all love to see happy pictures .
 
Of course 😊

I know i never use pedigree at all but when wainwrights stopped doing their normal dental sticks i tried absolutely everything that i trust and someone got him a pedigree for his birthday and he loved it so i gave in
 
6F14E80B-7BB8-4D77-BF18-9A927BCE9D1D.jpeg
 
No one should ever apologise for unicorns! :emoji_blush:

I wonder if the vet should do a skin scrape to see if that shows up anything?

There are ready-prepared raw foods that are very convenient - e.g. frozen nuggets that you just tip into a bowl and let defrost, or complete mixes that would be similar to scooping ice cream into a bowl. I'm vegetarian myself and fed raw, and know vegans who did also. Of course, we all have our different levels of squeamishness, but it may be that once you got over your first eeeew instinct then you would be fine feeding raw. So maybe bear it in mind if you don't find another solution.

For now, personally, I would only bath him if absolutely essential (and ask the groomer to do the bare minimum), and maybe cut back on the brushing to what is needed to avoid knots and matts.

In the meantime, as he seems happy, I would try not to worry too much. Sometimes we can spend ages looking for a 'disease' when it's more a case of 'that's the way he is' and we just have to control it to the best of our ability. It's the same in humans - hubby has been managing his eczema all his life, only resorting to (mild) steroids if it gets really bad. His quality of life is still very good ;)
 
That is a very good point.
I will try the raw feeding then, seems doable and i would try anything for him.

He loves life and thats the main thing i just want to make sure he stays healthy 😊

Will also cut back in the brushes then, hopefully those steps will help.

Thank you all for all the advice im glad i joined this forum 😊
 
I'd also suggest dropping the dental stick. They actually don't do much good at all - there's not enough chewing or abrasion to help dental hygiene, and they even used to contain hidden sugars! I don't know if they still do.

There are loads of far, far better products;l ike Skippers Fish Skin Flatties, dried sinew, tendon, paddywack, pizzle etc. You really want something that he can chew on for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

Raw chicken wings are good too, but being vegetarian you may not find that easy.

For topical relief, you can massage coconut oil into his coat. It's good because if he licks it, it will help even more. And he will smell gorgeous.
 
I have been thinking about stopping the dental sticks.
I started to brush his teeth but will definitely try something else because i have heard a lot of bad about dental sticks recently.
 
I started off with the"Show" type before I discovered the "Working" type. The show type will work and retrieve in and out of water and loved the brambles, ditches and hedge rows just as much. They did not have the speed and stupidity that some of the Working type have though!
But they certainly were not lazy :rolleyes: !
 
excuseme said:
I started off with the"Show" type before I discovered the "Working" type. The show type will work and retrieve in and out of water and loved the brambles, ditches and hedge rows just as much. They did not have the speed and stupidity that some of the Working type have though!
But they certainly were not lazy :rolleyes: !
Click to expand...
He is very chilled. Loves walks and swimming and he is very playful but chilled, always has been.
 
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