Supplements for skin and coat
I wonder what skin & coat supplements everyone is giving their pups. Since I adopted Kahlua who has problems with severe itchy skin (which turned out to be sarcoptic mites and infested my whole pack), I started giving everyone supplements to help boosting their immune system. I have been giving them Missing Link, Grizzly Salmon Oil, Enzymne & Probiotic Powder & Digestive Enzymne Powder. For the past three months, I have had administered a total of 7 doses of Interceptor & Revolution to Kahlua, along with thorough disinfestion with hot steam and mixture of Borax & Hydrogen Peroxide spray around the house every 3 days...she has scratched a lot less but has not completely stopped. So I think she diddn't only have scabies, she also is allergic to something.  I just found out there is beef liver and beef bone powder in Missing Link! I have been feeding only non-beef, grain-free food to Kahlua as there is a good chance she is allergic to beef and grains. I didn't know I have been giving her beef liver & beef bone powder!!! Duh!!! Maybe that explains why she is still scratching. So I was wondering if anyone know of a very good supplement I can get to replace the Missing Link? Thanks |
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| If you are dealing with allergies, I would add in something more simple (less ingredients) than a whole prepared product (of which there are so many, and good ones too!). If skin itching is the primary concern, maybe start with something easy like oils. There are fish oils, flaxseed oil, even cooking oils as options to try. I hope Kahlua is on the mend...especially after "sharing" her critters with the rest of the gang. |
As Dawn says... more simple products with fewer ingredients if there's a chance of a food allergy. And sometimes we have to back off on supplements if we aren't sure they're actually doing any good (unless they've been prescribed by a vet). Then add one supplement at a time and look for any benefit. Then too, while one dog may be doing well on one supplement, another may not. Darby can't have fish oil... I mistakenly gave her a fish oil capsule this morning and she threw up again.  Quote: I have been feeding only non-beef, grain-free food to Kahlua as there is a good chance she is allergic to beef and grains. I didn't know I have been giving her beef liver & beef bone powder!!! Duh!!! Maybe that explains why she is still scratching. This may not apply but I'll share it because you too have a pack. The water dish can be a source of contamination if there's a food allergy (or during a food trial!) and if you have a multiple dogs and/or cats with varied diets drinking from a communal water dish. The dogs and cats eat, then drink and food in the mouth or on the face can pollute the water dish. The rule was "not a crumb of kibble". I thought we were being SO darn good... 100% compliant in feeding just ostrich and rutabaga to Bumble but realized a couple of days ago that he was likely getting contaminated water.  We're back on the right track. I confessed to Dr. Rosser yesterday... he said, "There's a learning curve to this." SO true...Hoping Kahlua will be rid of all the itchies real soon  |
| Thanks Dawn & Jaci! I will take your advice and just give them the salmon oil for now. Jaci, I never thought of the water bowl problem!! It is going to be hard to restrain who can drink from which bowl if I want everyone to have free access to water. Luckily, since I have 4 dogs, I knew there is always a chance Kahlua will be able to get ahold of other's food no matter how careful I am (esp that hubby is in charge of feeding them in the morning and he is not very good at making sure no one is checking out other's food bowl  ), therefore, I have already put everyone on the same diet as Kahlua. The bill for food has rocketed because of that but this is the only way I can ensure what she eats, so that has to be it. So to balance our budget, we compensated it by not dining out ourselves... |
| Oh my....I love my "Fresh Factors" for the dogs coats! http://www.springtimeinc.com/product/fresh_factors/dogs I also use the joint supplement!!!! http://www.springtimeinc.com/product/jo ... ables/dogs Krisitne told me about this company a few years back and I love them! I bet they love me too  I used to use the garlic pills too for buggers but, the fleas got a little too tough for that! Back to topicals  |
| We moved to California about hmm 6 months ago and both of my dogs has developed skin allergies to pretty much everything! Really frustrating because when I was living in New York- we never faced this kind of problem (other than occasional yeasty ear infections) but anyway we've changed foods so many times -- from candiae prairie natures variety to taste of the wild.. nothing worked - an environmental skin infection would pop up here n there. So finally we feed them a cup of grandma lucy's no grain lamb artisan dog food ( you mix with water and it double in size) with a cup of Merrick's lamb. They havent developed anything for 3 weeks now. *knocks on wood* I noticed a huge positive change in their skin, coat and bowel movements as well. What I love about Grandma Lucy's is that it's also light in weight which makes it easier for traveling. Plus it smells almost too good to eat |
Thanks for your reply  I have been feeding them Natural Balance's Venison & Potatoe but I also just decided to try feeding them with dehydrated food. I found this company from San Diego. They are called Honest Kitchen. They made grain-free, gluten-free food. I ordered Zeal (fish they claimed that are caught by using line & hook from the coast of Iceland  About The Fish: Our fish is guaranteed Ethoxyquin-free because like all our products, it is 100% human-grade. We use only food grade, all natural antioxidants for freshness. Our Icelandic Haddock is wild caught using a line and hook, in the cold clean waters off the coast of Iceland. Our Blue Whiting is wild-caught in the waters of Scandinavia and the Arctic. It is one of the most abundant fish stocks in the semi-pelagic water masses of the northeast. Our wild-caught Salmon is freeze-dried to preserve the naturally high oil content; salmon is a wonderful source of essential fatty acids. Ingredients: Dehydrated white fish (line-caught Haddock, wild Whiting), sweet potatoes, eggs, organic coconut, alfalfa, apples, green beans, parsley, cabbage, bananas,wild Salmon, cranberries, garlic, rosemary, tricalcium phosphate, choline chloride, zinc amino acid chelate, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, potassium iodide, potassium chloride, iron amino acid chelate, copper amino acid chelate. I hope the new diet will help |
We've fed that before too... we used it as a topper for their kibble or a noon snack.  Good stuff! I mixed it with water and let it set for about 10-15 minutes I think??, then fed it. I lovingly call it slop.   They LOVE it. It's been quite a while since we fed it... I keep forgetting to reorder. Let us know how your babies like it? I'd start out slow when introducing it. If you place an online order by March 31, 2011 and apply the coupon number below, you'll receive a free 4 oz. travel size of Keen to try out. (I had an email from them.) http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/2011/03 ... e-on-keen/ Quote: There's more! Purchase any Honest Kitchen product on our web site* and receive a FREE travel size Keen! Simply enter coupon code KTMAR311 upon checkout and a free Keen travel size will be added to your cart. |
Thanks Jaci! Good to know you gave your thumbs up to Honest Kitchen too. Now I have even more confidence with this new diet  I planned to also use this as the filling for the kong since it is hard to find any treats that I can give Kahlua that last longer than 1/235 second  Yay  |
| Ok, so now I'm laughing because I had the same exact idea. IF I remember correctly, it was messy in a Kong because it was pretty wet... the reason I call it "slop". So I propped the Kongs up in a bowl, put the slop in a food bag, cut the tip off and filled them. (This is canned food but I did it like this- http://oesusa.com/FilledKongs.jpg) I think I had to plug the hole in the bottom of the Kong with a piece of kibble. So I froze the filled Kongs. It was still kind of messy due to the fine, dehydrated nature of the product. It would be a nice treat for an area that was easily cleaned. Don't let them have it on the white carpet! It's been quite some time though. I looked it up and I had first tried it back in 2007 and again in 2008. Emma, Darby and Kaytee's breeder had told me about it way back in 2004. I reordered last night after I read your post just to add a little variety to their diet from time to time. I would introduce it slowly though to avoid any tummy issues. |
| Wow...Jaci! Exactly how many kongs do you have?? AND thank you for the heads-up. I would have made a mess myself trying to figure out how to fill up the kongs  heheheeeeee  I also didn't plan to only give them the "slop" (love this term) I will start feeding it as a topping, slowly changing the ratio...but I still will not totally replace the kibble. Probably eventually kibble in the morning, slop for dinner How is Bumble  doing with the new diet so far??? |
| Try using a bit of bread or bun as a plug for filling the kong. I've done that with good success with stuffing that doesn't want to stay in there! |
| ^^ Great edible plug material idea! That picture was from a few years ago. Each dog had 2 Kongs back then. Bumble is still itching and chewing a lot at times. He went back on Cephalexin a few days after stopping because his skin quickly started breaking out again. I started the Duoxo Chlorhexidine PS baths again too. At the moment his skin is clear though! We've got months yet to go on the food trial. 160 pounds of big bird in the freezer so we're in it for the long haul.  (You can stop over for dinner any time! ) Thanks for asking about my buddy. |
Quote: ^^ Great edible plug material idea! Agreed Jaci...do you find that the change of weather have any effect on Bumble's condition? Kahlua has been scratching her left chin and her left elbow quite a lot too. I can almost certain that we are no longer dealing with mites. It's time to focus back on the "allergies aspect" |
Blah... allergies.  I think when it's warm and humid he seems a little more itchy. I should add that it's not like he's itching all the time... it's just periods during the day and night when he'll scratch and chew himself intensely. |
| It's thicker! So I either have a bad memory or it's different now. It's the first time I've tried the Keen variety. It has good form to it so I think it would be great in a Kong... maybe use a plug in the bottom anyway. http://oesusa.com/HonestKitchenFood.jpg It was funny... I tried to give Kaytee a tiny piece while it was absorbing the water (10 minutes). She wanted nothing to do with it. At first. Then she realized what it was and was doing such pretty "sits". Ahhh... my doggies love me at the moment. I bet you'll get the same reception! |
| Oh Jaci I loooove the pictures. I love their face!!!! My doggies love it. BIG TIME!!! I think they almost licked a hole in the empty bowl after the food was gone!! I have also ordered Prowl for my cats but interestingly, all three turned their nose up on it |
| I'm glad the puppers like it I wonder if it might be something the kitties will eventually develop a taste for. |
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