Please Help, Oily greasy coat, itching and smell

[BarbV]

Foods such as Wellness Core, Now!, Acana, Blue Wilderness, Merrick Before Grain, EVO, Taste Of The Wild, Instinct, and Orijen are all high quality grain free dog foods. You will need to go to a pet store as opposed to the grocery store to get them. Beneful is crap in a bag...

Now! is also a good grain free diet and lower in protein. Some of these others are very high, and for some dogs create other problems.

I'm big on grain-free, so I would yes to any of these choices.

 

[famous seamus]

Kia

How is Kia today? I was remembering when our O'Keeffee was on Eukanuba and her body smelled just awful and she had greasy coat too. A vet noted that while it was a premium food it was also not so great for our "kids".

Another quick note. Did you get Kia's bloodwork done just to rule out more sinister goings on? I would.



Best,
Kate

 

[Lynnel]

Allergies

This sounds like our fescue two years ago, i know now frustrating it is. We took Max to an allergist. And eliminated foods first and that was a small issue, turns out he is allergic to outside! He was on steroids to calm down the itxhing and smell. His hair wasn't too oily but i know that smell. Its several test with a process of elimanation. But you must find a allergist. And have patience. But its worth it. But once he under control get off the steriods and they'll probably put him pn atopia or generic cylecporin. Good luck

Hi everyone. I have been researcing online problem we are having with our sheltie and I can across this site. Let me intorduce Kia. She is 3 1/2 years old spayed sheltie, Weights about 17 lbs. Our problem started about 2 years ago. She was requiring a bath every couple weeks as her coat was getting oily and she was constantly scratching. I had her to the vet numerous times and they would give me pills and a special shampo to try. Well the oily coat keeps coming back. Right now in general it takes 4 days or so and she looks like she is wet, my wife describes the odor as "yeast like". Well we switched vets about 3 months ago. Well now after 4 visits and 400 plus dollars nothing is solved. They finally did blood test and I insisted on thyroid. Well he called and left a message that all the tests were "normal" I'm waiting for a return call as I want to know what the thyroid level is. We just dont know what to do with her. Now for some strange reason she has urinated in the house 4 times in the past 3 weeks and pooped twice......It seems like she doesnt want to go outside. We did have a flee problem but took care of that. Can anyone help?

 

[SheltieChe]

when I was studying dermatology we were told - many external problems are direct result of internal troubles. It is normal for body to attempt to remove toxins the other way which will cause rash, itch and lesions. So applying bunch of topical steroids to push problem inside just makes it worse.
Since skin is huge elimination organ more often than not it is liver/ kidney / other large elimination/ detox/ organs problem. It is usually complex problem better treated by holistic vet. Steroids will help short term but make it worse in long term due to side effects.

 

[danisgoat]

This sounds like our fescue two years ago, i know now frustrating it is. We took Max to an allergist. And eliminated foods first and that was a small issue, turns out he is allergic to outside! He was on steroids to calm down the itxhing and smell. His hair wasn't too oily but i know that smell. Its several test with a process of elimanation. But you must find a allergist. And have patience. But its worth it. But once he under control get off the steriods and they'll probably put him pn atopia or generic cylecporin. Good luck

Have you taken your dog to Red Bank to be evaluated? Also, I do believe that Colts Neck Animal Clinic has a holistic veterinarian.

 

[BarbV]

Forgive me if this is redundant, haven't really gone through all the replies as most were food related.
Putting the food issue aside for the moment, or leaving it to others, this does indeed sound like seborrhea.
As usual, i don't want to interfere with your veterinarians on your case in particular, but here's a quick 'what is seborrhea'.
Seborrhea literally means overproduction of hair oil (kind of like 'sebum diarrhea' - sebum is hair oil), but the term is misleading. It actually usually refers to an overly rapid turnover of skin replacement, and can be dry (sicca) where the flakes are skin, or oily (oleosa) where the flakes are hair oil.
There are two aims of treatment - control the seborrhea directly , with frequent anti-seborrheal shampoos, and try to eliminate the cause. The three main causes of seborrhea are chronic skin irritation, hypothyroidism, or idiopathic (no apparent reason), common, for example, in Cockers. This is one condition where the Omega-3s are also quite likely to be helpful. Hope that helps, Dr. Mac

I also meant to reinforce this point.

Hypothyrodisim is common in Shelties and often surfaces when they are young but is not diagnosed until they are older. Bacca, who is 3.5 years old has it and was diagnosed almost 2 years ago....by accident...because of another ailment.

I would highly recommend you get pup tested for this. Once diagnosed the treatment is moderate on the expense side, but the effects once on meds are amazing.

The thing about hypothyroid in dogs is it seems that no two symptoms are alike. Some dogs show no symptoms, some show classic symptoms, some (like my Bacca) show bizarre symptoms that lead to testing for other diseases (and that's how we found additional liver issues). But the blood work will say it all.

I really encourage you to get this done.

Best of luck and take care.

p.s. you should not have to bath your dog that often. That's a clear sign that something is wrong....diet, allergies or blood.

 

[temmert]

Just an Update on Kia

Well it has now been 3 months since we switched her diet. I hate to report there is absolutely no change in her. If I dont bath her at least every other week her smell is horrible and looks just as bad, constant scratching. I did have all her blood work checked and they said all was normal and tyroid was 1.42.......
I really really dont know what to do. She is just miserable and 2 vets cant tell me why.....

I havent been on the forum here in a couple months, going to read through the rest of the replies. Thanks all

 

[Chris]

Well it has now been 3 months since we switched her diet. I hate to report there is absolutely no change in her. If I dont bath her at least every other week her smell is horrible and looks just as bad, constant scratching. I did have all her blood work checked and they said all was normal and tyroid was 1.42.......
I really really dont know what to do. She is just miserable and 2 vets cant tell me why.....

I havent been on the forum here in a couple months, going to read through the rest of the replies. Thanks all

I seriously recommend you try Vibrant Pets Skin and Coat formula. The site is below. Lee guarantees his product, so if you don't see results, he will refund your money. Also, type Sheltie into the promo code to get a 20% discount. I can't say enough about how many folks I know had dogs with skin issues that were cleared up with Vibrant Pets. Many of us on the site here use it because it gets the results it claims to.
www.vibrantpets.net

You can also call Lee Phillips. 866-945-7387 He will talk to you about the problem and how VP may help. I get no kickback from recommending VP. Lee lives in my town and we are friends. His invention changed two of my Shelties' lives -- they went from painful hips and limping to svelt ball and bunny chasers in less that a week!

 

[Tagg]

It sounds to me like you might have a bacterial skin infection, hence the greasy coat, and a yeast problem at the very least. If so, you have to make sure that you are not adding to it by feeding any yeast in the food or treats. Yeast is present in most dog foods and many treats. If she is sensitive to one meat protein then you have to make sure that that protein doesn't show up in any form in her diet ie. if chicken is the culprit then no chicken fat or eggs. Does she rub her face a lot, get ear infections, lick her feet? Her immune system would be so busy fighting to bring the yeast under control that it can't address anything else. Her body is trying to flush out something which is why she is greasy. It's not necessarily that she is allergic, just immune compromised by all that her body is dealing with. I dealt with this type of thing in a westie I had purchased. Spent thousands going to several vets, even the head of dermatology at Guelph. She was put on anti rejection drugs and that worked but she lost all muscle condition. I was ready to euthanize her after nearly 4 years of this. As a last ditch effort we tried a totally different approach and it worked. She is itch free, beautiful coat, eats all kinds of things again and hasn't had to visit the vet for anything other than regular care in the past 5 years. If you want to know what we did feel free to PM me.

 

[Chris]

It sounds to me like you might have a bacterial skin infection, hence the greasy coat, and a yeast problem at the very least. If so, you have to make sure that you are not adding to it by feeding any yeast in the food or treats. Yeast is present in most dog foods and many treats. If she is sensitive to one meat protein then you have to make sure that that protein doesn't show up in any form in her diet ie. if chicken is the culprit then no chicken fat or eggs. Does she rub her face a lot, get ear infections, lick her feet? Her immune system would be so busy fighting to bring the yeast under control that it can't address anything else. Her body is trying to flush out something which is why she is greasy. It's not necessarily that she is allergic, just immune compromised by all that her body is dealing with. I dealt with this type of thing in a westie I had purchased. Spent thousands going to several vets, even the head of dermatology at Guelph. She was put on anti rejection drugs and that worked but she lost all muscle condition. I was ready to euthanize her after nearly 4 years of this. As a last ditch effort we tried a totally different approach and it worked. She is itch free, beautiful coat, eats all kinds of things again and hasn't had to visit the vet for anything other than regular care in the past 5 years. If you want to know what we did feel free to PM me.

Vibrant Pets boosts the immune system. Feel free to PM me, too!!