We rescued our chessie from an animal when she was about three years old. She had almost no hair and was very thin. We put her on a high quality food (solid gold hunden flocken), which made her coat heal and look great. She gained a lot of weight and was doing well for a while on this food. However, once she entered into her senior years, the previous food was too rich and she contracted pancreitis. We now have her on a light food with high fiber, but her skin allergies have returned. She has thick dandruf coming off her skin and her hair is thinning, not to mention she is constantly itching. The vet only wants to give her allergy shots instead of dealing with the primary issues. Does anyone have any diet suggestions or shampoo suggestions. We live in st. petersburg, florida and the chessie population and knowledge about them is very low here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

There is a whole range of things that people may suggest. We have used DERM CAPS sold by several internet sites. Luna's skin was dry and flakey. We put her on they Derm caps and it really made a difference. However, we have found that she does not need the Derm Caps if we feed her Eukanuba. We were using Canidea and now use Eukanuba.

Some people even suggest a simple addition of oil to the food.

Is there something the vet has said about the alergy shots and why they think that they will work?

He gave her a steriod shot to control the itching. He didn't give any real advice as far as diet.

quote:

Originally posted by Lsherman:
He gave her a steriod shot to control the itching. He didn't give any real advice as far as diet.

Did he check her for Cheyletiella (Walking Dandruff)mites ? These types of mites have become much more common with the use of topical flea & tick preparations which do not affect them. Treatment is simple-use a flea/tick shampoo with pyrethrins. Do a search on this mite for life cycle etc. But it might very well be the answer to your problems.

Dyane

You also should ask him about testing for hypothyroidism, as this is a problem in CBR's and manifests itself with many of the symptoms you describe, especially in older dogs.

The vet should run a FULL thyroid panel, however rather than just the T4 or TSH they often run as there are other values that could be off while these are normal and they will miss them.

It's easily treatable with a daily thyroid medication of this is the case.

I do not like giving steroid shots as this only masks the symptoms and does NOT get to the root of the actual problem.

I would find a Solid gold formula that is suited for older dogs, and add a fish tab or vit.E to her diet We feed Diamond Naturals which comes in many different formulas they also make what is call a taste of the wild. It has no Soy, wheat or corn in it.