She is an eleven week old puppy and I have taken her to the vet to have the problem looked at, but she still is scratching and biting herself frequently. She does not have fleas, and I check her often for the, and have also had the vet look at her for them, and is also too young for flea medication. Could it be her food that is causing her skin to be dry? I feed her Hill's Science Diet Small Bites for Puppies, but a friend of mine said it might be the corn in the Hill's that is causing her to have dry skin. Is there any food that might be better for her, that doesn't have corn as a main ingredient? I have also bought bathing shampoos and conditioners that give her extra moisturization. Are their any other causes for dry skin in chihuahua, or anything else I can try to solve the problem?
Could my chihuahua have dry skin from her food?
Well science diet is crappy and has alot of corn..
In fact according to the ingredients list the food you are feeding your pup has corn as the first ingredient. The ingredients are listed in descending order from highest content to lowest, that means that the food is mostly corn.
http://www.hillspet.com/zSkin_2/products...
Ground Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Dried Beet Pulp, Chicken Liver Flavor, Dicalcium Phosphate, Brewers Rice, Fish Oil, Flaxseed, Soybean Oil, Iodized Salt, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.
I suggest feeding your dog a food such as Natural Balance.. http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dogform...
Canidae.. http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_sta...
Innova.. http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=p...
All of these foods contain alternate protein sources, real meats as the main ingredient, essential fatty acids, etc that help keep a dogs coat and skin healthy. I suggest feeding something other than chicken, such as lamb, venison, duck, fish etc. Since the food that may be irritating her skin has chicken(possible allergen). Also try to bathe your dog at most once a month no more.. when you bathe them too often no matter how "moisturizing" the shampoo is.. it still strips the skin and coat of its natural oils. You may also try adding a skin %26amp;coat supplement to your dogs food such as Shed Stop... http://www.lucythewonderdog.com/mrs-alle...
PS Corn is the number one allergen in dog foods... also by-products are not good to have in food.. If you feed a food with no by-products you will notice better health in your dog..
Excerpt from wikipedia... Meat by-products are ground, rendered, and cleaned slaughtered meat carcass parts such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs, bones, heads, and intestines (and a small amount of feathers in the case of chicken meat). The terms meat by-products or animal by-products are often used in reference to the ingredients included in commercial pet foods.
The official definition for meat by-products by the Association Of American Feed Control Officials, Inc. (AAFCO) is:
"The non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low temperature fatty tissue, and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hoofs. It shall be suitable for use in animal food. If it bears name descriptive of its kind, it must correspond thereto."
In many cases, by-product meals are derived from "4-D" meat sources -- defined as food animals that have been rejected for human consumption because they were presented to the meat packing plant as "Dead, Dying, Diseased or Disabled." The quality of animal meat by-products also tends to be very inconsistent between batches.
Meat by-products are commonly found in lower-grade pet foods and even many of the larger name brands, including Science Diet (even their prescription diet product line), Purina (both Purina One and Purina Pro Plan), and Iams / Eukanuba. Ingredients listed as "meat, beef, chicken, and/or poultry by-products" on pet food labels are not required to include actual meat, and "rendered meat" on labels can refer to any rendered mammal meat, including dogs and cats.
A new category of pet food typically marketed as holistic, wellness, organic, ultra healthy, and/or simply premium pet food often emphasizes the use of human-grade meat sources only, with no animal meat by-products of any kind. Examples of such pet foods include Flint River Ranch, Wellness Pet Food, Innova, Life's Abundance, Nutro Ultra Holistic, and Pet Promise.
Reply:Lesson One
HILLS SCIENCE DIET IS GARBAGE!!!
I have 4 Chihuahuas. I feed them ROYAL CANIN CHIHUAHUA 28 FORMULA.
THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL!
GOOD LUCK!
Reply:Some smaller dogs are succeptible to skin conditions, and most likley it could be her food. Short haired Chihuahuas require less grooming than the long haired Chihuahua but both should be brushed at least once per week. This helps distribute the oils in the skin to keep skin and coat healthy. Bathing should be kept to a minimum to reduce skin irritations.
http://www.petinfo4u.com/chihuahua.htm
Reply:One of the causes may be the sodium level in the dog food. Just a guess, but you may want to check the label for sodium content, and the higher the sodium, the more likely this will dehydrate your pet. It may not be the cause, it is just a guess. There may also be a chemical in your home that is causing this. Do you use carpet shampoo, bleach, or a cleaning agent often? Some pets are allergic to these. Hope you find the cause.
Reply:You can try Eukanuba-Puppy Small Breed
It is a nutrient densed so they absorb what they need too, good fiber source so not much cleanup in the backyard..
Chicken is the first ingredient and yes they do have chicken by prodcut but it is not bad to have chicekn by product esp if it consists of muscle skin and bone .
An ideal dog food is something that contains chicken AND Chicken by product-just check out any nutrition text book from Vet Universities!
It also has a proper balance of Omega 3 %26amp; Omega 6 which is wonderful for the coat and skin! Other foods have Omega 6 and 3 but it would not be in the proper balanced ratio of 5:1
They use ANIMAL BASED PROTEINS which is an ideal source of protein for dogs.
Also the Euk. puppy consist of DHA which is a nutrient that is found naturally in the mother's milk and it is used for the development of the neural system meaing its brain food for the puppy.
And the last but not hte least important...Dogs love the taste of Eukanuba...
You will hear people talk about "by products" being bad but it is not true...
I hope this helps
Reply:I would actually have to see the little pup to be certain of this, but if we are going to assume this is food-related I'll talk about that. Your best bet of course will be to have a vet perform tests to confirm this. Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt to try the process yourself for free.
Dog allergies are becoming an increasingly more common problem recently. Certain ingredients found in dog foods, usually the meat or carbohydrate...sometimes other ingredients down the list like wheat or soy are the cause. Your best bet would be to switch over to an allergy formula organic blend, good examples are Natural Balance, Solid Gold, and Nature's Recipe...popularity in respective order.
For instance, Natural Balance in one of their allergy formulas has switched the usual meat and carbohydrate with duck and potato (sounds yummy huh?), with no other probable allergy ingredients. I have seen dogs improve within 2 to 4 weeks of having them on that formula. Remember, when switching your dog over to a new food, to gradually do it over at least a course of a week, increasing the ratio of the new food until the last day when it's all new food. You are least likely to run into stomach problems, as dogs don't have the stomachs of steel that their wolf ancestors do.
The "dry" skin may be a sort of dermatitis. Bathing your dog more frequently, even with conditioners, may only further aggravate the problem--the water and soap strips away essential oils in your dogs skin that naturally condition it. There are many temporary anti-itch solutions you can find at your pet store to help alleviate the itching until you resolve the problem.
Reply:You bet it could be her food. There are other things it could be but this is the first thing that I would check. It also sounds from your post that you are bathing her often, you could be bathing her to much. I have a doberman that is dry and that is part of the cause. There is a coat dressing that should help with your girls itching. You should be able to get it from your local groomer, use it as per the directions.
I would also follow the other advice that is posted here and change her food, there are many out there. I recommend eagle pack, they are excellent and they use human quality ingredients (I wouldn't eat it but that is a personal matter) and when most foods say something like fish or white fish this food can tell you exactly what white fish and what other things are in it.... that would be my first choice of foods.
Reply:It s always good to get food that does not have corn or wheat as the first ingridients. the brand i have for my chihuahuas is Natures Recipe. It also might be the shampoo you use. Use an oatmeal shampoo, one of my puppies had itchy skin and alot of dandruff using the oatmeal shampoo helped alot and leaves her fur shinny and soft...also you can add a couple of drops of flax seed oil i belive its called.
Reply:***********NO!!!!!*********
It probably has CHYLATIALLA(spelling is wrong-pronounced ky-la-tea-ella);a PARASITE!!! Easily controlled by "advantage" or other topical insecticide!! It is NOT "too young"!!!!
Do ***NOT**** over-bathe the poor thing (like more than every few MONTHS!!!)or you WILL make it WORSE!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment