Flaky skin/oily coat

[scrubapup]

Sounds impossible, but last week I had 2 Labs that had exactly that. Coat was oily, but skin was dry and flaky. I used Kelco Oats Fur Coats on them, but didn't want to use a moisturizing conditioner because their coat was already greasy looking/feeling.

Any suggestions?

Tomorrow I have 2 Yorkies that have extremely dry skin, but they live on the river and are always covered in duck ****. Even in their ears. It's quite disgusting, but I'm anxious to see how well Le Pooch F/T works on duck ****. I'll have to let ya'll know, in case you ever find yourselves in a duck poop dilemna. LOL!!

[Helly]

Not impossible at all. People always assume flakey skin means dry skin, and that's often not the problem. For example, human dandruff is caused by yeast, and is usually accompanied by an oily scalp.

Excessive sebum is a perfect breeding ground for yeast and bacteria. Yeast and bacteria can cause plaques, and they flake off pretty easily. And often the same physical condition that's causing the overproduction of sebum is also causing the skin to scale.

Your best choice for a shampoo is not a degreasing shampoo, but a keratolytic one. Keratolysis is the softening and shedding of the horny outer layer of skin. A keratolytic shampoo acts like a mild chemical peel, and causes those plaques and scales to slough off. Look for ingredients like salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide or tar and sulfer. On second thought, skip the tar and sulfer. Look for salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. Apply it and let it soak at least 5 minutes, 10 minutes for maximum softening and peeling. Gently scrub with a Zoom Groom or your fingers to loosen the scales, and rinse them away.

Because keratolysis removes the dead outer skin cells, you do want to use a remoisturizer after the shampoo. Otherwise, the skin is going to go into overdrive to replace the sebum you washed away. Then you end up with more greasy, oily coat, and more scales and plaques.

If you don't have a shampoo with a keratolytic agent, you can easily make one. Crush and dissolve 10 regular aspirin in a cup of warm water. Strain out the particulate (mostly corn starch), and add to your shampoo. Aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid.

Edit:
Just realized I worded that wrong. Throw away the solid particles, add the water you dissolved the aspirin in to your shampoo. Sorry for the confusion.

[sheilabgroomer]

Nothing I can really add to Helly's response except that I have an exfoliating Tar and Sulfer shampoo that I will use as a first shampoo to help get rid of the dead skin. I then follow up w/the medicated shampoo that was chosen or brought in for the pet. A lot of my customers bring in Selsun Blue on the advice of their vet.

[Poodlefluff]

My vet recommended Selson Blue for me to for my cocker just Dilute it before you use it on the dog. It helps that yeasty smell too.
Good post Helly!

[scrubapup]

Thank you for the replies. I do have Selsun Blue at the shop - a bottle one of my regular clients left for when her Lab gets groomed. I'll have to pick up another bottle for my other oily/flaky dogs. Never heard of the asperin thing - I'll have to give that a try too.

F/T works pretty good on duck ****, btw