Strangest thing. We are experiencing the mildest winter on record, and yet two of my deerhounds have developed extremely dry skin. It's flaking. Now I could understand if we were immersed in cold and snow, as that type of weather truly does draw out the moisture from the skin, but this, mild and warm?

Any suggestions as to what I might try? Poor itchy beasties.

Have you changed their diet? Or has the manufacturer changed it? It's usually a reasonable assumption to make. Try adding a little vegetable or fish oil to their food - wheatgerm or cod liver oils have always worked for me.

My first guess would also be some form of allergy ( food , environment ) - but then , perhaps the mild winter also helped some parasites , what about mites and or lice ( who have been making some strong reappearences last year as I heard ) for example ??? Sorry , sounds yucky , I know , but could be the case .....

Hello again
Well I took Rufus off to the vet and he determined the scatching had led to an infection so came away with antibiotics. Refused the offer of prednisone, which would have quieted the skin, as I believe that drug does more harm than good, especially ruining the kidneys.

There were no answers as to the cause of the itchy skin. He could see it wasn't skin critters, like lice, ticks or fleas, so ruled that out but thanks for the suggestion Verena as all possibilities must be considered.

The cause was left undetermined. I will try upping the oil in his diet though. Thanks for that Sid. Good idea. The skin in really flaking. Never seen it before. His food hasn't changed either, unless the manufacturer has done something new.

Dang dogs are always a worry

I would have took the prednisone, theres been way to much scaremongering over
this drug, its only in high doseges that causes
the problem, think its 10mg and above that does the damage, smaller doseges even over a few years causes verry little problems, my brothers dog has just come off them,
she was on them for over a month, due to an infection, except for esting like a horse,
theres been no side affects at all.

Dont know if it will be any good, but if one of mine starts off ichy,
i either bath them in pollytar or theres one that the vets sell,
its an anitbacterial, antifungal shampoo - just cant remember what the name of it is,
but both are good.