My 9 year old Great Pyrenees/Anatolian/Lab was diagnosed by the vet as having seasonal allergies and a small staph infection caused by all the licking and scratching he’s done. Right now he is on Prednison (steroid) and an antibiotic.
Once he is through with the meds the vet wants us to start bathing him once a week until the fall to make him more comfortable.
For anyone with an itchy dog, what shampoo has worked for you?
Paul Mitchell makes an Oatmeal shampoo for dogs with itchy sensitive skin. They also make a conditioner and a leave-in spray for between baths.
Like human hair, no one shampoo will work for everybody but it might be worth a look.
Other than that, I’d ask your vet for a recommendation.
The first thing, ask the vet. If it is a type of infection, he will prescribe a medicated shampoo. If it is less serious, oatmeal shampoos are a good choice. I’d skip sprays and so forth. The skin needs to be clean, not mucked up. You must rinse all the product out when bathing, that will cause problems.
That’s odd, I though bathing that much causes problems for dog skin?? It strips away the natural oils and stuff.
Epi Soothe is the usual stuff that vets sell for sensitive skin. But it can be expensive especially for a dog that big and that much bathing. So oatmeal and aloe are ingredients to look for.
I also used to spray my dog with Skin So Soft from Avon. It’s pretty benign. I don’t think it did a lot but it didn’t hurt.
Giving the dog fish oil in their food is supposed to be helpful for skin too.
The thing that worked best and most consistently for my dog was prescription antihistimines.
Unless he’s really dirty, no shampoo is needed – just bathing in clean water is fine. (And if you’re doing this that often, he shouldn’t be dirty.)
Ask the Vet, but generally any mild shampoo will work for the rare times that he’s really dirty; or rolled in something smelly, etc.
I should have said this earlier - sometimes itchy skin can be caused by food allergies. I feed my dog Nutro Lamb & Rice for his coat and skin (although I’ve recently switched him to the chicken & rice senior formula). I fed him the lamb version for almost 9 years with no further coat or skin problems.
Although now that I’m looking, it seems like maybe Nutro is switching to a lamb senior formula? I was in a real hurry only saw the chicken last month. Sancho seems happy enough with it. But I might switch back over to this, just because the lamb suited him so well all those years.
A nine-year old Great Pyranees should probably start thinking about switching to senior formula, and maybe look into limited ingredient and grain-free options.
I’ve also started giving my dog senior vitamins, from Drs. Foster Smith. I went with this one because it contains fish oil. I don’t know if vitamins really help but my dog was sick and I figured what the hell. The good news is he likes them and they’re easy to chew. He gets one a day as a treat (because he’s small.)
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3307+20712+21579+19886&pcatid=19886
Good luck!