Dandruff solution?

I know it's winter, and that increases dry skin and dandruff, but Scotty has it all year round (it's just gotten worse since it's gotten cold). I've been adding a supplement to his food that includes Omega fatty acids and other nutrients that help animals absorb it, but it doesn't seem to be helping.

Any other advice? Would giving him a bath make it worse?

Giving a bath too often or with the wrong type of shampoo would make it worse. However I suggest you avoid the bath and use an oatmeal spray often. It should help. What kind of food do you feed?

Originally Posted by SalemWitchChild

Giving a bath too often or with the wrong type of shampoo would make it worse. However I suggest you avoid the bath and use an oatmeal spray often. It should help. What kind of food do you feed?

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He and Oscar both get a small amount of wet food at night (high quality) but during the day they get Innova EVO, dry.

Originally Posted by emrldsky

He and Oscar both get a small amount of wet food at night (high quality) but during the day they get Innova EVO, dry.

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They shouldn't be having problems with that food. Try the oat spray and if it doesn't improve I'd start thinking that they may have an allergy of some kind.

Do you run a humidifier???

What supplement??? and for how long ...?

My tortie has horrible dandruff year round, and it's very visible on all of her black fur. We use DermCaps (in the liquid pump bottle form), which is a fatty acid/oil mixture that is mixed in PJ's wet food. She's done very well with it so far, and it keeps her dandruff in check extremely well when it's warmer.

Originally Posted by shambelle

My tortie has horrible dandruff year round, and it's very visible on all of her black fur. We use DermCaps (in the liquid pump bottle form), which is a fatty acid/oil mixture that is mixed in PJ's wet food. She's done very well with it so far, and it keeps her dandruff in check extremely well when it's warmer.

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what brand of food do you feed her in the first place?

You may want to get him checked for hypothyroidism. My dog has it, and she had dandruff too. I just checked, and it is also a symptom in cats. Also, my dog's dandruff improved a good bit before we found out about her hypothyroidism just by changing her food. We had her on Chicken Soup, which is a really good food, but switched her to Canidae, and it improved. In her case, she also just needed a different formula of high quality food .

Good luck!

Originally Posted by SalemWitchChild

They shouldn't be having problems with that food. Try the oat spray and if it doesn't improve I'd start thinking that they may have an allergy of some kind.

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Thanks! I'll have to give that a try.

Originally Posted by sharky

Do you run a humidifier???

What supplement??? and for how long ...?

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Yes, we do, but I don't think it's big enough for the entire house, so there is still quite a bit of dry air.

And I've been putting Lipiderm in their wet food for about a two weeks now, with no change.

Originally Posted by catsallover

You may want to get him checked for hypothyroidism. My dog has it, and she had dandruff too. I just checked, and it is also a symptom in cats. Also, my dog's dandruff improved a good bit before we found out about her hypothyroidism just by changing her food. We had her on Chicken Soup, which is a really good food, but switched her to Canidae, and it improved. In her case, she also just needed a different formula of high quality food

.

Good luck!

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I'm thinking that it's most likely not hypothyroidism because he's still young (not quite 3 yet) and he doesn't have any other symptoms.




Thank you all for your suggestions!! I'll definitely be giving the oatmeal spray a try...I hadn't even heard of it until now. I'm thinking the Lipiderm hasn't been given long enough to have an affect, so I'll keep with that as well.

yeah give the supplement at least 6-10 weeks

My Fred sleeps on the vent all the time in the winter season and he has dandruff. I'm convinced it's because of the hot, dry air. Nothing I can do vent wise, as I need to stay warm!

Originally Posted by Jen

what brand of food do you feed her in the first place?

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Currently, she eats Wellness.
She's eaten all kinds of food with us, and none have made the dandruff problem better. But the oils seem to do the trick. We also groom her regularly - something that the group we adopted her from seemed to think wasn't necessary for some reason...

I had an oatmeal shampoo that was really good (Magnum's dandruff is getting bad again) if I find it again I will pick you up a bottle.

Other than that, we are giving them flax seed oil which is helping a bit and running humidifiers.

My vet also recommended Vitamin B Complex (naturally through food or a supplement) and recommended a little tuna as a treat as the source

Not grooming well enough can also cause dandruff