Rough Coat

[sierramtnbrits]

Anyone have any suggestions or remedies for a rough coat? My 20 month old liver bitch has a coarse, dry, almost frizzy coat, only in certain places. I plan on starting to show her in April and I want to get it into better condition before then. I did recently switch her to a natural herring & sweet potato diet with added olive oil & flax seed oil on top. The vet diagnosed her with a food allergy and said the coat should improve soon. It's been 6 weeks, and although not as itchy, she still has a strange patch of really rough hair on the scruff of her neck. I bathe her in anti itch shampoo and herbal conditioner. This softens it for a day or so, but then it gets scratchy again. The other thing I should note is the hair that's brittle & dry is white. The liver part of her coat is a lot softer. Any ideas?

[Rebecca]

If you pull a single strand of fur out of the rough area, does it look like it went through a crimping iron? If so, what is the breeding on the bitch? There are some lines that carry genes for a very fuzzy, rough coat. It is especially bad on the scruff of the neck. I've known several dogs traced back to Cutty Sark V who have had this coat. His sire is Jacque of Connie, I'm not sure that I can trace it back to Jacque, but by tracing the cousins, etc. I've seen it back to thCutty V. I have a great grandson of Cutty Sark V and yep, he has a fuzzy rough coat, but a wonderful dog, excellent hunter and one hell of a show dog in the end.

If it's like I'm describing it still could be a food allergy. Let me know if your new food fixes the problem. I wouldn't mind trying it.

[alarbritts]

Breeding has something to do with it, but you can't change that. Very arid areas will make this type of coat much more prominent. I've had dogs whose coats look very "frizzy" in Nevada, Arizona etc. but smooth out when we get to more humid places. Use a high quality extra moisturizing conditioner after you bathe her, and/or find an oil/hot oil treatment to use after bathing. You might also use a conditioning treatment, pin on a towel when she's wet, leave it on overnight or at the very least several hours up until you are about to take her in the ring. Try a few things and see what works best for her, not all coats respond the same.

[woodlandbritts]

I've had great luck adding Missing Link and kelp to solve icky coats. Also have found that some feeds will "fry" the coat (super high protein levels seem to effect some).

[sierramtnbrits]

Thanks for the suggestions! I will look into some of those things. At least I have a little bit of time to play around with it. Maybe the new diet needs a lttle longer to take effect.


Yes, the hair around her neck does look like it's been through a crimping iron... just what every girl wants! Her breeding is Lobo's Rebel Dogg X Little Girl Dogg. Her pedigree is in the link in my sig.

[ohiobrittany]

My rescue dog Copper's coat is like that. The white fur around his neck is very coarse but the orange is much softer. Alot of the fuzzy's may be due to the fact that he is neutered. I feed my Brittanys Purina Sensitive Skin and Stomach. No food or tummy issues. I just like it for the fish protein and fish oils for the coats.

[kikismom]

Yvonne, what were you feeding? Even though you have made the food change it can take almost 3 months to see a major difference. What ingredients has Bang been Dxd as being allergic to? Too high a protein can also burn coat but I have not had this experience andyou know how I love the livers.

Tips to help darken and keep liver coats at their best:
1) keep them indoors and out of the weather as much as possible
2) ground flax seed, pure cold pressed olive or sunflower oils, salmon oil and fresh eggs are excellent coat supplements
3) use only excellent quality shampoo and conditioner made specifically for dogs in your grooming regime ( no human products as they are not PH balanced) Tropiclean has an excellent product called Kiwi Remoisturizer and a shampoo called Aloe Moist that I love for dry brittle coats. Isle of Dogs has some excellent shampoos and remoisturizers as well though they are very expensive. I like the Royal Jelly formula they the best for rough , dry and damaged coats.

[sierramtnbrits]

Helen,
She was on the regular Purina Pro Plan chicken & rice formula which has quite a bit of corn in it. Dr. Patti thinks it was probably the corn, but we're supposed to stay away from the top 3. She also said it could be something that blooms alot out herethat irritates her skin when she's out running. We switched her to the California Natural herring & sweet potato at the beginning of October. The protein content is 21%. I've been adding 2 tsp. of the Skin & Coat supplement which contains mostly sunflower oil & flaxseed oil. Also, there's been a breakthrough at my house, she is an indoor dog all the time except for exercise. Betcha never thought THAT would happen! ;D I have been bathing her about once every two weeks with groomax itch relief shampoo & biogroom oatmeal conditioner. That seems to have helped the flaky skin up until the last time I bathed her and it came back. I am sure I rinsed it out all the way. I will give those other shampoos you mentioned a try. Maybe I just need to be a little more patient! Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

[kikismom]

We fed the CN for a fair amount of time ( although admittedly not the herring formula) and while everyone looked relatively ok, and did ok performance wise, it made a real difference in performance and coats when we switched again to a higher protein /fat ratio and dropped anything that had corn, wheat, soy or any beef products.

Like I said before, I had heard that higher protein could burn coats but we have not had that experience, even with Dottie who gets "burnt and dried out" really easily. My gang really really came into a beautiful bloom when we switched to the Pet Chef Express Chicken and Rice adult formula and Pet Chef Express Puppy formula. No corn, wheat, or soy in either of those foods ( I think PC has dropped all corn all together now). The Chicken and rice is like 26/17 and the puppy is 30/20. I was extremely concerned about the ingredient list when Pet Chef first hit the market in Reno and refused to even consider it but they changed their formulas for the better in 2004/2005. www.petchefreno.com/index.html

We were extremely bummed when we moved and had to find another comparable food for our gang. All that said, when Ali moved back to Reno last Sept and I later shipped her puppy Mayday to her ( Soldier stayed with us) she went back to feeding him The Pet Chef food and he is still just as glossy and shiny and healthy as he was here. I pay $40.27 for 30# DELIVERED to Ali's front door once a month....a great perk of that particular company. The main office is located just up the road from A +'s Longley hospital on Double R

Some other foods to consider that we have used with excellent results in all of our dogs ( especially those hard to keep liver coats) if the CN doesn't give you the desired results:

Precise PLUS adult and puppy formulas
( www.precisepetfoods.com )
Arkat VF Complete Holistic Adult and Holistic Puppy OR the VF Performance formula ( www.arkat.com ) We are feeding the Performance formula now. I'm told that it is available on the West Coast
Natural Balance

Hope that our experiences come in helpful to you should you need to look to something else.

[sierramtnbrits]

OK a quick update on Bang's coat. It seems to be improving but not as quickly as I expected. I recently switched her food again to Solid Gold. I have added salmon oil and flax seed oil to her diet. Her coat is getting shinier, and she isn't itchy anymore, which is really what I was hoping to stop. However, across the shoulders, her coat is still "frizzy" and almost wiry, like it's been crimped. Is there anything else I can do to smooth that out, or are we stuck with a wiry scruff?

[JenvyBritts]

First thing you'd think to do about the wiry scruff would be to strip it, but dont! That will make it come back in even more wiry...like a terrier coat.

Maybe try conditioning it? Its hard to picture without seeing your girl...

But glad every thing else is getting better. Fish/salmon oil works miracles! ;-)

[kninebirddog]

Get a good conditioner bath and slop the conditioner in and leave it in strap a cover over also to lay the coat down
next morning take more conditioner and comb in take a dryer and warm up the coat and replace the cover...

I did this with a conditioner i got from walmart critical care conditioner in a pink tub and I was surprised at how much absorbed in over night...left no residue the next morning either. it absorbed into the coat

not that I do show myself but even my friend how is a show person was surprised at how much a field weather exposed coat softened up ..she said i done good LOL

but i did this to the coat about a week before then the day before left another coat over night and we didn't have to wash the next morning her coat felt like it should

but you may want to try well in advance as ever dog is different

[woodlandbritts]

Have you been spraying her down with TCB Oil Spray (Yes, a human product)? If not, get yourself a can or two and spray her down twice a day and brush to distrubute evenly. It gets absorbed into their coats in 20 minutes or so. The top Brittany breeders/show handlers in the country use this stuff (Doug Tighe made me promise to use it on Tessa daily, as did Gina Currier when we were getting Blaze ready for the show ring). You can find it in the African American section of most beauty supply stores.

[wyngold]

Does your dog wear a collar regularly? If so keeping it off can help stop it.
Also some dogs with steep shoulders will have a lump over the neck because of this.
The hairs that poke out are then more prone to drying and breaking.
I can suggest that after you do a heavy conditioning treatment use Main & Tail conditioner on it as it has some bees wax that will seal the coat and keep the moisturizers in. Also if you want you can get inexpensive conditioer by the half gallons...Treseme is a good one. Anyway mix it 50% with water and use it as a daily spray....but you will have to bather weekly and I would also look for a non-drying shampoo...if you can find one with evening primrose oil like Mr. Crystals or Isle of dogs it will really help relax the coat. But the problem is that also with a Liver dog it will further soften the liver coat. So you can try and just focus the softening agents on the White hard coat only. Be careful with oil preparations on the Liver coat as it will facilitate buring when the dog goes out in the sun. You can also use horse sunblock coat sprays for the liver to keep it dark.

[sierramtnbrits]

Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions. It is getting softer!