Scratching or Salmon Oil?

Dogs have a lot of hair and they spend the majority of the day in our heated and air conditioned homes, so it’s quite understandable that they are going to have an itch to scratch every now and then. When you notice the itching is driving you crazy, think about what it’s doing to your dog. If you just wait for the itching to resolve itself the problem may get worse: leading to a flea infestation or hot spots.

The first you thing you should do is examine your dog; give your dog a good brushing over newspaper, if you see little spots that look like pepper, drop a couple in water. Spots that turn red indicate you have a flea problem and the quickest way of resolving it is with a flea treatment product. (To prevent fleas you can feed nutritional yeast and a bit of garlic in your dog’s meal. If fleas are already in your house, you don’t just need prevention, you need a cure.) Vacuum like mad as well to prevent further infestations.

No fleas? Well, let’s look at the food your feeding. Many people immediately suspect their dog has developed an allergic reaction to something. If you notice your dog having symptoms at certain times of the year, it could be an inhalant allergy. But it could also be a food allergy. if you truly suspect allergies, the best thing you could do is talk to your vet. (In the meantime, keep reading, I have something I want you to try..)

Now consider this: what if it’s just your dog’s food not truly meeting their nutritional needs?Just about every food out there is labeled, “complete and balanced” and manufacturers must meet the AAFCO’s (American Association of Feed Control Officials) guidelines for nutrition to slap those three words on the packaging. Here’s the catch – there’s one nutrient that the AAFCO doesn’t consider essential to your dog’s health and that’s Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids are showing up everywhere and in everything for people these days. But they’re barely making it into the dog food bag. If you check your own bag of dog food, you may notice that the manufacturer includes Omega 3 fatty acids and notes somewhere on the nutritional panel that Omega 3 fatty acids are not recognized as an essential nutrient by the AAFCO. That means that the manufacturer can add any amount of Omega 3s and pat themselves on the back, because there is no standard for the minimum amount needed. For really good coat and skin quality the ratio of Omega 3s to Omega 6 fatty acids should be 1:5, but some manufacturers produce food with ratios higher than 1:20. (To see what’s missing in your dog’s food try the calculator at http://www.grizzlypetproducts.com/dosages/dosages.html)

Omega 3 fatty acids are important because they help to reduce inflammation and add to overall skin and coat quality. The best of these are EPA and DHA, which are more readily utilized by the dog’s body than other Omega 3s. The best place to find these: fish oil. You may have heard recommendations about flax seed oil, and it does contain some Omega 3s, but it’s higher in ALA than EPA or DHA. Flax oil requires the use of enzymes to be converted into the other forms of Omega 3s, and those enzymes have a lot of other work I’d rather see them doing.

There are two great sources of Omega 3s: salmon oil and cod liver oil. Cod liver oil is less expensive, but I find many dogs don’t like the taste as much as the salmon oil. Both oils deliver roughly the same amount of Omega 3s and Omega 6s, plus they add some Vitamin, A, D and K.

It seems that Labs in particular are prone to skin problems and there’s a good reason why; these dogs were bred to be water dogs so that they could help fishermen. Guess what their owners fed them? Fish! It’s the high amount of Omega 3s that Labs were fed that gave them their water repellant coat, so we actually bred the need for a high amount of fish oil into the breed. Of course back then we didn’t talk about Omega 3s, we just called it fish.

When I was delivering dog food, I met each dog with the first delivery. Paddy, a labrador, came to me with hot spots and terrible itching and when I looked at his back the dander was horrible. Fish oil was part of my recipe and I thought it would help. When his owners called me a week later, I didn’t believe them when they said his skin condition had improved dramatically, so I inspected him again on the next delivery. And his skin had improved quite a bit and continued to improve while he was receiving fish oil in his diet.

So if your dog is itching and driving you crazy, think about what it’s doing to your dog. Try some fish oil. Start out small with about 1/4 of the amount below to ensure your dog tolerates it well and work your way up to the the suggested dose over a week or two. (Since fish oil is a fat, pull back about 10% on your dog’s dry food to compensate for the extra calories.)

10 lbs:1 teaspoon

20 lbs:2 teaspoons

40 lbs:1 tablespoon

60 lbs:4 teaspoons

80 lbs:2 tablespoons