Kibble for Dog with bald patches on fur????

[simmons]

My parents have two English Bulldogs and one of the dogs usually gets bald patches all over her body. She is on medication for it, but it always comes back. Now, it's not making things better since they are fedding them Pedigree.
Last night I took her to the "Dog Food Analysis" website and told her what crappy food it is. She's thinking of Solid Gold or a good quality kibble grain free.

My question is.......would a grain free kibble help the dog with thier skin condition? She is going to switch dog foods no matter what. (which is a great start!)

Should she even bother with a grain free kibble?

 

[Jan]

It sounds like Seasonal Flank Alopecia. A good quality food may help and would be a good idea anyway. I have heard with some people having success with Melatonin. I have also heard of Evening Primrose oil being used with some success.

 

[simmons]

Thank you!
So it doesn't matter whether it is grain free kibble?

Where can we buy the Melatonin and Evening Primrose oil? At a health food store or a Petco?

 

[kayboxer]

It sounds like Seasonal Flank Alopecia. A good quality food may help and would be a good idea anyway.

Roxy had Seasonal Flank Alopecia. She lost the hair on her flank every spring. The vet couldn't even figure out what was going on. I had done a ton of research and called him and he agreed that is what it was. Anyway, I didn't try the Melatonin or Primrose oil. I was already feeding Innova, a good quality kibble. I then switched to Wellness and it did improve somewhat. She also had itchy skin along with this. I finally went to a grainless fish and potato food and that did it. No more SFA, no more itchy flaky skin. She is grain intolerant. She is now on Timberwolf Ocean Blue and absolutely LOVES it and her coat is great! She has been on grainless for a while now and hasn't had any recurrence in about 3 or 4 years. So, I think a good quality grainless might be of some help actually. Anyway, it was in our case. Good luck!

 

[simmons]

Roxy had Seasonal Flank Alopecia. She lost the hair on her flank every spring. The vet couldn't even figure out what was going on. I had done a ton of research and called him and he agreed that is what it was. Anyway, I didn't try the Melatonin or Primrose oil. I was already feeding Innova, a good quality kibble. I then switched to Wellness and it did improve somewhat. She also had itchy skin along with this. I finally went to a grainless fish and potato food and that did it. No more SFA, no more itchy flaky skin. She is grain intolerant. She is now on Timberwolf Ocean Blue and absolutely LOVES it and her coat is great! She has been on grainless for a while now and hasn't had any recurrence in about 3 or 4 years. So, I think a good quality grainless might be of some help actually. Anyway, it was in our case. Good luck!

Great Thank You both!! I will look up some good quality-grain free kibble. I will let them know that she probably has Seasonal Flank Alopecia.

 

[KidA]

look also for supplements for skin and coat

my 16 months old boxer Scooby had also some coat problems when I was feeding him dry kibble, this improved a lot by switching to a premium food (Canidae) but I also fed him a supplement since I read that even from a premium brand you can't expect all the nutrients survive the heating process required to process the dry kibble, so you can get better results if you use good supplements to your dog's diet, even some good ones like solid gold or missing link are available at major pet stores, or some others like nature's logic are available on small pet stores that sells premium foods, you can also try salmon or flaxseed oil as supplement for Omega fatty acids.
I can tell you that I have used all of this with excellent results while I was feeding scooby dry kibble.