# Labrador's Skin Problem



## brummiedog (Dec 17, 2014)

Hi,

I share your pain. I have an itch labrador as well. We've been suffering together for about three years. 

I guess in theory any dog could suffer zinc deficiency. Not sure how this could be seen from a skin scrape though. I would have thought a blood test would have highlighted that, but I'm not an expert. 

When we first went to the vet with our labrador, the vets really didn't understand these skin conditions and were quick to give her steriods and special shampoos. Looking back it seemed to make the situation worse rather than better. 

My biggest advise would be to get to a specialist vet who deals with allergies and skin conditions. 

Most of the vets I have seen have said that my dog suffers an allergy but cannot tell me to what or how to help it.

We have tried a number of things and found that the food plays a massive part in how she reacts to things and have found a food that keeps her itching to a minimum. 

She does have bad days but they are far less now than they were when we first had her. 

Best of luck!


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## Ruby13 (Dec 28, 2013)

So many times these issues of hair and skin are food related. Have you ever tried grain free food? It seems many of us have jumped through a lot of hoops only to find that all we needed to do was change their diet. 

I'm not sure a scraping result would indicate any type of vitamin deficiency, but it might be one of those situations where the vet feels he has ruled out everything else???


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

We adopted a Great Pyrenees who had chronic ear infection and skin issues. The foster where he had been for a year is vegan and fed her fosters vegan dog food--it was made of oats, rice, barley, fruits & vegetables and lots of supplements to make up for no meat.

I got him on grain free food and my vet added a steroid for his ears and in just a couple of weeks the ear infection was almost cleared and his skin and fur was so much better. another thing--added coconut oil to his food. Started out with a tea spoon a day and then after a few days went to 2 teaspoons. Sadly we lost him to cancer. We got another and Moose is 110 pounds and I give him coconut oil ech day in his food. He gets 2 tablespoons a day plus 2 fish oil capsules.


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## LusciousLeah (Feb 23, 2012)

First of all I would like to thank everyone for their input.


As mention in my first post, my lab girl is on a raw diet. I feed her raw goat meat and turkey for morning meal. In the evening I'll give her 100gm raw goat meat plus a 350-400gm of goat ribs or similar weight of turkey parts (can be turkey drumstick/wings/back/). Goat meat and goat ribs are from my local butcher which are fed on grass. So I suppose you can call it organic? As for turkey I bought the frozen one (Norbest) because in my country do not have live turkey for sales. I added in probiotics and digestive enzymes in her food and for 6 days of the week will add a clove of garlic into her morning meal. Then on alternate days I will give her coconut oil. I don't feed her and my other golden any chicken as chicken here are farm rear which feeds on cornmeal and injected with hormonal growth. My golden boy is severely allergic to chicken and beef so that is why I never give both of them anything to do with chicken or beef at all.

They were doing rather fine and if I remember correctly beginning of March I started to add in frozen baby pork ribs which was imported from USA and slowly add in to their evening diet. Still seems to be doing well then maybe another month later I bought frozen pork meat imported from Brazil for them. I've this niggling feeling that it just might be the frozen pork meat from Brazil that is giving them the problem. I'm positive the pig raised there ate corn too and which we all know corn is the main culprit of a dog's diet. So, I took out pork completely from their diet. It's only 2 days they are off pork. I'll continue to monitor.

I always thought as long as dogs are on raw then there shouldn't be any problem but guess I was wrong.


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