A Vet’s Guide To Treating Your Dog’s Dry Skin

• This post contains affiliate links. Read more here.
• Not a substitute for professional veterinary help.

Dry skin in your dog can be one of the most frustrating health conditions to deal with as an owner. You feel sympathetic for the discomfort your pet is experiencing and at the same time, all that scratching can keep you up at night. As a veterinarian, I’ve outlined the background knowledge for what could be causing your pet’s dry skin, when to visit your pet’s veterinarian, and some helpful tips on improving your dog’s skin and coat.

What is Dry Skin in Dogs?

The medical term for dry skin is Seborrhea or seborrheic dermatitis. This is a disorder of the skin where the sebaceous glands in the skin produce an excessive amount of waxy oil, called sebum. The imbalance of sebum creates a scaly, flaky, and/or red look to the skin. The flakes you see are sloughed dead skin cells, and the coat can appear oily or dry.

What Causes Symptoms of Canine Dry Skin?

1. Low humidity

If you live in an environment with dry air, your pet may experience dry flaky skin with mild itchiness that isn’t usually accompanied with any other clinical signs.

2. Parasite infestations

Parasites like fleas, Demodex, and scabies mites are intensely itchy. With the exception of fleas, you will not see these with the naked eye but your vet can easily diagnose them for you. You might notice missing fur and intense itchiness.

3. Allergies

Skin hypersensitivities are a very common cause of dry skin and can range from parasites (fleas), food, or the environment. These usually cause incessant licking, scratching, redness, ear infections, and secondary bacterial infections.

4. Inadequate hydration and nutrition

Diets that lack necessary nutrients like oils, moisture content, probiotics, and enzymes can cause dryness and dullness of the coat.

5. Infections

Bacterial and fungal infections can cause the skin to appear red, flaky, dry, and/or itchy.

6. Hormone or metabolic changes

Disruptions in the endocrine system and metabolic disorders will change the skin and coat’s appearance.

7. Frequent bathing

It’s tempting to wash your dog as often as they’re stinky—but frequent dog baths, especially frequent puppy baths, can dry out a dog’s skin. Aim for a bath once a month, with pet wipes and dog dry shampoo in the interim.

A Vet Visit Is Needed When You See Any of the Following

• Redness. This usually indicates there is inflammation in the skin from an allergic or infectious cause.
• Crusting. These are dead cells, debris, dried red blood cells that are accumulating on the skin’s surface and may indicate a fungal, bacterial, or parasitic infection.
• Itchiness. Which is often caused by inflammation in the skin from parasites, allergies, bacterial, or fungal infections.
• Hair loss.  This can result from the mechanical abrasion of scratching. Endocrine changes, autoimmune disorders that attack the skin and fur, parasites, or fungal infections (for example, ringworm) also cause hair loss and can be diagnosed by your veterinarian.
• Odor. A strong odor is usually indicative of a yeast (Malasezzia sp) infection that is a common secondary infection with bacterial or other infections.

After your vet determines the underlying cause of the dry skin and other signs you are seeing in your pet, they will recommend very effective prescription medications and products.

These could include antimicrobials, immunotherapeutics, anti-inflammatories, and topical therapies such as medicated sprays and shampoos.

Tips for Improving Dry Skin

If there are no other underlying causes, you can use these tips to prevent your pet’s skin from drying out or acquiring the secondary symptoms listed above.

1. 1. 1. When shampooing your dog, use a gentle moisturizing shampoo with humectants made for dogs (human shampoo is at the wrong pH for dogs). Then follow up with a conditioner.
      2. After the shampoo, do not blow dry your dog’s coat if you can avoid it. Even cool blow dryers will dry out the coat. Toweling down and blotting to absorb the majority of the moisture will be effective enough and your dog’s whole body shake will do the rest. If you get your dog groomed, kindly request that the groomer turn down the blow dryer to the lowest setting or not use one at all.
      3. Feed a nutritionally balanced diet. Most packaged dog food from pet stores are nutritionally balanced for dogs. Be sure to look for the AAFCO symbol on the back of dog food to be sure. If this symbol is not on the feed packaging, then it is not being appropriately regulated and may not contain the nutrients your dog needs to maintain healthy skin and a fur coat.
      4. Adding a little moist food and supplying fresh water will increase your dog’s hydration intake which will add moisture to the skin.
      5. Supplementing your dog’s diet with products like NaturVet Skin and Coat Dog Soft Chews, fish oil, and/or probiotics can improve the coat and skin condition.
      6. Continue flea preventative all year long. This is a standard veterinary recommendation, even if you rarely see a flea. That’s because as soon as a flea jumps on and bites your dog, the saliva is allergenic enough to cause itching and scratching which creates a vicious cycle of inflammation and infection. It’s better to just prevent a bite.
      7. Moisturizing wipes are great for hard-to-clean areas like skin folds in bulldogs, shar-peis, and pugs.

Implementing a healthy skin and coat regimen will relieve your dog of pesky dry skin signs so you can sleep easy and their coat can shine brightly.