Animal cider vinegar with "mother" for itchy dog?

donna723

Well-Known Member
MWM, mine have all kinds of clothes too! We have sweaters and winter coats and t-shirts, including one that has a Christmas wreath on it that has blinking lights and plays Jingle Bells. And Halloween costumes! And they have a black bandana that says "SECURITY" in big orange letters and a cool pair of doggie sunglasses that go with it!
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
LOL! Animal lovers are not normal to the rest of humanity. I don't care. What funny little doggy shirts and bandanas for yours!

Damian, the chi-shihtzu mix on the bottom of Avator, will wear shirts, but Chloe, Yorkie/Bichon mix on top, won't. I bought her all sorts of cute little girl doggy clothes but she tries to bite them off!!! I'm not going to torture her...lol. Anyhow, Damian has shirts for all seasons too!!!
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Medicated tar soap. You can buy it at Petsmart. It's not cheap but it works.

Benedryl to stop the itchy. The more doggie scratches/chews the higher risk for a fungal infection to set in.

I went through this with Molly. Nichole is now going through this with her Baily (beagle). Dog seems to be allergic to grass or ragweed or some other plant in the yard. Nichole has tried everything and now just keeps her on benedryl to relieve the itching and prevent a secondary skin infection. She also took my tar soap home with her last time she was here.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
thanks tons, Lisa. I'll order t online as we don't have a Petsmart here.

Doing all I can. He seems better. He has a skin infection and keeps getting them. Not sure of the cause yet, but could be his thyroid, which we are working on, or allergies. At any rate, he is not so itchy today.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I would NOT use vinegar on his skin. It will dry his skin out more than it already is. I would instead go to the grocery and get some oil for his skin. You can use olive oil if you want. Grapeseed is also EXCELLENT and macadamia nut is truly wonderful if he doesn't have a problem with nuts. Or you can go online and get some shea butter.

I suggest the grocery because he WILL lick the spots and you need something food grade. I don't know if dogs react to macadamia nuts, but I know the others, or even rice bran oil (I got a big bottle for $6 at Big Lots) would not harm him. You need to put oil on the spots to help with the itching. Especially as all that washing is totally stripping his natural oils from his skin and coat. Just rub some of the oil onto the spots several times a day.

Rice bran oil is incredible for skin and hair. I have psoriasis and my idiot body reacts to most lotions and creams. I can tolerate a few, like antibiotic ointment or benadryl ointment, but that is about it. My in-laws have a dog that husband refers to as a 'Lhasa shih-t" who has super sensitive skin. They thought I was bonkers sending both a little bottle of rice bran oil and a container of cream I make with 2 parts of shea butter (Refined because the unrefined stuff STINKS, I don't care what they say about it!) and 1 part rice bran oil for the dog and stepMIL both to try. But now all of their friends want my cream and so does their vet. It may seem strange to make cream for your dog, but it will do amazing things for you too. You can use the rice bran oil right on your skin and it is amazing.

If the medicated baths are not working, try putting some old fashioned, unflavored oatmeal (or the quick cooking kind in the canister, just not the packets even if they say unflavored on them) in the bath. You can take an old sock and fill it iwth 1/4-1/2 cup of oats and put it into the water, let it sit and squish it a bit, or put it into the blender/food processor and grind it fine and put it into the water loose. It is amazing for soothing skin and sooooo much cheaper than the packets of oatmeal bath like Aveeno.

Vinegar is only going to dry out the skin more. The drier the skin, the more little cracks in the skin will let in fungi and bacteria, making the problem worse. You need to add moisture, which means water and oil to help seal in the water. So after a bath or a wipe down with water, put some oil on the spots.

I know people are all big fans of coconut oil now, and it has uses, but I would NOT use it for this. It actually will strip the natural oils from the dog's skin (and from people skin) and is much more harsh than helpful. Olive, grapeseed, rice bran, mac nut, almond, apricot, even canola oil is better than coconut for skin issues.

Another thing that may help is to do a final rinse of the dog with filtered water. If you have hard water, it can make any issues with dry skin a LOT worse. You can buy water for this, or just use a Brita type filter pitcher, but just rinsing the dog with filtered water after a bath could be a very useful step. The bath can be in regular tap water, you just don't want the minerals sitting on the skin drying it out, hence the final rinse.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
If the tar soap is hard to find, get some of the generic version of TGel dandruff shampoo. It is a thin brown shampoo that will not lather the first time you put it on, but will the second. Let the second application sit on the skin for a few minutes before you rinse it off. I know Walgreens has a generic, and I am pretty sure Walmart does too. It has the tar in it and you can get it now with-o having to order it It is made for dandruff and works by helping to eliminate possible fungal infections. It is awesome for dandruff and for dogs. Use oil or shea butter on her after the bath.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Susie, he has a prescription medicated shampoo that I have to keep on him for twenty minutes. It's so much fun to have your dog running around with shampoo on, getting it everywhere. He won't stay in the tub that long so I just let him go. I figger the soap won't hurt the rug or furniture :) It hasn't so far.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Now that I make soap...lol...I can attest to some of what Susie says. Pure coconut oil soap is very drying so you dont want to use more than about 30% in your soap. I am astounded she found rice bran oil at big lots and next time I am there I will be looking hard for it!

Pam, if you want to try tar soap, make it yourself. Its easy to just do a little bit. You dont need any fancy equipment or molds. To make a couple of bars of pine tar soap I would use empty yogurt containers. You will need to buy a little pine tar and a bottle of lye crystals but that isnt hard to find...check your local hardware store. I havent made any or I would simply send you some. Who knows, maybe you will enjoy making the soap and make it for you and hubby too. That bottle of lye will make you enough for quite awhile. I am having to order my lye online because I need a lot of it and its cheaper there. (Plus people look at you like you are making a meth lab if you buy a bunch...lol)
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Janet, lye can be VERY hard to find in some areas. If I want to make soap again, I have to call all over one of the cities to find it, or else have the small IGA here order a case and then I have to buy the entire case. FYI, did you know there are ways to make soap that is ready to use immediately rather than waiting the 30 days for it to cure? If you want I can send you some links plus a soap recipe that sold like hotcakes back when I was making soap. It was easy and wonderful and you could adapt it. Back to the topic though!

Lye is hard to find in areas because of the idiot meth makers, just like sudafed. Grrrrr. I hate meth. It makes life so complicated now!

Coconut oil is a very big fad now, but it is NOT the miracle cure that it is touted to be. NOTHING can be as good as people claim coconut oil is. I did overhear something funny at the health food store last week. There are a LOT of oils that are better for you and closer to the oils that your body naturally makes.

MWM, I hope your doggie feels better soon!
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
MWM, I know you've mentioned allergies, we give our Boston's (about 25 lbs) two zyrtek a day, morning and night. Our tiny dogs take twice our dose and could actually take more, but that stuff is pricey! It may help with itching. I know oatmeal bathes are supposed to help itching and certainly wouldn't be bad for your furbaby if it licked it later. There's my 2 cents. :)
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
there are only two things that you can use to make soap...sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. Or you can make your own lye water with ashes and rain water.

Sodium hydroxide (lye) makes bar soap and potassium hydroxide (pot ash) makes liquid soap.

If you are talking about using those melt and pour soaps, yeah you can use them but someone else made the clear glycerin or white glycerin soap first! I am going to make some melt and pour for my kids soaps.

I found a cheap source for lye. The lye guy. Even with shipping its cheaper.
 
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