Hello, I live in vermont and...

Question
Hello, I live in vermont and I have an 8 month old Bernese Mountain Dog.
He seems to be having a dry skin (flaky) problem and I've tried
everything.  Also It looks like the fur around his eyes is falling out and
it looks VERY dry there as well.
Any words of wisom?
E


Answer
It could be a problem with dietary fatty acids.  These make the skin cells resistant to drying out. Omega fatty acid supplements (available from your vet as like 3V caps or Eicosaderm) may stop the flaking.  When the fur around the eyes falls out in a pup, I tend to think about demodex mange.  You should let your vet do a skin scraping to look for the mites.  Also, ringworm can show up like this.