Question
Picasso 18 months
My 18 month old rescued poodle, Picasso sometimes acts like a cat licking himself. My concern is his short hair on the top of his head. It does not seem to grow and his ears stand up at different angels.
AnswerHello Gerry,
Dogs will tend to lick themselves if their coat is dry or itchy, which can be brought on by a number of things, including allergies. If you see him licking or chewing on himself and there is no fleas present, then you may try giving him a Benedryl tablet in the evenings for at least 2 weeks to see if this helps some.
As to the short hair on his head, there are a few things you can do to help encourage it to grow more. When you bathe him, use a conditioner that has moisturizers in it and proteins for hair health (you can use Human conditioners as long as your dog doesn't have a problem with them). This will help keep your dogs hair from drying out which will keep it from breaking, which will help it grow longer. His ears standing at different angles is caused by him not having enough hair length to hold the ears down. Go ahead and brush the ear hair to keep mats out of it, but make sure that you spray the hair with either water or a spray-on conditioner when you brush so that you reduce hair breakage.
I thought I would add this diet that I made up for dogs with dry, damaged or thin coats. You can either feed this diet straight or mix it in with your dogs dry food. If mixing it in your dogs food, I would go 1/2 dry food and 1/2 mix. I like foods like Bil-Jac, Nutro Natural Choice (though it has caused diarrhea in some dogs so switch if your dog has frequent loose stools), Royal Canin Poodle Variety, Chicken Soup for the Dog, Iams, Diamond Naturals, or even prescription foods. You can use the Salmon Oil rather than the canned Salmon if you perfer. The Salmon you get in a can is usually farm raised and won't have as much oil as the Wild Salmon Oil tablets.
This is a diet I made up for dogs that need to grow thick coats or for dogs that have had skin problems.
1 lb Hamburger, Turkey, Chicken or Lamb burger, cooked and most of the fat drained off.
1 can Salmon or 5-8 Wild Salmon Oil Tablets (or you can puncture and squirt 1 capsule directly on the food per day)
1 tin Sardines in Olive Oil
1 cup Spinach blended with the oil of the sardines
1 egg scrambled
1 1/2 cup Special K or Total Cereal
1 Apple Blended (or you can use 1/2 cup of Applesauce/ perferably without sugar)
1/8 tsp Garlic powder
1 grated carrot
1/2 cup brown rice, cooked using chicken broth for better flavor
1/2 Tablespoon Cottage Cheese, this is optional and can be added per feeding rather than made up in advance.
You can also add fruits or veggies that your dog likes, or take out things that you think your dog will turn his nose up at.
This recipe is for a large dog, but if you think this is more than you would use in a week, it freezes nicely. It has vitamins and minerals that are good for a dogs coat and skin.
Give this a try and see if it helps your dog some. If you have other questions for me, please feel free to ask me.
Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim
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