Baths

[yellowlabsrule]

Gave Winnie a bath yesterday, it was fun! (seriously) Gave her it in the new stall shower. My question is how often can you give your dog a bath? Sounds weird, but your not supposed to give your horse a bath more than once a month because it washes away something they need for their coat. (don't remember what :oops: ) Anyway, is that the same case with dogs? (Winnie would like an excuse to get out of a bath! :lol: )

[eggrolyn1223]

I didn't know this before :oops: , but I think it's because they have natural oils in their coats and if you wash too much, the coat gets dry and itchy(for dogs).

[Nancy B]

If you wind up having to bathe your dogs fairly frequently I'd highly recommend Nova Pearly dog shampoo. Because of therapy dog visits, I've frequently wound up bathing Whitney once a month and I've found that Nova Pearls does a wonderful job of cleaning without stripping all the oils.

OTOH, if you have a breed of dog with short hair like I do, a good quick clean up is to spray on a mixture of Listerine and water. Wipe off with a towel....cleans and shines! :)

[Nancy B]

Oops, sorry for the typo. The name of the shampoo is Nova Pearls!

[Mary's Mama]

I bath Mary 2-3 times a week. Jacks are notorious for having dry skin, etc. I use a shampoo made by Bio Groom called So Gentle. It contains no soap, is hypoallergenic, can be used with topical flea and tick treaments. It is great. She gets bathed so much cuz she goes to the dog park and gets absolutely filthy. No trouble here so far. :D

[gooeydog]

Our dogs don't get many baths, usually just if they get into something smelly or if we're taking them somewhere and want them to be extra clean. They didn't get a bath all last year during them winter, just brushed every few days. In summer, they're bathed more often, because they just get dirtier, and we go swimming, so I have to rinse the bay water off them when we're done. Even then I usually just use water with no shampoo to rinse them off.

[Bensam]

Newfiemom, now you have me worried :o One of my boys has a skin problem for which he has had every test under the sun and every diet tried with no results. For most of the year this has been controlled with a weekly bath. I was using a shampoo from the Vet. after trying numerous types, eventually found one that worked, then of course it went off the market, back to square one. I remembered that when I worked at a home for the aged many years ago, we had a resident who had an allergy and on her Dr's instruction would use coal tar soap and coal tar shampoo exclusively as any thing else would set her allegy off. I found a dog shampoo with coal tar and this works for my boy. He averages a bath once a fortnight during the year but unfortunately has to go on cortisone when we hit the summer, this for about 4 months. He has all the appropriate tests and thankfully has no damage from the cortisone. He get very depressed with the constant irritation if I dont use the cortisone and while I realise it's not good for him at least he is happy. Now this mention of the coal tar is another worry.

[Bensam]

The one I use doesn't give any warning, so I guess that's not good. I had tried one with tea-tree oil, dont remember if it also had oatmeal. Some I had tried had him scratching again as soon as he was out of the bath. I haven't seen the Nova Pearls brand here, but could be . I mainly have looked at ingredients rather than brand names. A number I have used came from the Vet. as he has a list of what we have tried. It's the most frustrating thing. What type of herbal tea do you use and does Emmitt drink to or do you mix with food? I'll try all sorts to help him.

[Bensam]

Thanks, Newfiemom. Ben doesn't have any outward signs at all. Skin is fine and his coat is lovely. Never has hot spots or sore areas as he scratches all over, never consistantly in one place. It's a mystery, the things we have tried and the tests run over the years are too many to remember. My Vet. says he had to get a new computer just for Ben :lol:
I will certainly give the herbal tea a try. Living so far from anywhere I haven't had access to any naturapathic or holistic remedies and it's a bit like your Dr sending you to a chiropractor suggesting those things to the Vet.( he is great and does try lots of things for Ben and I know he would be just as happy as me if something worked). Thanks again and Merry Xmas to you.