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skin problems

This is a forum for bonding with your fellow Dogsters about the traits, quirks and idiosyncrasies of your favorite breed. Please remember that there are absolutely no animal sales or requests for studding or breeding allowed on our sites. All posts and interactions should be in the spirit of Dogster's Community Guidelines and should be fun, friendly and informational. Enjoy!

  
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Member Since
05/10/2007		 
 
Barked: Wed Jun 13, '07 4:34pm PST 
If anyone out there has Schipperkes, I would sure benefit from their experience. I just adopted one from our local shelter Sunday. He was blowing his coat and had big mats in his fur. He'd been at the shelter for 6 months. I gave him a bath with medicated shampoo and combed his coat out. He's scratching himself constantly (he has no fleas and I treated him for them too), and his skin is flakey. Is this sometimes a problem for this breed? I am gradually converting him over to Pro Plan dog food for sensitive skins and stomachs.
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Loretta

Devil dogs of- the world unite!		 
 
Barked: Fri Jun 15, '07 10:33am PST 
Skips are not one of the breeds that tend to have skin problems, but they can still have them.

I just rescued my 2nd schipperke May 5. Her skin and fur are fine, but the 1st one I rescued had oily seborrhea, and my vet had me use a medicated shampoo. It's important to use the correct shampoo for oily or dry seborrea. Oily seborrhea smells worse than dry. My vet describes it as being as if the dog were sweating cheese -- yuck. Check out this link:

http://www.urbanhound.com/houndHealth/ShowAnswer.asp?QID=78 3

My vet had me wash my skip once a week for 4 weeks, then every 2 weeks. More often is overkill in my opinion because the shampoo is very drying itself. Once it was under control, I alternated the medicated with a very gentle, nonmedicated shampoo every other bath.

And it might not be seborrea at all or anything more serious than hay fever and/or stress.

Six months in a shelter will stress out any pet, so your skip's skin and fur will likely improve over time. Also, the weather is heating up, which is the time of year skips blow their coats anyway.

Two of my pets get hay fever when I get it, spring and fall. Itchy skin, ears, and eyes are common symptoms. Dogs can be given Benadryl or a less-expensive generic version. Check with your vet about dosage, but when the pollen counts are particularly high, my vet has me give my 16-pound skip 1/2 tablet, or 1/4 the adult human dose of 2 tablets, once a day.

One more thing, Derm Caps are great in general for pet's skin and fur. Really helps relieve itching, flakes, hot spots, and dull fur. Even though the main active ingredients are oils, Derm Caps even help with oily seborrhea. Sounds counterintuitive, but it's true. Check out this link:

http://www.1800petmeds.com/pdetail.asp?SK=10303

Good luck, and congratulations on rescuing one of the "devil dogs of Belgium!"
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Member Since
05/10/2007		 
 
Barked: Fri Jun 15, '07 10:59am PST 
Thanks, Loretta,

I will check out those two links. Last night I took my little guy to the vet for his free check up and found out he is allergic to Advantage, which the shelter gave me in case he had fleas. He scratched a big raw place between his shoulder blades where I had applied the Advantage. I felt so bad! He has to wear an E-collar and take antibiotics until it heals up. I checked his skin again, and the flaking is just about gone, so I think you were right--it must have been stress and the fact that no one was grooming him regularly. I've been brushing him every day, and I think that helped get rid of the flakey skin too. He is such a good little guy, but very independent, just like his new buddy, my male Shiba Inu. I'm mainly a cat person, so their independent ways don't bother me--I'm used to being ignored when I call anyone, and loved only when they feel like it--so we all make a good match. He is so good with my cats too! I had always admired this breed, but had never had the opportunity to have one until now. He and my Shiba Inu have little spats over who is the Alpha, but it's all noise--cussing and showing teeth. Then they're right back to being buddies again. thank you again for your help, fellow Devil Dog lover.
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Loretta

Devil dogs of- the world unite!		 
 
Barked: Mon Jun 18, '07 11:48am PST 
My vet had me switch from Advantage to Revolution -- easier on older pets and pets with allergies. Seems just as effective. Funny, I was a renter til 5 years ago, so a cat person by lease constraints as well as inclination, but now I'm a mortgage slave and have both, and the skips are definitely not as into coming when called, etc, as my little terrier mix. You read the phrase "battle of wills" a lot about skips. But they are great. Love shiba inus too. My latest skip's tail was not docked, which is rare in the U.S., and it turns out skip tails are very like shiba inu tails -- adorable fluffy little swirls.
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Member Since
05/10/2007		 
 
Barked: Mon Jun 18, '07 1:08pm PST 
That's interesting that your schip has his tail. Angus has his also. He was picked up by Animal Control in our county from a back yard breeder who had 20 schipperkes. I love his tail--you're right, it's very fluffy and curls over his back just like my Shiba's tail. I'm glad they didn't dock it. Does your Schip get along with your cats too? He's better than the Shiba with my cats. If my cats run, the Shiba chases them. Angus just lets them be. Since he's wearing that E-collar, he's less patient with the Shiba. I think it's because he can't see what Zorro is doing unless Zorro is right in front of him, so he gets cantankerous. I've got to get my pictures put on my cd so I can get them on dogster. Do Schipperkes tend to be one person dogs? Angus was adopted once from the shelter, but the family brought him back because he would only bond with the wife. He certainly doesn't like men. He refuses to have anything to do with my brother or my adult nephew, and growls at them if they come near him. He's very friendly to all my women friends and relatives.
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Loretta

Devil dogs of- the world unite!		 
 
Barked: Tue Jun 19, '07 1:39pm PST 
Skips used to be classified in the herding group. They have the instinct, and my old male skip was always herding my beta cat -- he knew not even to try with my alpha cat -- swat! Now Loretta herds my remaining (beta) cat a little, but not nearly as much. Otherwise, neither skip ever showed any kind of aggression toward cats. Both skips were/are complete social sluts, in fact, I think Loretta would happily wander off with anyone if I left her unattended. In general rescue dogs, if they're going to be fearful or fearful-aggressive with people, it tends to be with men. Guess men do most of the abusing. A friend's dog is afraid only of tall men, another only black men. Once an idea is imprinted, it just doesn't go away. I got Loretta from a rescuer/breeder in Long Beach. A novice breeder had gone off her meds, went paranoid schizophrenic, and barred herself inside her house, convinced all her skips were actually real devils. County mental health came and took her away, and animal control spent 3 weeks rounding up the skips, who'd gone semi-feral on the property. The rescuer/breeder spent months resocializing several, including Loretta, so it's amazing how trusting she's become.
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Member Since
05/10/2007		 
 
Barked: Wed Jun 27, '07 8:26am PST 
Sounds like Loretta came from a similar situation as Angus. I guess I won't hope for Angus to be friendly to men he doesn't know any time soon. I found a new amusing aspect to him, and wonder if other Schips are the same. I noticed that every day when I come home, their water dish is empty, even though I fill it every morning before I leave for work. Since it is so hot here, this worried me, so I watched the water dish on the weekend to see what was happening. Pretty soon Angus trotted over to the dish and began splashing and "digging" at the water until it was all splashed out. So I went to Petsmart and found a little swimming pool for him. He loves it, and was splashing away this morning when I left. Another thing he's done now that his e-collar is off is to eat his leash and his collar. I just bought them too! Are Schips water lovers and chewers commonly?
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Loretta

Devil dogs of- the world unite!		 
 
Barked: Fri Jul 13, '07 9:33am PST 
I've had only the 2 skips, but both drank a LOT more water than any other pet I've had, and both love(d) to stand in water. They are barge dogs in Belgium, so they have an affinity for water, and being a northern breed with a dense black coat, they're more sensitive to the heat, so I think that's why they drink so much. I've recently learned that chewing is less related to breed than to age. While the more active breeds will chew more out of boredom than couch potato breeds, chewing is common in young dogs. I didn't have to be diligent with the old male skip or my older terrier mix, but my new young lady chewed through 4 leashes, 1 halter, 2 toys, and one brand new, never even worn, $130 pair of shoes before we learned to be more careful. But absolutely everyone assures me that they do grow out of it. A friend with a golden retriever had to replace the cement flagstones in front of her fireplace! But even that dog eventually stopped chewing things by the time she was 2 years old.
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Member Since
05/10/2007		 
 
Barked: Wed Jul 18, '07 3:44pm PST 
Thanks for the information and reassurance. I've never had a dog as young as Angus (he's 18mos.), so I've never encountered the chewing thing until now. My Shiba is not a chewer at all--in fact, he often won't even bother with the chew snacks I give them. But Angus receives them with joy. I get such a kick out of him because almost everything is greeted with such enthusiasm by him. I was concerned when I read a profile of Schipperkes because it said they were not obedience dogs and were often hard headed. But Angus is a very good boy, and minds so well, though he's never been taught anything until he came to live with me. He is such a wonderful addition to my home. How did you come to get interested in this breed, and how did you acquire your first Skip?
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Loretta

Devil dogs of- the world unite!		 
 
Barked: Mon Jul 30, '07 12:25pm PST 
I'd never even seen a skip until Feb 2004, when I met one while waiting to board a flight and she was out of her crate, flopping over for a belly rub for anyone who so much as glanced her way. I made the remarks I was to become so used to hearing: "She looks like a tiny bear cub! Or a fox!" When a week later she was on the return flight as well, it started to feel like kismet. I wrote down the name, but for some reason waited 2 months before looking it up on the web -- again, fate? I still wasn't considering getting a 2nd dog -- our 1st, a terrier mix, is very jealous -- but then I clicked on a link to "photos" that turned out to be a link to petfinder.com rescues -- sneaky! I STILL wasn't considering getting one, but as I was closing out, I noticed a senior skip with white in his muzzle, and forwarded it to my husband, but only to say, "This old guy looks like Walter" (our terrier mix). It was my husband who read the story of neglect by an elderly woman who'd herself been neglected and convinced me to drive 120 miles roundtrip to "just check out" what was to become our Eddie. All Eddie needed was a daily thyroid pill -- skips are prone to thyroid conditions, but the med is very inexpensive. Two and a half years later, when he was pushing 14, he developed a brain tumor, and we had him put down. I swore I wasn't going to get another 2nd dog, but 6 months later, we drove to another breeder/rescuer, this time 400 miles roundtrip, and brought home Loretta. Now I keep saying that after this one, I'll be done with skips, that terriers are a lot more obedient, but who knows? Clearly, I've been suckered in!
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