[Kerlowyn]

I did a search for this in this forum, but did not see exactly what we have going on here...

We have an Alaskan Malamute, named Uma.

She stinks. Usually a trip to the groomer fixes this. However, after her recent trip, she began to stink whiten 2 weeks. We did apply Frontline as usual 2 days after grooming.

It's defiantly her coat/skin. Her breath is the same. She was at the vet this past March, and is healthy.

But, when spring came, and she was spending time lying in the grass, she did get a reaction on her belly to something. She lost all the hair in the area. It's fine now.

Her diet is the same. We have feed her Wellness kibble and canned since we adopted her from the shelter 2 years ago.

She is shedding her undercoat like crazy, but it's the usual blow. She seems itchy too.

I called the groomer. She recommended that I not bath her, her breed does not do well with frequent baths. I feel like I should just get her in the kiddie pool and wash and rinse and repeat

My guess is that it can be fixed with diet, or supplements.

Anyone with experience or advise on a rank, long haired pup?!

 

[106657]

I have the same problem with my dog Nikki. She is a Yellow Lab, a great dog, but she stinks!! Makes the entire house smell. No matter what we do, she stinks!! We give her a bath, doesn't matter, she is just a stinky dog!

 

[thekimballs]

Which Wellness?

Yes, diet has a LOT to do with it. Wellness is a good company, but I am not in love with the regular kibble formulas. My first choice is definitely going to a raw diet, but switching to CORE from Wellness is also a big step up.

There are some very good skin and coat supplements, including Missing Link, Shed Stop, the "Grow Hair on a Doorknob" recipe, etc. But I would never add supplements to a less than perfect diet; the base diet is what's important.

And then, heck yes, bathe. When you watch the dog shows on Animal Planet, every dog there, from Malamute to Dandy Dinmont, has been bathed within a few hours of that filming, and most of them will be bathed again when they get back to the hotel or motor home, then bathed again a few days later, etc. If you use good shampoos, there is nothing wrong with bathing weekly or even more often. Do yourself a huge favor and get a good shampoo. Nothing from Hartz or similar, nothing super cheap; readily available good shampoos are EQyss Premier--look at a horse feed store for this--Espree, SPA from Tropiclean, etc. I personally am a big shampoo addict and my favorite brands are Plush Puppy and Isle of Dog, but both are mail-order and expensive.

Whatever shampoo you use, always apply it very diluted (put a squirt into a cup and add warm water to the top, and pour that over the dog) and rinse like crazy. Double-coated dogs are notorous for being difficult to rinse, and any shampoo left at the skin will burn the dog's skin.

If you want to really do it "right," which will save you a lot of time and trouble and give you really good results, go to petedge.com (generally the cheapest) and order some concentrated shampoo, a dilution bottle, an undercoat rake, a greyhound comb, a slicker, and a Double-K ChallengeAir dryer. It'll run you a few hundred dollars, but it will enable you to get professional grooming results. You wet the dog, shampoo, rake the shampoo through, rinse super well, repeat, then towel the dog and dry as you are raking again. You'll get TONS of coat off this way and hugely reduce the shedding inside. Once the dog is almost dry and all raked, switch to the greyhound comb to get every hair combed through, the slicker to get the dog all full of air and softness. She'll look like a show dog and will feel clean, vastly reduced shedding, and you can repeat in a week.

 

[Kerlowyn]

We are looking into raw, trying to find some good meat sources. We do use the basic Wellness, I'll make the switch to Core for now. In this area, we don't have much to choose from..small town, lots of agriculture...I'm trying to locate a chicken farm. The horse feed/groomer/animal/pet supply store is good, but not great.

Joanna, is it true what I was told, about my dog growing mold if not dried off properly? That has been what is holding me back from bathing her myself, and bringing her to the groomers every 2 months or so. I do use a rake, brush; she gets a once over every few days.

The groomer also told me to spray her with Nature's Miracle. That did not sit well with me.

I'll look into the supplements too...thanks!

 

[thekimballs]

If you don't get the undercoat out, the groomer is right. Lots of people have no idea how to comb deep into the coat--they brush the top of the coat, so the last inch of hair looks nice, but under that is a dense web of dead and living undercoat that forms almost a cast over the dog. Once that gets wet, it doesn't dry for days, and it will definitely mold.

If you've got that dead undercoat out--so everywhere you part the hair, including belly and behind the elbows and around the "pants," you're immediately looking right at skin--(zero mats or tangles or webbing), the dog can air-dry or fan dry (put the dog in her crate and point a box fan at her side) on any nice warm and dry day. You can easily check how fast she's drying by digging your fingers in; if they still feel dampness she needs more time in the sun or by the fan.

Hmm, that was a very long sentence.

Anyway, while air drying is absolutely possible, a good high velocity dryer is so dang great. I don't know how I lived without one. I bathe in the tub, blow them dry in the tub, no shaking hair everywhere, no puddles, every dog is dry enough to get out in just five or ten minutes. When I am getting ready to show, I do a very long and extensive dry that takes 30 minutes or so, but for regular baths they're good to go pretty quickly.

 

[reece19]

My dog has this horrible skin stink (and eventually gets sores on his skin) if he eats anything with corn as a main ingredient. Bathing him doesn't even work - the stink comes back within hours, both on the dog and in whatever room he has just walked through!

He eats Canidae or Wellness chicken formulas and has no problems. Hope you find a solution!

 

[mom0810]

Mals have oil in their coat that makes them stink. It also protects them from water and ice when doing their job. But it will always smell unless you bathe it at least weekly and DRY it to a crisp every time.

You have to line brush it till you see skin. You separate the coat and COMB until you can see a line of skin below, then move over and start again. The dog will grow mold down there if you don't line brush (comb) to the skin and get all of the hair out.

Mals, Sammies, and lots of other water/ice breeds have that stinky oily coat. You just have to wash them enough that they do not get a chance to produce that oil. Newfs have a smell, too. Those who love the breed think of it as ambrosia. Those who do not... well, to them, it's a stink.