[Daryl O]

Hello!

We have a little Shorkie puppy who has a bit of a wire hair coat. He is 1 year 6 months old. His coat is drying out and is not as soft (as soft as a wire hair can be) as it was months ago.

We are feeding him blue buffalo life protection dry and blue buffalo canned (various).

Any suggestions on changing brands or other ideas to help is coat out?

New to this forum so excuse any inappropriate questions/statements.

Cheers.

[pugmomsandy]

You can try switching to a fish-based food (that would hopefully have more omega-3 in it). You can also give a fish oil supplement, or feed sardines a couple times a week, and also give coconut oil.

[Naturella]

What Sandy said! 🙂
Fish-based food and coconut oil have done wonders for my Rat Terrier mix Bruno’s coat. Also, after a bath, I rub him down with a mix of sunflower oil with vitamins A, D, and E, and olive, coconut, chamomile, avocado, and shea oils. It makes him extra him soft and shiny! 🙂

[GizmoMom]

Naturella, He sounds yummy!

[Daryl O]

ok – so I’ve decided we are going to switch him to Wellness Grain Free – Ocean kibble ad I’ll source out some Wellness grain free we food as well.

I will try the sardines.

With the Coconut oil – how do you give this to the dog?

Naturella – can you give me some more details on your after bath rub – how much of what and how you do it.

Cheers – thank you for the wonderful suggestions everyone!

[pugmomsandy]

You can warm the oil and drizzle it right in their food bowl or let them lick the glob right off the spoon. 1/2 – 1 teaspoon per 10 lbs. I give the smaller dose but I also feed raw sardines or use a krill oil supplement. I also use a coconut-based shampoo like Earthbath, although my dogs rarely get a bath.

[Naturella]

Daryl,

For my after-bath rub, I use chamomile oil that is sunflower-based and the three-vitamin oil (I got those from Bulgaria where I’m from), but you can make your own by boiling dried chamomile in sunflower oil and draining out the flower bits, and get the three vitamins in capsule form and just mix them up. I also had about 5-10ml left of a Garnier Triple Nutrition oil spray (the one with the avocado, olive, and shea oils), so to that I added 10ml chamomile oil, 20ml olive oil, 20ml melted coconut oil, and 20ml three-vitamin oil in the spritz bottle of the Garnier oil. Shake really well to blend and before each use.

I usually wash Bruno and towel-dry him and then spritz some oil on my hands (2-3 spritzes is plenty for a small dog) and rub him down while still a bit wet. If he looks greasy in any spots, I just hive him a quick brush with the boar bristle brush. Works wonders. 🙂

He gets about 1 full shampoo and oil bath per month and if he gets a little dirty he gets just a water shower. But you can do the oil thing weekly after a shower if you want, for a wire coat. Also, the mix is great for conditioning human hair too. 🙂

[Naturella]

GizmoMom, does Bruno sound yummy or the oil mix? I’m confused, lol.

[GizmoMom]

LOL. The oil mix sounds yummy!

[Naturella]

GizmoMom, I figured that’s what you meant! 🙂

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