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year old Bullmastiff

sheilatudor

New Member
Hey guys! I am new here, but I need to see if anyone can help with my bullmastiff.
She is turning 1 year old next week. I am having issues with her shedding, straching, and in general she stinks!
She sheds constantly. Every other day I have to vacuum her kennel out due to excess fur. This may be due to her constant straching. She does not have sores, hot spots, or fleas. I have checked her, as I thought one of these things could be causing it. She also stinks!! I give her a bath every weekend and come mid week she stinks. Literally, makes my house smell like a kennel. She is in the kennel while I am at work through the day. But when I get home I take her directly outside and then I vacuum and clean her kennel. I use an odor eliminator spray and then wipe up the residue. I spray her everyday with a dry shampoo. But she always stinks! Even when you pet her you can feel the yuck on your hands. Which is horrible because she LOVES to be pet. If you stop she actually whines until you pet her again. :) I absolutely love her, but I have no idea what to do about the shedding, straching, and the stinking.

Any ideas, I would appreciate it!!
Thanks for the help!
 

sheilatudor

New Member
She eats a dry dog food made by Purina One. It is a Salmon formula for sensitive skin.
I tried this because of the straching. Research that I had done prior to said that the salmon formula would help. But I also found that the fish formula can cause her to stink worse.
 

angelbears

Well-Known Member
The first thing I would research is a yeast over growth or imbalance. The best thing to combat yeast is an all raw meat diet. Sugar/carbs is the worst thing for yeast.

BTW, welcome and good luck.
 

betht

Member
Exactly, what are you feeding her- with the right food, no bad gas and no skin issues. When our Cane Corso was young we found out she was allergic to beef & chicken. Now she eats lamb only and is healthy. They thought she had mange, bloody spots, fur falling out- sickly, stinky fur; once we ruled out mange, we went back to the breeder and found out there were food allergies in the bloodline. Sometimes it's trial and error on food. Now, she has thick shiny fur. The vet said they shouldn't have bad gas, it means their digestive system isn't healthy.
 

dusky21

Active Member
Our other dog had a good bit of dandruff when we moved to Colorado b/c it was so dry. The vet recommended giving him fish oil supplements and that helped his coat immensely. I've also recently read about the benefits of coconut oil for dogs, however I haven't actually began giving it to my dogs yet. Still need to read into it a little bit more.
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
I'd guess it's something in the food that's disagreeing with her system, and is being eliminated via the skin.

The salmon formula might have more processed omega 3's, but that might also make the food more prone to going stale. If you got an old bag, that might be a problem, too.

I'd recommend you check out some other food options on dogfoodadvisor.com and then add a minimally processed fish oil supplement... you could try a cold water oil instead of salmon, if you pup has an issue with salmon in particular, too. Either human-grade oil capsules, or you can get oil pumps at the pet food shops. Fish oil does help skin issues, for sure!

You might also look into a probiotic/digestive enzyme supplement to help the digestive process move a bit more smoothly...

Hopefully you find something that works, so you can cut down on the bathing... bathing can also make the skin dry, so it makes more oils to compensate. If you can get away with the dry shampoo and brushing, hopefully that will help.
 

LizB

Well-Known Member
I agree with the above. We learned with our first BM, who had itchy skin/ears/feet, dandruff, shedding and even hives from his food. We switched him to chicken-free and grain-free and everything cleared right up.
 

cdj1

Active Member
I vote its the fish based food. Our em was on wellness core chicken based grain free food and was a little itchy. When I switched him to the fish based wellness food he ended up with a yeasty smell that we could not get rid of. Finally after a month or so we switched his food back to the non fish and the stink is gone. Just wanted to let you know Rhinos experience.
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