Suppliments to help with coat?

 You've seen pictures of Lillie right?

Eggs is what makes her coat shine like that. Joker cant handle eggs unless I give him some cottage cheese or yogurt. But seeing how the eggs work great I have wanted to switch them to fish oil also. So much cheaper than eggs. Plus now I would be giving 3 dogs eggs!!! I also dont know what kind to get. I go to the vitamin aisle at the store and get confused very quickly!! So many selections. 

As for the dry skin Joker had dry skin. Well I had to experiment and see if what I had for my dry skin would work on him. I wash Joker in my body wash Dial Yogurt kind. It worked like a charm. My friend has a Boston and she had dry skin. So my friend tried the Dial yogurt body wash on her and now no more dry skin!! Dont know if your willing to use human body wash on your girl but it works for my guys.

I give my cairn a fish oil capsule (same ones we take) and an occasional egg. 

Rather then fish oil capsules. Why not just throw in canned salmon every few days or so, this along with a raw egg every so often works great for my gang.

 Not sure what kind of Cal. Nat you're feeding but Maze is on the Herring and Sweet Potato. And she's so shiny I can see myself. Well not really but it's close.

Canned fish added as a topper would help. As well as eggs.

An example of Maze's coat.. Don't mind the bald spot.. We were dealing with an allergic reaction to something in the grass...

if you're feeding a preserved commercial diet that means the diet is deficient in omega-3 fatty acids because they are unstable. You need to supplement.

 Adult food is lower fat than puppy food. Staying with the puppy version wouldn't hurt her, or you could add some extra fat (which would be eggs, or canned salmon, or fish oil caps, or even some high protein canned or crock potted) as a topper.

I give Cleo an egg twice a day, as well as nanners pretty often, and have noticed a nice difference in her coat. She's always had a nice one...but it's shinier now.

I have found that my dog was having skin issues, I thought is was the cedar bed she was sleeping on. She was losing her hair on her back in a small area, then it spread more and more.  My vet said that I needed to increase the fat in my girls diet to help with her coat.

I found a product on line called Doggy Dollars and bought in from Costco.com, my girl loves these more than anyother treat I have given her. They are all natural and are high in good fats from the meat and not oils. My girl has been eating these for a month now and all her hair is growing back and her coat is shinny. Like my vet told me that many foods are made out of synthetic oils which are not healthy for our pets, our pets need fats from meats not oils. I found an item that I will live by and the best thing is my dogs skin problems are cured!

 Check the food you are feeding them and see if there is oils in it or fats from meat you want fats, if it says meat meal it is a bi-product and not real meat. Just because it is high in protien doesnt mean it has good fats, stay away from oils, it just adds weight to your dog and no benifits to her coat.

 I give Tootsie Grizzly Salmon Oil, along with vitamin e daily and her coat is excellent.

rwbeagles

I give Cleo an egg twice a day, as well as nanners pretty often, and have noticed a nice difference in her coat. She's always had a nice one...but it's shinier now.

I always get confused on the omegas.  Six promote inflammation and threes are really good?

MP, could you share some good ideas for supplementing the 3's?

In the winter, I will sometimes add fish oil tabs for my crew.  Even with canned fish, they sometimes do get dry skin.  And yep, they get the human grade stuff we take.

lulu pixie

I have found that my dog was having skin issues, I thought is was the cedar bed she was sleeping on. She was losing her hair on her back in a small area, then it spread more and more.  My vet said that I needed to increase the fat in my girls diet to help with her coat.

I found a product on line called Doggy Dollars and bought in from Costco.com, my girl loves these more than anyother treat I have given her. They are all natural and are high in good fats from the meat and not oils. My girl has been eating these for a month now and all her hair is growing back and her coat is shinny. Like my vet told me that many foods are made out of synthetic oils which are not healthy for our pets, our pets need fats from meats not oils. I found an item that I will live by and the best thing is my dogs skin problems are cured!

 Check the food you are feeding them and see if there is oils in it or fats from meat you want fats, if it says meat meal it is a bi-product and not real meat. Just because it is high in protien doesnt mean it has good fats, stay away from oils, it just adds weight to your dog and no benifits to her coat.

Depends on the oil though, Olive Oil/Corn Oil are great for the coats as well, But you don't want to put TOO much of it in for it may cause some trouble. I put Olive Oil /w Omega 3 and Egg in my meatballs and Rugers coat is looking o' so fluffy and shiny when he's not dirty!

Meat meal is not a by-product - it's meat with much of the water removed to make it easier to transport, store, and process.  It's fully as nutritional as meat that also undergoes the extrusion process, whatever your opinion of that may be.

Omega fatty acids.  It's really quite complicated to run down in a single post.  But, for the topic at hand, coat health, both omega-6s and omega-3s are required for good skin and coat health.  However, even though we often look to omega-3s lately to enhance skin and coat health, it's actually the n-6s which have a more vital and direct role there.

So why does supplementing 3s have such a good and immediate result?  Our food is NOT lacking in omega-6s.  But, without the omega-3s, our bodies (and those of dogs), have difficulty processing those omega-6s in their various roles.  Provide the n-3s needed, and the n-6s are available for optimum skin health.

Supplementation of the omega-3s is required because as mudpuppy mentioned, these are highly unstable and cannot survive long the rigors of life in a commercial product - production, storage, transportation, more storage, stocking, and then being exposed completely to light and air while the product is being used.

The best source of omega-3s is fish oil because in plant oil it comes in a form that many dogs cannot process.

I've recently become convinced that for those of us who are being careful not to expose our dogs to processed foods, for instance home cookers or raw feeders, we should ALSO feed a high quality source of omega-6s such as borage or primrose oil - especially if your diet doesn't include a lot of red meats.  Consider this if fish oil alone is not doing what you'd hoped.  There has been a great deal of research to support the fact that a combination of fish oil and borage oil are most effective to control actual skin problems like itchiness or hot spots.