Ginny has been battling skin issues for most of her life. Winter is the calmer season for her with Summer heat impacting her to the point where she starts to loose hair.
Lick, lick, lick...Chew, chew, chew is a song we all know well around here.
The vet tried an antihistamine which didn't really work and left her sleepy. Then we tried Prednisone which did work and she's been on a very low dose ever since.
Her long whipping tail has been the bane of her existence the past few years. At it's worst, we had to tape a lightweight pipe insulation tube to her tail for about 6 months to prevent her from whapping it into walls and doorframes and splitting the skin and bleeding all over the place.
She's been better lately but I noticed a new area at the base of her tail which had scabbed over. Her hair was matted there and she was licking at it.
I cleaned the area as best I could and decided to apply coconut oil to it to lessen the irritation and promote healing.
You see, I had discovered the miracle that coconut oil can be about a year ago.
SM and I are heavy users. He has his favorite brand and I have mine. We use it daily on our skin and I'd never considered trying it on Ginny's skin mostly because I'd thought she'd just lick it off and make things worse.
I used the unscented brand that I prefer and surprisingly she leaves it alone.
I massaged the oil into the areas on her tail that area affected once a day and it seems to be helping. The scabby area has healed and the bald patches on the tip of her tail are less cracked.
It's only been a few weeks but I'm already impressed. I'm wondering if adding some to her chow would help. I googled around and see some articles where folks are doing just that.
Anybody try it?
Haven't had any experience feeding coconut oil to dogs but hubby and I ingest it (both unscented and scented . . . unscented for [light] frying and scented in our smoothies) regularly but I've never used it topically on our skin. How do you and SM use it? As a hand cream for dry, "winter" hands? As a face cream? All over your body? I've stopped using body creams because whatever you put on your skin you are ingesting and although I like smooth feeling arms, legs, feet, I don't want to "eat" the ingredients in commercially prepared moisturizing creams.
ReplyDeleteAll over. Skin, face, hands, feet. I even tried it in my hair which left it a bit too greasy. Try it. A little goes a long way and be careful while it's wet. I wear long sleeves and long pants while it's soaking in.
ReplyDeleteI definitely need to try it. I read a book about it's amazing properties a long time ago and use it for cooking all the time. But winter brings out the worst in my dry skin so this may be just what I'm looking for!
ReplyDeleteI think you'll be pleased, Leah. I like it much better than the skin lotions.
DeleteI would like to feed it to my dogs. How much should I use?
ReplyDeleteNot sure yet. I gave them all a little bit in yesterdays kibble. I'm going to start once a day and slowly build up. There was an article that said 1 tsp per 10 lbs or 1 TBS per 30 lbs but that seems like an awful lot. I don't want to come home to any surprises if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip, I have the same issue here with my dog, and now the cats :/
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