My lab keeps scratching himself after we take him to the beach?

What does salt water/sand do to dogs? He is a regular at the beach and we always wash him down after the beach, however sometimes he starts to scratch and creates red lines from were his nails have been?

We only ever hose him down really quickly, the only thing I can think of is there is still salt on his fur and its irritating him (cos I know how crap you feel after being in salt water, it sticks to you if you don't wash it off). I never use dog shampoo only ever water (I wash him once a month with shampoo) but since he goes 3 times a week we just hose him down in the backyard. He does have a really thick coat, maybe I should use a comb or something while I hose him down?

Any suggestions?

It could be sea lice??? sometimes we get itchy from swimming so it could be that.
Do you drive to the beach??
If you do put a small amount of hose with tap atachments on it. Then you can hose him down at the beach. This is what we do as we are frequent beach goers make sure you have a good hose attachment on the end so you can really get in under his coat with the water.
Good luck
Lesa

Perhaps a light gentle shampoo would not hurt to remove all the built up sand and salt... I would do that and see how you go.

Thanks Lesa, but how does that work? do you have a tap near your beach that you connect your hose too? Great idea but I don't have a tap near the beach. I have been taking him into the girls toilets and using the showers hehehe, but as you can imagine doesn't get much off thats just so he doesn't put sand everywhere in the car.

Minifoxies,

Yes I was using a gentle shampoo but it made his coat very dry cos I was stripping all of his oils on his coat. Do you have any suggestion for products that are very very mild?

Thanks for your suggestions!

Well the one product I always used on baby puppies was Johnson's baby shampoo its mild on the fur. It is low in PH for babies that would be my first choice. Or go to petnetwork and see if they have anything there for gentle shampoo email them surely they would be able to help. 

What about an oat meal shampoo they are very gental on the skin.

If the shampoo is drying out the skin try rinsing the dog after woods in a soulution of Alfa Kerri oil. this will help to lock moisture in and then you may be able to wash more often.

I hate comming back from the beach all sandy and i even get itchy sometimes. A good shower seems to do the trick.

good luck.
emma

isnt there a tap anywhere?? we have a people shower and a foot rinsing tap next to it. I just use that.
good luck!!!

I will have another look but I remember looking for one the first time we went to wash our feet and the only thing I could find was the toilet block with 1 shower

Will have another look this weekend, really like the idea cos by the time we get him home he is dry then we have to wash him all over again. It will be great to wash him there properly, we are very limited with dog beaches in Sydney it's quite sad really.

Beth,

Have tried Oat Meal he itches even more His a special little man I found it is best to keep away from most shampoo's only use them when I really need too. I think it is just a case of me not getting right into his coat will try harder next time

Thanks all for you suggestions will keep you posted

After I give a dog a bath, I have a high velocity dryer I use to blow most of the water off the dog while still in the bathtub. It gets right down to the skin. Basically, it's an air compresser like you would use to blow up tires, just with a wider nozzle.
If you have an air compresser at home you can use it the same way, except feel the force of the air coming out and let that guide you as to how close you have it to the skin. You will be amazed at the hair loose that you also remove.
Even if he is dry by the time you get home it will still work.
Just another idea. (that will only work if you HAVE one, LOL!)

What a great idea... blow the stuff out. Never thought of that.

If you have a lot of dogs, and are so inclined, it would be well worth it. you can find one in any groomers magazine. A few hundred, but a great investment if you have many dogs. One other advantage is, it separates the hair and you can see very well any skin issues or parasites, maybe even those dredded grass seeds you have there, but that I don't know. You can see a lot you would not by brushing..
here is a site you could get prices and see what I am talking about.
petedge.com
But basically, it's just an air compresser that's small with a wider nozzle.

Only have the one dog, but I do have a high tech air compresser at work for the grooming department. I washed him again using that so will let you know how he does.

I saw an article about fleas being around in their hunderds due to the whether. I use Revolution which states it lasts for 4 weeks, but maybe with all the swimming it could have slowly washed off. Is this possible? I let it sink in for the first 48 hours before I take him to the beach. Does it get absorbed into the bloodstream therefore does last 4 weeks regardless of how much water gets onto his coat?

In saying all this I haven't seen a flea on him, however he is black! no fleas on his tummy which is where I have been told they are located and most likely to be seen.

We have had the most horrible past summer for fleas and i am still treating Mingo and had to bomb the house recently when they should all be dead by now. The stuff you put on should already be absorbed after a cople of days and should not wash off.
Myself, i am now looking into garlic tablets for Mingo, they supposedly deter fleas naturally. I hate putting all those chemicals on her, maybe the garlic will work for her. I don't know a lot about natural remedies but am looking into some things.

I use sentinel http://www.pets.novartis.com.au/puppies/index.html
as well as capstar when fleas are present. Capstar kills adult fleas while sentinel sterilizes them.
It is 100% guarenteed and they will if you still have fleas in 4 months come and find out why you have fleas. Unfortunatly while babysitting Prince and having the other pups come visit we got some fleas again in our ground. So I will have to spray their dirt digging hole that they live in in summer to get rid of any fleas there again. but one does of capstar and the fleas fall off in 20 mins dead.
Lorie have a read of this before you feed garlic to Mingo... Garlic is very Toxic

Human Foods that Poison Pets Disclaimer Feeding pets food that we enjoy is not only wrong, it can also be fatal. There are some foodstuffs that humans relish which cause illness and death if eaten by pets. Chocolate, macadamia nuts and onions are good examples. Each of these foods contains chemicals which rarely cause problems for humans, but for dogs, these same chemicals can be deadly. Chocolate toxicity Onion and garlic poisoning The danger of macadamia nuts Other potential dangers Related Products Chocolate toxicity Top Chocolate contains theobromine, a compound that is a cardiac stimulant and a diuretic. When affected by an overdose of chocolate, a dog can become excited and hyperactive. Due to the diuretic effect, it may pass large volumes of urine and it will be unusually thirsty. Vomiting and diarrhoea are also common. The effect of theobromine on the heart is the most dangerous effect. Theobromine will either increase the dog’s heart rate or may cause the heart to beat irregularly. Death is quite possible, especially with exercise. After their pet has eaten a large quantity of chocolate, many pet owners assume their pet is unaffected. However, the signs of sickness may not be seen for several hours, with death following within twenty-four hours. Cocoa powder and cooking chocolate are the most toxic forms. A 10-kilogram dog can be seriously affected if it eats a quarter of a 250gm packet of cocoa powder or half of a 250gm block of cooking chocolate. These forms of chocolate contain ten times more theobromine than milk chocolate. Thus, a chocolate mud cake could be a real health risk for a small dog. Even licking a substantial part of the chocolate icing from a cake can make a dog unwell. Semi-sweet chocolate and dark chocolate are the next most dangerous forms, with milk chocolate being the least dangerous. A dog needs to eat more than a 250gm block of milk chocolate to be affected. Obviously, the smaller the dog, the less it needs to eat. Onion and garlic poisoning Top Onions and garlic are other dangerous food ingredients that cause sickness in dogs, cats and also livestock. Onions and garlic contain the toxic ingredient thiosulphate. Onions are more of a danger. Pets affected by onion toxicity will develop haemolytic anaemia, where the pet’s red blood cells burst while circulating in its body. At first, pets affected by onion poisoning show gastroenteritis with vomiting and diarrhoea. They will show no interest in food and will be dull and weak. The red pigment from the burst blood cells appears in an affected animal’s urine and it becomes breathless. The breathlessness occurs because the red blood cells that carry oxygen through the body are reduced in number. The poisoning occurs a few days after the pet has eaten the onion. All forms of onion can be a problem including dehydrated onions, raw onions, cooked onions and table scraps containing cooked onions and/or garlic. Left over pizza, Chinese dishes and commercial baby food containing onion, sometimes fed as a supplement to young pets, can cause illness. Onion poisoning can occur with a single ingestion of large quantities or with repeated meals containing small amounts of onion. A single meal of 600 to 800 grams of raw onion can be dangerous whereas a ten-kilogram dog, fed 150 grams of onion for several days, is also likely to develop anaemia. The condition improves once the dog is prevented from eating any further onion While garlic also contains the toxic ingredient thiosulphate, it seems that garlic is less toxic and large amounts would need to be eaten to cause illness.

I read somewhere years ago that garlic is great for dogs HOWEVER only in small dosage eg small bit crushed into food once a week. Yes I agree sharreem could be toxic for a flea remedy if large amounts are involved.

thanks for that Shareem very interesting indeed. Going to send that to a friend of mine she will be very interested in it. Thanks again.

Yes. great info, I knew MOST of it. I just read about the garlic in dog fancy magazine and think it MUST be a very small dose, like I said I'm gonna look into it. But I forget about Capstar! I know a lot of groomers use it, might be a better way to go but the chemicals....

i know I hate chemicals!!! but capstar has been proven safe even in pregnant dogs so might be worth a look into.
I heard garlic was good until I went to an aged dog seminar... thats when I found out it was bad especially in little dogs.

OOH, and Mingo is LITTLE! I went to the CApstar website, I think I'll try it. Flea seanon will be here again soon enough... A vet said this past season was so bad because squirlls were infested with a certain flea, I saw lots of breakouts on dogs with fleas. My own cat had an allergic reaction..

remember capstar only kills the adult fleas on the dog the time you give it though . dont get me wrong i love it but you must make sure you have rid of the fleas breeding environment to be flea free.

Yes, I was also thinking, some client dog may have brought them to my house..
This year, If someone tells me their dog has fleas, or, I find them , I'm gonna have a release form for capstar. I've been asking around and a lot of groomers do this. Or, they hand the owner the pill and have them give it to their own dog.

good idea make them stand outside for 20mins until the little buggers are dead first then let them in.

yup!