Poor little itchy girl

[lillybug29]

Hey guys! I'm having a little bit of a worry. A few weeks ago, my little Khaki girl seemed to be stopped up. She wasn't "going" much, and wouldn't eat much. She was still up and about running marathons all night and was very cuddly with me (which is odd, as she's still usually pretty huffy) and generally acting fine. I started to get really worried, she wouldn't even go in the tub, and normally she goes 3 or 4 times. I called the vet, and she must have known that she was going, because that night she had a bunch of pretty smelly poos. So...now she seems back to normal. I called a local breeder, and she suggested I change from the cat litter made with corn to a paper or wood bedding. I changed to yesterdays' news and fleece over half. I tend to not like the cat litter, I can't really see the color/consistency of her poos.

ANYWAY....ever since all this happened, her skin has been super dry. I don't know if it was because I gave her 3 baths in a week (usually just foot-ish baths to try and go over her rump to get her to go) or the new bedding or what. When I hold her on me or the bed, I can see the dandruff she leaves. Should I put the aveno baby oil that I used to soothe her when she was quilling? Should I have her checked for mites? She doesn't really itch, but I do hear it every once in a while. What do you guys think?

 

[Kalandra]

Its possible that the extra bathes dried out her skin. If she isn't dropping quills and isn't frantically itching, I'd treat her for dry skin and see how she does.

You can add a couple of drops of flaxseed oil or vitamin e oil on her back in a couple of spots. It takes very little, but it should help.

If she starts losing a lot of quills, or starts to scratch frantically or more frequently, get her into the vet for a skin scraping.

 

[lillybug29]

I haven't seen her loose a lot of quills, but her dandruff has gotten worse. Where can I get flaxseed oil? Right now I use aveno after shower oil (can't remember the exact kind). Should I be worried??

 

[Kalandra]

Flaxseed oil can be found in a health food store in the supplement area. Another consideration is humidity. If the humidity level in your home is low, you may want to consider getting a humidifier to increase it.

If it is getting worse though, I would take her in to see a veterinarian to get a skin scraping done to rule out mites.

 

[lillybug29]

I'll try the flaxseed oil and a humidifier first. I don't want to traumatize her unless I've exhausted all of the other possibilities. Thanks for your help! One or two quills every once in a while is normal right? She doesn't have any bare spots at all, just sometimes when she's laying with me in bed I'll find a lone quill.

 

[Kalandra]

Yes, they can shed a couple from time to time. I've seen some that seem to shed several each day. When inspecting their backs, I usually find several new coming in at that time too.