Coconut oil - bad reaction?

[HankGSD]

Has any GSD owner here had their dog have a bad reaction to coconut oil?

I started Hank on Nutiva (the cold pressed, organic) last Sunday, replacing fish oil. Today I had to take him to the vet with almost his entire left flank covered in a rash and the the tip of his tail (under the fur) he has been biting at today as well.

[Nigel]

Weird, is there a chance that this may be caused from anything else? I started using the same product you mentioned about 1.5 month ago with very good results, she loves it. My other GSD thinks its poison though!

[Liesje]

I just started using the exact thing too, to help with a reaction my dog is having to something else!

[marshies]

My dog got a rash on her belly after using coconut oil. When I took her to the vet, the vet said they were pimples that burst, and that they were normal in young dogs (I guess like in young humans?). But she did advise that if I were already feeding a quality diet, which I was, coconut oil might not add much.

I still occasionally give her some, because she LOVES the taste. I am not seeing the safe thing happen anymore, so it might have been a coincidence.

[HankGSD]

Liesje, I just finished reading your thread about you introducing coconut oil as well. Everyone has raved about it, but I put up this post to see if anyone's dog didn't take well to it.

Hank also has very dry, itchy skin and the fish oil worked wonders.

I am thinking and hoping the flank issue was already in the works before we started coconut oil. He was biting at it last week so I bathed the area with PhytoVet CK shampoo, and after that I came on here and did some research about some more oils or other things to try.

He has been itching his ears like crazy, too, and they are fine -- checked at the vet both today and last month. This happened last January, too, and I am in Michigan and running a humidifier at 40 percent in the house. Can't figure out what's going on in January.

[onyx'girl]

Could be a dust mite allergy. House is closed up, and the humidity is good for mites, sadly.

[HankGSD]

Just thought to add this -- I have gotten roped into dog sitting a senior GSD on a rather regular basis. He is not in great health, has skin issues that were solved by cyclosporine but the owner couldn't afford to continue it at $400 a month and I understand that. Sometimes I think Hank does "sympathy itching" when the other dog is around because he scratches way more whenever the dog is here. The vet said Hank can't catch anything from the other dog but it still makes me wonder.

[HankGSD]

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

Could be a dust mite allergy. House is closed up, and the humidity is good for mites, sadly.

Very possible. I did just change the furnace/air cleaner filter a few weeks ago, hopefully that will help with the dust. I have the kind that you can keep for "up to" a year, but I am going to replaced it twice a year with dogs and cats in the house. The one I had in for about 10 months looked pretty nasty.

[onyx'girl]

Mites live in carpeting too, Borax powder sprinkled on the carpet for awhile then vacuumed up will help kill them. But you can't get rid of them everywhere.
Onyx is allergic to them, so she gets Meijer brand equivelent to benedryl every day.

[HankGSD]

We have all hardwood floors but I know mites can live anywhere.

I don't know how you feel about Wal Mart, I personally am not a fan, but when I saw they have two of the Meijer size bottles (100 tablets) of generic Benadryl packaged together (200 tablets) for $6.99 and one of Meijer's bottles is $9.99, I started getting it at Wal Mart.

We are back on hydroxyzine after the vet today however.

It was an expensive dog day, $150 for a new training class and $100 at the vet.