im feeding mystaffy on arden grange graduate but my girl has dry skin patches on her head and around her eyes . the breeder recomends eukanuba but how about jwb ?

Depends on what is causing the dry patches, have you had her checked out by the vet?

Bear in mind when you change a food, it is not only the oils that you are changing but numerous other ingredients that may have a synergistic effect.

If your dog is doing well on the food and you do not think there is another medical cause for her condition why not just add some EFA in the way of FBO and/or EPO to her diet along with some Vitamin E?

what is efa?

yes been to vets gave her advocate to kill any fleas with antihistermine and steriod tablets

Essential Fatty Acids

you get them from health shops and add one a day

Please try and find another solution other than steroids! They can do so much damage to just about every part of a dog,such as kidney,liver,skin etc etc. I wish they would just ban them!

To be fair Hailey there are many dogs, and people, who would either not be alive today or, if they were, would not enjoy the quality of life they presently do if it were not for steroids.

I personally prefer to avoid steroids wherever possible, however, they can be useful and necessary in the short term, and, for some, long term use is the only solution for certain conditions.

Informed use and, like everything else, avoiding overuse is the key.

As with all medications etc one must weigh up the pros and cons of the individual treatment for the individual dog, and so as we do not know what condition, if any, this dog has, I think the OP has to do what they think best at this time for their dog.

Very true, Tohme. It was steroid treatment (amongst others) which gave my father-in-law another couple of years of life.

When my nephew was 2 yrs old he caught chickenpox and the virus attacked the platelets in his blood.  His blood count dropped to dangerously low levels and he was hospitalised for 2 weeks.  He was on steroids for some months and wouldn't be here today a strapping, funny, handsome, 19 yr old if he hadn't had them.  You can't tell he's my favourite nephew can you? :)

my ckcs had dry itchy patches on his legs when he was on pro plan so i changed him to jwb turkey and not long after the dry patches had completely gone and he is on longer itching.

the steriods are for 6 days gradually decreasing the dose . her rash does seem to be getting better the dry skin patches is the same though . shes only 7 months old as well just wondered if we can help her diet wise as the vet said its a staffy thing and she might have it all her life.

I'm not talking about humans :) Steroids dont 'fix' anything when it comes to allergies,they are a band aid for the problem,not a solution or cure.As soon as the steroids are stopped the symptoms will return,sometimes worse than before as they also supress the immune system. I asked my vet to give me a weeks worth of steroids to see if one of my dogs itching was due to allergies or a behavioural problem.She refused,didnt matter how much i asked!I think she will only prescribe them in a life or death situation,and even then she will try and find another alternative first.

my girls rash has nearly gone but im still in the dark as to which food to give her my breeder told me yes staffys are prone to dry skin and that in his opinion eukanuba is the best by far anyone else know of any others ?.

Dogs thrive on differing foods depending on their make up and what is contained in the brand that is fed.

Before changing  brands you need to compare ingredients otherwise you could be feeding the same formula  but in a different packet.

It really depends on what your priorities are and if you have any issues with ingredients and additives etc.

If I was going to feed commercial food I would choose Naturediet as my first port of call, being vacuum packed meat, rice, carrots and bonemeal.  If I was to choose a dry food then I would probably look at Burns first of all, followed by JWB. 

If you think your dog just has dry skin then I would look at the labels and see which had the highest oil content........

Is she quite young?

A lot of young Staffies suffer from "bulldog baldness" or "Stafford Shilling", usually associated with teething and typified by a small bald circle on the top of the head or around the ears, base of tail, etc.

It will go on its own & is nothing to do with diet.

As long as your vet has checked for anything more sinister I would not worry.

Personally, I would much prefer JWB over Eukanuba any day.

But firstly you should find out what the dry skin patches are caused by.  She could be allergic to an ingredient in the Arden Grange, but if you don't identify what the ingredient is, how can you make sure it's not in the JWB?

Best thing is a trip to the vet's to rule out any other reason, then to ask your vet for a York allergy blood test.  This will test a small sample of blood and will come back with a list of food ingredients your dog is allergic to. 

thanks for the advice everyone . she is young shes seven months old . the breeder said she would settle down like a teenager do's with acne.