A customer of mine has his Goldie completely clipped apart from head and tail because of a severe skin problem (vets advice) Basically the dog seems to secrete some 'cheesy oily type substance  and the coat becomes very greasy and smells awful. She also has a similar discharge which oozes from her ears and down the side of her face under the ears. She is such a lovely dog and the guy has spent a lot of money at vets to no avail. He asked me if I had any thoughts. I did suggest diet  as perhaps it is exacerbated by what he feeds (Winalot). She has only ever tolerated this food as all else he has tried 'goes straight through'
Just wondered if anyone with more experience had any thoughts. She is such a beautiful dog, its such a shame. I dont know if its relevant but the skin on her belly is black compared to the skin on the top of her body but she does have hardly ant belly hair at all.

The skin goes black\ pigmented with skin disease often. It could be an underlying allergy - in which case there are various natural routes he can go down, and things like diet changes. Has the vet checked thyroid function and checked for Cushings disease? They can cause skin problems as a result too.

hi guys just joined we have a 5 year old golden retriver from being a pup he has had skin probs dont want him to be on steroids  around his mouth is sore he has been on meds all his life any ideas thanks   maggie

A friend of mine had a goldie with similar symptoms....

Turned out to be storage mites from the dried dog food!!!

She had an allergy to them.  Was really nasty too x

Dont know if this will help but Lillie is on royal canin hypoallergenic food, i bathe her in malaseb, and in her ears i use epi-otic followed by canaural. i have finally got her skin, tummy and ears under control, she does break out occasionally on her tummy with spots and i have to keep an eye on her ears but generally day to day she is clear, its taken 2 years but it all seems to be working now.
Marie

What did she then feed labmad?

Did Lillie have the same sort of problems?

I dont know what dry food it was but as a last resort the Vet did tests for storage mites.  The poor Goldie could hardly move for pain with her skin.  Some of it had actually started to turn green and blister and the smell was awful.

well sure enough once they had dome the tests it was storage mites.  She had to boil all the bedding etc and switched her to a raw diet and voila! gone! She is gorgeous now.

Obviously dont know whether this would apply to your goldie but might be worth a try.... if everything else has been exhausted....

If your goldie is allergic to the mites then it would fit the symptoms you describe.

Well she is only 2 next month,so not as old as your friends goldie, so perhaps her problems didn't get as severe, but she had flaky dry skin all over, and her tummy was covered in spots which would become pus filled and go black, she also had sickness and diareah, and her ears would get very red inside and itchy, i had the york test done to see what she was actually allergic to, and it came up with many things that she as allergic to.
I cant say she actually smelt with it,but her coat was greasy and you could see black skin in places on her, but the vet said that she had to be treated inside as well as out, so as soon as i started bathing her in malaseb it seemed to treat the outside too. the r/c diet definately works for her, she had such a poorly tummy before she went on it. i also try to get her to the beach as often as i can as i believe the sea water helps her skin too.