Pet Bathing Guide: Shampoos, Allergies, and Skin Care | SOP Ep. 123 - Dr. Alice Jeromin

Welcome to Speaking of Pets. I'm Dr. Alison Novotny-Jeroman, a board certified veterinary dermatologist, and I'm not. I'm Janet Novotny-King, the doctor's sister, podcast co-host Pet-owner, rescuer and lover. We're here to provide pet owners with science-based information to help them be the best pet parents they can be. Here's today's episode. Create a just for you and your pets. Welcome to Speaking of Pets podcast. We're so happy you're here and whoa, do we have a guest today? And I'm very proud to say I'm related. This is my sister, Dr. Alison Novotny-Jeroman, a Cleveland Ohio native. She is a graduate of a lot of colleges, Bowling Green State University, the University of Toledo Pharmacy Degree, and then her doctor of veterinary medicine from the Ohio State University. We are both proud buckais and graduates. And we thought it was time to answer some of your questions, which we get a lot of, about how do I bathe my pet? Do I bathe my pet? How often do I bathe my pet? Is it good for their skin? Is it bad for their skin? Do I need to use a hair product? So we're here to answer all your questions. Yeah, your hair product. A little moose on Libby. So, Dr. Alice, where do we start? Like, I guess what I want to know. My question is like, I wash Libby because she gets stinky and oily and rolls in things, right? And it's gross. How often, and should you wash it? I mean, we're talking dogs because, as you know, it's not going to happen with cats. It's not my cats. I always tell people, you can bathe your cat, but will you live to tell about it? Yeah. But we'll talk about that in a minute. Thank you, Janet. Thanks for having me on today. I want to congratulate the speaking of pets, guests, hosts, and production team because we are number one this week on Apple Podcasts, and the pet category, and we so appreciate you all listening and watching, and we work hard to bring you evidence-based science information via interviews with veterinary specialists so that you guys get the most up-to-date, like I said, evidence-based information because there's a lot of myths and misinformation out there. So, like you said, Janet, today we're going to talk about shampoos and topicals and what's good, what's not good, and to answer your question. It depends. And I hate those two words, but it really just depends. If your dog has allergies, you should be bathing them more frequently. The most common question I get is how often should I bathe my pet? And I hate to say the two words it depends, but it does. Now, your Libby is a golden retriever. She has mild allergies. She occasionally licks her feet, correct? No. Oh, I thought she did. She's perfect. Okay. Well, my two goldens, one of which is very allergic, and then Gidget, the China Rescue, isn't. But in a dog without any skin problems, I say only bathe is needed. You know, we all get from our sebaceous oil glands, which dogs have all over their bodies. Some dogs get a little oily or a little waxy, and that says to me, "Oh, time to bathe." And we'll talk about what to bathe in. So, so let's talk about the dog. We'll start with dogs that really have no underlying skin problems, no bacterial infections, no ringworm, which we'll talk about, no underlying allergies. Also, not recovering from surgery. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And I like just a mild cleansing shampoo, something that's not drying, and we'll talk about certain ingredients that are drying. So, really, a mild shampoo people ask me, "What about baby shampoo?" Well, the big thing is, the skin pH, whether it's acidic or basic, in the dog, is a little different than human skin pH. Humans are a little more acidic. Cats are very acidic, and that is theorized to be the reason why cats don't get a lot of skin infection. Because not only do they clean themselves all the time, but their skin pH is a little more toward the acid end, whereas dogs is a little more basic, so it won't hurt your dog to use baby shampoo. But, to be honest, the most gentle, and remember, there's no FDA approved word for gentle or hypoallergenic for that matter, I can make any soap and say it's hypoallergenic, no one's going to hold me that. They don't, they don't. But, actually, Dove is found to be very gentle. It used to be ivory. Remember the old commercial ivory fruit? Ivory is not that gentle. Dove is actually probably the most gentle over-the-counter soap you can buy. Today's episode is sponsored by Dr. Tim's Pet Food. Learn more at DrTim's.com. And I'll be honest, I'm a big Dove fan only because they do a lot of unscented products. I know, and I like that. Yeah, why did, why does something always have to smell? I mean, I like the smell of clean. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So, just a mild cleansing shampoo, baby shampoo, I don't mind. Dove to me is probably the most gentle that you can buy over the counter. Because I do see oatmeal shampoos for dogs. Yes. Now, what's interesting about oatmeal? As a pharmacist, I can tell you, when you, with us, in humans, people that have allergies will do an oatmeal bath for themselves. Well, if they didn't rinse all that off, they got itchy. Then, I found out in veterinary medicine, we're making oatmeal shampoos and oatmeal leavons. And I'm like, wait, what? Because I'm told in human medicine, that needs to be rinsed off. And so, oatmeal in the dog is very soothing, but rinse it off. The other thing I've always been faced with is, well, she must be itchy because I didn't rinse her off. Very few dogs are not, are not itchy because she didn't rinse it off. We have a lot of Leavon products that have pleurexidine in them, that have oatmeal base that have promoxine, which we'll talk about as an anti-itch. So, there's a lot of Leavon products in pets that I don't see causing itching because they're, quote, unquote, not rinsed off completely. Okay. But what about, like, lib goes and I near, I live near the ocean. So, she goes for a swim or in a lake. Yeah. Oh, at this time of year with rinse off after I go in, right? Yeah. At lakes right now with this hot weather, the algae blooms are horrible. And those can be toxic. I would not let my dog swim in a lake at this time of year. Algae blooms can kill a dog overnight. So, when your dog comes out of the pool or out of God forbid a lake, always a rinse them off and I would bathe them. I would use, now, Janet, I know, Janet, I know you like dawn. I do because it cuts the grease and it doesn't hurt her skin and she's very oily in here, you know. It's an anti-grease shampoo. That's why they show the ducklings. And they just not in the oil fill. Absolutely. Dawn is, it's very, it's pretty strong as a detergent. There are reports of some dogs reacting to dawn. Yeah. So, as a degreaser, yes, it's okay. I just, you know, you've got to be careful. Any shampoo that if you bathe your dog or cat in it and you don't think they're acting right after that, take baby shampoo or what? It's a mild shampoo and rinse them off. There is, it's pretty rare, but it can happen. In dogs that go to the groomer, I've had it happen in a miniature snowser and a golden retriever where they're either clipped down and that leaves the pores open. And then you're even in a brand new bottle of shampoo, they open it up and there's some bacterial contamination. It gets in those pores. Those dogs get fevers. Oh, and since demically ill. So after your dog is groomed, if the next day or two, they're not acting well. Something gets them to the vet right away. Yes. Okay. So, is it necessary to wash your dog like, do you have to? Mine gets stinky because she rolls and stuff. Right. I, with my own two, I only bathe them when they need to be bathed. If I noticed, I'm petting them there. Oh, they're a little waxy time for bath. Yeah. But let's talk about dogs that have like underlying allergies. Okay. Couple of reasons to bathe them and what products to look for. You want to bathe them A or rinse them to get the pollen off of them. Yeah. Okay. They're licking it. They're absorbing it across the skin. Now, when you're a, when you're a dog or a human or a cat and you're allergic, your skin has a barrier. Okay. That barrier genetically is not normal. So we want to pick a shampoo to try to repair that barrier. What if the barriers have normal? So what? You absorb allergens across the skin better if your barrier is dysfunctional. So we want to look for products like ceramides. Something long called phytos finger scenes. Not just trying to say in that one. No, you're not. But they, they are the first step to make ceramides cholesterol fatty acids. All of one of those four are all four will restore that barrier function to the skin to keep out the bad stuff. Okay. So we want to look for that in an allergic dog in various shampoos. And let me just name four good shampoo companies. Veteromax, which we've had as a sponsor on the show. We'll talk about your sodium hypochloride shampoo. Duzo, duo exo, verbac and dekra. Those are four good allergy shampoo companies. that make very good products. Alright, so I bathed my dog. What if I use a topical tick or heartworm medicine? So now what? Well, you should not bath your dog for at least 48 hours after you apply a topical, okay? That's, you know, that's why we have some many nice oral, effective oral, safe products. But that's a very good point. After you put a topical, and actually you even shouldn't let them swim. Some of those products say, oh, don't swim for 24 hours. Some say don't swim for a couple hours. But I'm thinking, hey, I'm going to get the full use of that product. So I'm not going to let him go in the water for like 48 hours. Yeah, because when I get Libby grown and they bathed her, it will say, when did you last use the topical? Oh, I, you know what? I like that. That's very responsible. And we don't use topical use oral, but I like it. I think that's good. Yeah, I like that they ask you that. Now they ask if they're vicious. If they're what? Vicious. Oh, oh, yeah. Well, number one, absolutely. Right. I think it's so funny. You go through the. No, I'm like, you know, she's a golden. You know, she loves everybody. Okay, so what is it? Save you have a new puppy. When do you start bathing that puppy? Well, I love puppy smell thing. I love puppy smell. I, you know what? You know that I volunteer with a lot of rescue. The first thing we do when we bring these dogs in, they get bathed. Oh, because you don't know what they've got. They can have lights and they have. And they, you know, I come in to each other. Yeah. Yeah. So we like to use a gentle. I just use a gentle shampoo like we talked about earlier. For either baby shampoo or just now in dogs that come with infection. Okay, we've got bacterial infection or we've got yeast infection. Let's talk bacterial first. Bacterial infection, you can have little white pustules or little rings that have white around them. People think that's ringworm, but that's bacterial. Now, the names of ingredients you're looking for for a bacterial infection. Chlorhexidine anywhere from one to three percent. Okay, my connozzol, which also can work against yeast, sodium hypochlorite, which I mentioned veteran max before. Sodium hypochlorite is the ingredient we find in bleach. But don't use bleach. Well, no, no, there is a dilution of bleach that you can use. And actually, it's called daken solution. It was used in World War II to dress wounds. We used to make it up in the hospital pharmacy to dress wounds. If you go on my website, perfectpet.com, you are our FECT pet.com. The recipe is there, it's one to three tablespoons of bleach in a gallon of water. That's pretty good. Yeah, it's very dilute. You make it up every day because it's not stable for long. And you can use it as a bath or you can use it as a leave on. And it's interesting, they did work with that in humans. It actually plumped up your keratinocytes and Janet with your rosacea. Yeah, they found that it worked for rosacea as well. Wow. So anyway, good by the way. Yeah, it is. I must compliment you. The other ingredient that's a little stronger is called benzoyl peroxide. Right. And you might recognize that with acne for kids. But you don't want to use over-the-counter human benzoyl peroxide for dogs. It's too strong. Yeah. Once you hit that 3%, that's what's used in people. Benzoyl peroxide is very good at flushing out the pores, but it can be drying. Yeah. So you're looking for either chlorhexidine, chlorhexidine and mycanazole, benzoyl peroxide, or sodium hypochlorite for bacterial skin infections in your dog. And we'll put those words up on the screen. Yes. Please look at the show notes, SOPpodcast.com. It has all the show notes names that's probably helpful. Very helpful. Here's something we love about Dr. Tim's pet food. Every formula starts with a question. Does this actually help the animal not just look good on a shelf? Dr. Tim has spent decades as a working vet, and that experience shows up across the entire product line. Whether your dog is a little overweight and needs a healthy balanced food to help shed a few pounds, or could be a picky eater who won't touch their breakfast without Dr. Tim's vagabond freeze-dried toppers, or just a regular couch companion who deserves real nutrition in every bowl. Speaking of pets is committed to bringing you science-based information and partners that align with that mission, and Dr. Tim's is a great example of nutrition done right. For every pet, not just the athletic ones. Head to Dr. Tim's pet food to find the formula that fits your pet's life. Now, if you're told about the yeasty dogs. Oh, yeah, we got to talk about the yeasty dogs. Okay, like our older sister Penny used to have bats. She loves bats in house. They're very seborriic, oily, smelly. Yeah. That is usually yeast, and you're looking, the chlorhexidine again can work. My connozzol can work. Keticonazol, or nizerile shampoo. Now, they make a keticonazol for pets. But over the counter, human nizerile shampoo is a 1%, that's very effective as well. So as cells in blue, the plain cells in blue, yeah, selenium sulfide. Speaking of over the counter, there are shampoos you don't want to use. That was my question. On pets, right. And those would be cold tar shampoo. Never use that on a cat. Never use anti-human anti-dangerive shampoos on a cat. Or parabens or sulfates. Those are out. They're toxic to cats. So, you know, most cat owners don't bathe their cats. But for those that do, I like a mild, non-medicated. When you see a shampoo that says, "medicated," what does that mean? You got to look for the ingredient. Okay, so hold on. Okay. Should you bathe your cat? There's no way I'm going to bathe my two cats. But they're so clean. Yeah, they're very healthy. I had clients that would bathe their cats. Probably 1% of my 15,000 clients would bathe their cats. You really don't have to. These leave on mooses that they're making now. Like the climbazole moose, which is an antifungal. Or we would have them bathe the cat if the cat had ringworm. Inchloric acidine. Or mykinazole shampoo. Yes. And most cats are everyday cats that, you know, you and I have. Most cats don't need to be bathed. Oh my god. I turn the hose on to water the flowers. And they're like, "Ooh, out of here." Well, and they don't like sprays. That's why it's nice. They came up with mooses. You can put the moose on your hand in another room. And do this. And they go, "Pat, hi kitty." But remember, what's on the cat is in the cat. That cat's going to lick that. So now make wipes, I saw, in the dog's skin. Yes. And they do make wipes. And they make a lot of chlorhexidine wipes to use in between the toes in dogs that lick their feet. My comment to that is, I find they kind of leave a sticky residue. Oh. And the dog is like, "I got to get this up." So I would tell pet owners, if you're using a topical, be it a moose or a wipe on your pet. And it makes, it draws their attention to it. Stop using it. Because, to be honest, then they're going to ingest that. And how much good is that? Okay. So now we're doing about bathing. So it's kind of like a spot treatment, especially for the dog. What about ear, eye, and nail care? Oh. So ears? Yes. Well, we're going to have Dr. Emily Rothstein, a veterinary dermatologist on in a couple of weeks talking all about ears. So I'm just going to touch upon that. I am not a big, ear cleaner person. I don't like shooting a lot of liquid in dogs ears and especially not in cats ears. No. Cats ears are so much more delicate than dogs ears. And I have actually seen where, in some veterinary clinics, they've over cleaned, if you will, the cats ears and the stuff started coming out the nose. So that is when they've ruptured the eustachian tube. But normal ear cleaning in a dog, I don't mind a few drops. I would have my clients make their own ear cleaner. I'd have them use one part white vinegar, four parts water, put a couple drops in, put some telpha around your finger and wipe out. You know, I don't like them using q-tips in there. But ear cleaning is something I like to leave to the veterinarian because they know what they're doing in most cases. Because I don't know what I'm doing. Sometimes I'll do a little tissue just on that like the outer. Oh, outer ear is absolutely fine. But the other thing people need to watch for, regardless of what you're using in the ear. If that ear, we call it the ear pinna, it looks more inflamed after you use it. They may be having a contact reaction. Not immediately. Right. And call your vet. Some of those ear products are sensitizing, if you will. And that's not good. You know, we were sitting outside last night and we, it was the two cats around and the dog and they were all kind of hanging out with us. And we noticed something. So there's the chipmunk sound. So you notice the cat, it was about sight and ears. You notice the cats were like riveted. They knew exactly where it was. And the dog, lips, was more scent oriented. Like we were fascinating to watch. Yeah. And the two of us were sitting there going, did you see that? Like, it was kind of cool to see the sniff. Yeah. the cat versus dog, it was so obvious. - I've noticed that way, everyone is safe. - Yeah, I've noticed that, 'cause I will let Annie of the two is the more conscious one. - Yeah. - And before she even sees the bunny rabbit or the squirrel, and you can't say the S word, as soon as she walks out that door that knows, it's in an area where she couldn't even see it when I was letting her out. - It's like a magnet almost. And the S word is the SNAKE word. - Oh yeah, no, no, we're not talking about that. - You know what, we need to talk about the, what about an anti-itch shampoo? - I was gonna ask about that. - Oh yeah, okay. There's a couple ingredients you need to look for, oatmeal, which we talked about. - Promoxine, P-R-A-M-O-X-I-N-E, is a topical, almost like a topical lidocaine, like a topical Novocaine. So it desensit. - Yeah, and so there's quite a few companies put that in their shampoos, and that is a nice thing because you put it on, and some of them make a leave on rinse, which you leave on then, and that helps them for several hours or several days. - It gives them some relief. - Right, and whatever you're using to shampoo in, you want to keep it on five to 10 minutes by the clock. That could be the longest 10 minutes of your life. - So I do this when I massage in the shampoo with lips. I do that on because the groomer told me to, because it breaks down the oils and the dirt. It's kind of like when you're cleaning a dirty pan. You know, you leave it in it. - Right, you break it down, and then you rinse it off, and I like, especially with low humidity, which it's gonna be high humidity this coming week, but I like a little bit of cream rinse on there, because it takes down the static electricity. - Oh, so after I rinse them, I take just a little bit of my cream rinse that I use, do a little bit of this, rinse them, and I even leave a little bit on. - Okay, so we took lead to get her grooming, 'cause she's a very curly haired of this golden, and it gets matted, so we just get it in them, but it's like an inch or two in length. So anyway, but she hadn't been in like three or four months, and I went to pick her up from her bath or treatment, whatever it's called, and the groomer said to me, "Well, she's sprayed by a skunk and like, "how did you know that?" - They know. - Because when I get water, activates the sense of it. - Yeah. - What do you use? 'Cause she didn't get sprayed badly, and luckily I know what to use, but I'm asking the doctor. - Right, well, you're not supposed to put water in them, and don't bring them in the house, whatever you do. - You're right, but I think what we used was, only if I got it right, was hydrogen peroxide. - Yes. - Dawn. - Dawn? And something else, wasn't it, or just water? - No, you don't really do, you try to just do the peroxide and the Dawn, and then that's through it. But you know, and we'll put that recipe in the show notes. - Your prize water, it's so bad. - It's so horrible, and may I say, they usually get sprayed in the face, because they're so nosy. You have to keep an eye on them for a couple days after that, because some of them get systemically ill from that. - Well, think about it. It's that skunk spray is protective, and they're spraying the. - Yeah, we will put that recipe on, you know what, I carry that recipe with me on my phone, 'cause you never know when that's, but do not bring them in the house, unless you want it throughout your whole house. - And always keep a fresh bottle of hydrogen peroxide. I've learned this from one of our guests. The minute you open it, it loses. - That was me, the pharmacist. The minute you open it, it oxidizes out and turns into water. So any time peroxides three for something. - What's the middle line here? - Yeah, I, mayor fact, when we were in Florida, our Gary down the street has two yellow labs. Six a.m. Hey, Alice, do you have any hydrogen peroxide? And thankfully I had a sealed bottle of it. - True. - But yeah, always keep an extra. - Because. - Because small bottles, and it's kind of weird when you go to the grocery checkout, 'cause they're like, I know. Yeah, don't bring them in the house though, because I'll tell you, the first thing you want to do is reach for that hose, but don't do it. - No, it's, yeah, don't wear them first. And boy, we like, yeah. But how many months later, when she got wet, the groomer could smell it. - I'm convinced there are certain people. My technician, Jan, was one of them, and your groomer's another one, that have the nose for that, and they can detect it like in one part per billion. - Yeah. - When it comes to feeding our pets, we believe in results you can see over hype. And that's exactly why we're proud to partner with Dr. Tim's pet food. Dr. Tim Hunt is a practicing veterinarian who spent decades formulating nutrition for every kind of pet from the laid-back lap dog to his own I did a ride sled team. - Check out Dr. Tim's pet food and see what science-back nutrition looks like for your pet. They'll have a shiny coat, more energy, healthy weight, and more, because every great adventure, even a nap on the couch, starts with a healthy pet. - I'll tell you that. - Yeah, ready? - Yeah, go ahead. - Go on, go on. - Dirty dogs build stronger immune systems. - Yes, it's true. It's called the hygiene hypothesis, and it's same with little kids. You let them get, this is why the amish don't have a lot of atopic dermatitis, because those kids are crawling around on the floor in the barn everywhere else, and allergy in the amish is pretty rare. We want everything clean, and it's much better if you let them, and that's true, to let the infants be exposed to pets. There's a scientific study that shows kids that are exposed to pets at a young age have less allergies as they grow older, and that's true for puppies too. Oh, and I want to tell you there was an interesting study about several years ago with I'ms, I'ms gave, they were making a probiotic at the time, they're not making it anymore, and they wanted to see if they gave these puppies, these developing immune system puppies, probiotics, they followed those dogs out to three years of age, and they did not develop allergies. - Wow. - Now remember, as when we had Dr. Cooper men on, from consumer labs, they tested a lot of over the counter-probiotics, and some of them had no probiotic in them at all. - Okay. - So you want to talk to your veterinarian about that, 'cause there's only, in my opinion, three good ones. - Okay, one second. - I mean, are you going? - Okay. - And by the way, I might as well mention those three evidence-based probiotics, okay? - Okay. - A big treat for Libby is we care for the empty PB jar. - Oh, right, and see, can you see that, folks? - It's done, and we got the, even got the label. - It's pretty clean, but I don't, you know, and I only do it when she's with me, right? - Right. - But Ion, or I don't let her take it out. - Super vision, super vision. - Price toy, and it's a big treat. - Okay, quickly, the three probiotics for pets would have evidence-based, four to floor, proviable, and vis-by-on. So just so everybody knows that. - Okay, we're doing our myth-busting. Are you ready? - Okay, go on. - Well, we kind of covered this. True or false cats should never be bathed. - Well, first of all, you know from multiple choice questions. If a word, if it's, sentence has never in it, it's always false. So, no, they can be bathed. And the main reason that their bath is usually, unless they got into something, God forbid, and then we're gonna call pet poison helpline. - Right. - Is it with ringworm. Bathing an oral medication, oral itra connoissell, gets them clearer faster. - Along to skin allergies need fewer beds. - No, they need more frequent beds. To remember, repair the skin barrier with ceramides, phytosvhingocines, cholesterol, or fatty acids, and to get the pollen off of them. And remember, when you're allergic, you attract yeast and you attract bacteria. So some of those dogs actually need bathing in antibacterial shampoos routinely, especially during, like for example, my Annie is very tree allergic. Well, now we're into grass pollen. So she's not as bad. - But during, right, but during tree pollen season when all that yellow stuff's flying around, I bather in an antibacterial shampoo 'cause I want to ward off the infection. - Coconut oil fixes dry skin. - There are better products than that. - Okay. - And also, coconut oil given orally can predispose to pancreatitis. There, yeah. I would rather you use omega-3, omega-6 fish oil. - Right. - Because it's proven, there's a list of oils and what ones help the skin and what doesn't. And fish oils at the top of that list, safflower, sunflower, coconut oils at the low end of the list. - Oh, interesting. - Yeah. - And yeah, I say-- - I didn't put it in my homemade lip balm. - Yes, I noticed that. But I may say with fish oil, it's a pretty high dose. I wouldn't start at the dose. I would start at low dose because it can cause soft stool. You don't want, you know, to have blasting diarrhea in your house. - No. - And also, in dogs that have had pancreatitis, I've had some patients where they were on fish oil and that kicked it up a little bit. As far as it flared their pancreatitis. So you want to talk to your vet about that. - You know, even my rheumatologist told me when I started fish oil for inflammation, to start very slow. - Yeah. I think I told you I, Kirkland's fish oil was ranked pretty good. And I started taking 1,000 milligrams in. I was bruising very easily. So I switched over to krill oil. And I'm not having that problem. - I'm doing this with krill oil. - You know, you've got to watch, it's, most people don't know what a bruise looks like on the dog. It's usually in the inside of the thighs where there's not much hair. - Oh, interesting. - But mainly it affects their tummy. So start low. - Okay. - Like you. - Lent asked true or false. What know is, what know is this mean healthy dogs? - No. That's, you're right, that's a myth. I can call one of my dogs right now from their napping after breakfast. And they'll have a dry nose. So, no, not necessarily true. - Okay, you know, Janet. - What? - Oh, go ahead. - No, but I was gonna say the thing that I think you and I have learned most about not feeling well is, if your dog is doing something that's not in his normal rhythm. - Right. - Are you? - As a human's question, something's going on. - But when you think, that's true. But when you think about that, dogs eat the same thing every day. - Yeah. - There's something that, oh, my stomach's upset. I had too much garlic or whatever. But they're more creatures of habit than we are. So, when they're doing anything abnormal, you guys, you gotta, something's going on. - Okay. - What? - What is the biggest bathing mist that you would like to tire? - That you didn't completely rinse off the shampoo. Believe me, you've got it off of there. And even if you didn't completely rinse it off, remember, these shampoo companies are making leave-on products, which you leave on, like chlorhexidine rinse. When you leave it on, it's a leave-on to ward off infection for sometimes up to a week, some of these products. So, I would say that, I would also say, I think people tend to over bathe their dogs. You know, your natural skin oil, getting back to ear cleaning. Your ears have a natural way of, it's like a transient thing that clean the ears. So, when you're over cleaning the ears, you're screwing that natural balance up. So, I think over bathing is not good either. But don't worry about, oh, I'm not getting the whole shampoo up. Don't worry about that. You are, believe me. - I'm funny too when Libby gets a bath, and I'll be honest, Liz, there's, we do it outside with the cold hose and she could care less. - Yeah. - Like you're running a hot water source. - Especially at this time of year, it's 90 degrees. - Oh, what a hot, but it's almost like a, like a spy treatment for her. She loves like getting the massage, and then you pull the towel out and she's like, oh, rubbed out, you know? - Yeah. - And she loves it. So, you know, we enjoy it 'cause she smells fresh, right? - Well, and having said that, you know, you know, we're, I live in Ohio and you live in Connecticut. It, the humidity in the winter is very low. - Yeah. - So, your skin is drier. I mean, look at us, our skin gets drier. So, you know, you want to use more of a moisturizing shampoo. Some people use alpha-carry oil. They dilute it down. And there's a disease called sebaceous adenitis, which is a destruction of the dog's oil glands. We actually have them put, we have them bathe the dog first in palm alev or dawn. Then we have them put baby oil all over the dog. To restore the dog's oils. And then we have them put dawn or palm alev to solubleize the oil and rinse it off. So, you can use baby oil or alpha-carry oil diluted on the dog as a moisturizer. But you would probably use that more in the winter when it's dry. You wouldn't use it at this time of year. - Today's episode is sponsored by Dr. Tim's pet food. 'Til next time, keep asking questions, keep learning and keep loving your pets. - Well, what other tips do you have for pet owners and bathing their, their loved pets? - Well, first of all, I usually bathe from the neck down my dog's. I don't like to get our older sister, Penny. I was with her when she was bathing her last episode once. And she put the dog in the tub. And the sprayer was like this in the dog. Like this, I'm like, whoa, that was dizzy. - Yeah, it was dizzy, dizzy, dizzy, dizzy. So, I like to just bathe from the neck down and use just maybe a washcloth around the face and on the ear it is. I don't like to blast that water. - I don't know. - The eyes are like this. And I put the hose like this. - And that's fine, and that's good. So, I like to, we start, we like to start from the head and work to the tip of the tail, okay? And then, I usually take the shampoo and I don't dilute down the shampoo, okay? Because, remember, I told you that reaction that some dogs get systemically ill with a fever two to three days later. Some of that has been attributed to diluted shampoos, believe it or not, and you get bacterial overgrowth. So, I put a line of shampoo down the dog's back and I take the sprayer and then I work from the top to the bottom and make sure you get in the between the toes and under that tail because then that makes you look at that rectal area. And you really need to look there, just like you need to look in the mouth. You need to look there because there can be bad things like maggots in the summer, in these long hair dogs, like colleagues in our goldens. You know, we're going to have Dr. Leon in a few days, Christopher Lee talking about screw worm. And screw worm is a maggot that eats into healthy skin. It doesn't get there because there's a wound, you know, like regular maggots do. So, you need to look under that tail. You need to look under that tail in the summer, just if you have a long hair dog or cat because of the fly lands on them. And lays an egg and there's the maggot. - We like furry butts and we cannot lie. - We can't lie, but we need to look at the underneath those furry butts. And actually, I've had cats that have come in with maggots too. And then let's talk about fleas too, because, you know, I saw on Facebook the other day and I have to tell you, I could be on Facebook correcting stuff 24/7. - I know. - And then people fight me on it. So, some days I just don't have the energy. So, a lady puts not to say anything at all. - Right, so, but I want to help these poor animals. So, a lady puts a picture of her cat on, that has what we call miliary dermatitis, little scabs. And she said, oh, I found a flea, but that couldn't be causing all this problems. Yes, it can. One flea on the cat means you have 95% of fleas in the household, okay? 95% of fleas means larvae or eggs in your carpet, in your floor, in the screen door frame. One flea on the pet, 95% of the flea are waiting to hatch out and jump. So, yes, one flea in a flea allergic pet. Janet, you know, you get a nocy invite. - Yeah. - You're miserable. - One nocy invite. - I can get a couple and I'm fine. It just depends on how sensitive you are. So, don't tell me that one flea could, one flea be causing all these problems. Why ES, yes, call your vet. Let's get on some safe flea control. There's so many good products. Don't ever use a dog-based flea control on a cat. - No. - Cat's very sensitive. - I have an interesting story from our friend, who's an exterminator. - Oh, boy. - No, they couldn't see it at all. - They didn't see it at all. - Your carpet beetles in the toilet. But they didn't have any carpet they had hardwood floors. And he's like, he's kind of like a mystery solver. He said, well, do you have any carpets? She goes, well, I've got like my mom's old rugs up in the attic. - Wow. - The cat was crawling through the carpet, picking up the beetles on its skin. And that's how the house got infested. I mean, can you imagine? Like, you think, well, who's that? - After I was doing the lecture. And after I was finished, an older vet came up to me. It was so adorable. And he said, you know, Doc, my wife and I were so itchy. And we didn't have a pet at the time. And we couldn't figure it out. There was a bird's nest on their windowsill. They got the mites from the birds and they were itching up a storm. You just never know. - The bird. - Wow. - And remember when we had Dr. Brightchward on, the tick expert of the world in my opinion, Dr. Ed Brightchward, NC State and founder of Galaxy Diagnostics. He was telling the story of, you know, Bartonella, the cat's grass fever, can be carried by ticks and lice. - He was, you lies. - Absolutely. And he was telling the story of where this, someone had a bird that came down their chimney, a pigeon or something. Call the ex, and then the household got Bartonella, the exterminator that came to get the pigeon out. He came down with Bartonella. - From that pigeon. - Yeah. I'm telling you, and before that, he told the story of where they had raccoons. And they got rid of the raccoons. Well, guess what? All the mites and ticks that were feeding on the raccoons now started to feed on the humans because they got rid of the raccoons. So I'm telling you, people that feed wildlife, you guys, you've got to be careful. They carry so many parasites that not only are going to affect your pets, but affect you as well. - Right. - Well, we got parasites from shampoo. - Well, because parasites are on skin, I guess. I don't know. We got to wrap it up for our listeners, but thank you for listening. Don't forget to go to our website, SOPpodcast.com, because it's really cool. All of our episodes are written up, and you can see all the notes and everything. It's really cool, and we like it when you visit. So keep emailing your questions into us. We love hearing from you, and thanks for listening, and making us number. - Thanks for listening, everyone. Give your pets a kiss for us. - Bye. - Goodbye. (upbeat music)