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That little itch should be telling us something
(by Tracy Beckerman - February 20, 2008)
“Does Head and Shoulders work on dogs?” I asked the guy behind the counter at the pharmacy.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “This is a consultation counter for people. You might want to try the pet shop for your dog questions.”
“I would, but they don’t carry Head and Shoulders there,” I retorted.
“Yes, but maybe they have a pet shampoo for dogs who have dandruff.”
“It’s NOT dandruff,” I protested. “It’s just dry skin!”
I walked away in a huff. Dandruff? My dog didn’t have dandruff. So what if maybe he had some noticeable white flakes on his black coat. Or maybe a lot of them. I’m sure his skin was just dry from the cold weather. My beautifully groomed, purebred Retriever couldn’t possibly have dandruff. Dog breath; yes. Dandruff; no way.
I went home and gave him a good, solid brushing to get rid of any wayward flakes. But the more I brushed, the worse he flaked until he looked more like a Dalmatian than an all-black Retriever.
“Ooh, this is bad, Riley,” I said to him. “I think you have some serious dandruff issues. The other dogs are going to talk.”
He hung his head in shame. Certainly I knew there were worse things than a little flaking. But when you’re a black dog, there’s just no hiding it. And no matter how cute your dog is, no one wants to pet a dog with bad ‘druff.
“Honey, the dog has a problem,” I told my husband. “He’s a little flakey.”
“Well I know he’s a little odd sometimes, but I wouldn’t call him flakey.”
“No, flakey. He has flakes. You know… dandruff,” I whispered so no one would overhear.
He snorted.
“It’s not funny,” I said. “People will think badly of him.”
“Let me get this straight,” he started. “The dog who has constant ear infections because he is allergic to everything known to mankind, including us; the dog who has coffee breath because he routinely eats coffee grinds out of the garbage; the dog who has such bad gas from eating coffee grinds and god knows what else outside that we all have to leave the room… that dog? That dog will be looked down upon because he has dandruff?
“Yeah.”
“If the ear infections, bad breath and obscene gas haven’t scared anyone away, I don’t think a little dry skin is going to make a difference.”
While it was true that my dog did have more than his fair share of idiosyncrasies, I didn’t want such a socially unacceptable condition as dandruff to be one of them. So one day I dragged him off to the vet to make sure there wasn’t a more serious cause for this embarrassing problem.
“It’s just dry skin,” said the vet.
“That’s what I’ve been telling everyone!”
“… which is giving him dandruff,” he finished.
“Oh.”
The vet advised me to get a moisturizing shampoo for dogs and to add some fish oil to Riley’s diet. I followed his advice and about two weeks later the dog’s condition was noticeably improved.
Triumphant, I dragged my husband over to where the dog lay sleeping.
“Hey honey, did you notice the dog’s dandruff is gone!”
“Yeah, he looks great,” he said. Then he wrinkled his nose. “But what smells like fish?”
Tracy Beckerman will be signing copies of her new book, “Rebel Without a Minivan,” at Borders Books,
Garden
State
Plaza , Saturday, March 29, 2 p.m.
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