Dandruff and Black Specks
 

Angel is 5 months old and TCC, and I noticed some white flaky stuff in her black hair and skin on her back. Would this be dandruff? How do we treat it?

We also noticed some black specks in her pen area and on her blanket. What could this be? Thanks.

have you checked her for fleas? the black specs could be fleas or flea dirt. is she on flea medication?

We took her for her puppy check on June 12 and started her on Sentinel (http://www.ah.novartis.com/products/...sentinel.shtml) that day. Sentinel treats heartworm and fleas. The vet checked her and said everything looked good. We got a copy of the exam, and she checked that her skin, hair and nails were normal. Could it still be fleas?

We don't see the black specks on her body.

I'm thinking fleas too. uUually flea dirt looks like little tiny black danduff on blankets and such. I don't know of anything else that looks like that. Dogs can pick up fleas fast... even when taking flea meds

We have never taken her outside in the grass. She has only been in my house and my sister's house since I got her on June 10. The only time she has been outside is when we take her to the car in her carrier or we carry her in our arms. She has been to the vet's and to a pet store but we carried her inside the store. My sister did put her on her picnic table outside for about 15 min. Could she still get fleas this way?

She could have gotten them from store, vets , outside.. any of those.
Is there alot of specks? One thing is ..if there is alot you can always tell by giving a bath.... if the water runs rusty looking the first shot of water over her ... it is fleas. The black specks is really dried blood specks so when wet... it runs red or rusty if it is alot

There seemed to be quite a bit on the blanket but not much on the tarp. The breeder told me that if she ever gets fleas, I can bathe her in Sunlight dish soap to get rid of them instead of wasting my money on flea meds. She got this tip from other breeders. Have any of you heard of this?

What should I do? Should I take Angel to the vet's to see if the black specks are fleas? Does she need a blood test to confirm this? Thanks.

you don't need to take her to the vet or get a blood test. just try giving her a bath like mentioned before. if the water runoff is red or rusty colored then she probably has fleas. Or you can try geting some of the black specs on a white paper towel, weting it slightly, and then smushing the black specs. if they leave a rusty color on the paper towel, then its flea dirt and you need to give her a bath. dish soap like dawn and sunlight do get rid of fleas pretty good but you really need to make sure you get all the soap off of her.

Ok, thanks. I don't need to dilute the dish soap? How do we get rid of any fleas in the house? I guess I need to wash all her toys, blankets, towels and bedding in the washer? Should I bleach her pen area too? This was what I was doing when she had giardia, which wasn't too long ago. I just found out her stool sample was negative last week!

yeah you can dilute the soap some. first make sure that they are live fleas though. you might just find dead ones, that have been killed by the sentinel. If they are all dead, then just give her a bath with her regular shampoo to get off any flea dirt that was left behind. Wash all her toys, bedding, and blankets, and clean out her pen area. you don't have to bleach it, just give it a good scrub down.

If you have fleas in the house it is a process of keeping at it awhile. You need to wash everything you can including your own bedding if she hangs out near it. wash everything hot as possible. You also need to vacuum a few times a day including under beds and sofa's. You HAVEto empty the vacuum after each time to get them out of house. You also should go to the store and get a spray for the house. Spray everywhere it says you can. If you look hard you will find sprays hat you can use on things like matteress and sofa. You spray.. wait a bit then vacumm. Plus bath the dog in medicated shampoos or dawn. And don't forget to do the regular treatmetn with whatever flea stuff you use each month.


WHEWWWWWWWW... It is alot of work but you have to keep at it for awhile or they will just multiply and get worse and worse

Sounds like fleas to me too. I don't know if I would use dish soap on her...IMO it would be to harsh on her tender skin. And stay away from Hartz!!Very bad stuff...Where you have her on flea treatment already I'm not sure if I would want to put any other flea treatment on her. I use Advantage on Sadie. It took a couple of days before she was flea free and any flea that decided to take a ride on her after the treatment ended up on death row!! As for where she got them? Fleas live in carpets, cracks in the floor...pretty much anywhere they want...little creeps! I would just try vaccuming alot and I would wash her toys in hot soapy water..You don't really want to use anything to strong..

How do fleas get into the house(s) if the house(s) did not have any pets/animals in it prior?

You can drag the eggs inside on your shoes! :aimeeyork

How much should I dilute it? How do I know if they're dead? The black specks didn't move. I assume they would be moving around if they were alive? I fluffed her hair on top of a paper towel and I only saw one black speck. I saw a bigger one on the towel she was lying on. I smooshed both, and the bigger one looked kinda rusty colour. The other one just stayed solid. Do I need to use the dish soap, or should I just use regular shampoo?

the little black specs won't move because they are just eggs. did you look at the larger spec more closely? did it look like a bug? maybe you can take a picture of these things and i'll try and help you out. its hard to do when you can't see them for yourself. If she had live fleas on her you'd be able to see them moving around on her body.

There are certain types of soil that attract fleas more often, such a sand. It is pretty difficult without animals for a house to become flea infested, as they need a constant food source to survive. If the house is infested, humans will know it also as you will get bitten. Usually the ankle are is where you will find most of the bites, as the fleas will hang out in the carpet and on furniture. If that is the case, a flea fogger through the whole house is about the only thing (followed by vacuuming and throwing away the bag) that will kill them and it might need to be done more than once. When you fog, you need to leave the house (as does your baby). Very HOT air such as a dryer on high will kill fleas in bedding, throw rugs, etc.

If you think it might be fleas on Angel, you can buy an inexpensive flea comb from any pet store. The prongs on the comb are very close together and will pull any fleas or eggs out of her coat. Keep in mind that it is currently pollen season and pollen can be red, yellow or black depending on the plants producing it. This can also settle on your babie's fur.

Hope everything works out well.

Ok. Yes, I tried to look at the larger speck closely with a magnifying glass, but it doesn't look like a bug to me. It just looks like a black flake/speck. I'll wait 'til TCC comes over after work and get him to take a pic and post it on here. I looked at her body again and don't see anything moving around. I put the same blanket on her bed today after washing it, but I don't see very many black specks now. I only see a few tiny black dots. I used a white towel to hold her in and only saw 1 speck.

well then i'm guessing its either dirt, flea dirt, or pollen of some sort. Give her a bath with regular puppy shampoo and wash all her blankets and things too. she might have had fleas before you have her the sentinel and what was left of the fleas and flea dirt has been coming off her. after her bath she should be fine.

The only dirt I think she would get on herself would be from the house. I haven't taken her for a walk outside yet since she had giardia. I just spoke to the breeder, and she said that it's not fleas. She said her dogs don't have fleas, and the vet would've seen the fleas if there were any around the anal area. She also knows that Angel is on Sentinel. She said that Yorkies can get black specks. She and her husband asked their vet what they are and the vet didn't know. She said to use Oxy Pads that we use for our faces to wipe them off.

She said the white flakes mean we aren't rinsing her well enough after bathing, but I think we saw them before giving her a bath as well. We bathed Angel for the first time last Wed. with Plush Puppy Natural Conditioning Shampoo with Evening Primrose but didn't dilute it with water. We thought we didn't need conditioner, but the breeder said we should get it. We bought PP Natural Silk Protein Conditioner on the weekend and will use this next time.

good luck. hopefully you won't find any more dandruff for black specks.

Thank you so much for your help. I hope I won't see them either after we give Angel her next bath, which will be on the weekend. If the dandruff is still there after we rinse her very well, how do we get rid of it?

Have any of you ever seen black specks from your Yorkie that weren't fleas/flea dirt?

Angel is gonna hate all of us for making her have so many baths. I have been breeding for a hundred years (okay, so I exaggerated but it has been a long time) and I never suggest a bath in dish detergent. It is compounded to de-grease and to break down protein which the puppy's skin needs. I would suggest a good puppy shampoo and conditioner with a really good slightly warm rinse. Then, dry without heat and when she is dry, use a fine flea comb and gently comb her out. Keep her on a white cloth so you can see anything you comb out--maybe use a pillowcase. She might have gotten fleas at the vet's office or any number of places even if the breeder says she has never had them. You are not accusing her so don't worry about that. The Sentinel will kill any fleas but she can get re-infected if exposed so you have to use it according to directions. Wash all of her bedding and blankies, etc, dry in a HOT dryer. You can comb her often to check for more buggers.
As for your house, put on white tube sox and pull them up as far as you can-to your knees if possible. Walk around in them all day or as long as possible. If there are fleas iin your carpet or anything made of cloth, they will jump up on your sox and you can see them. If you do, call an exterminator for treatment or advice as it takes 3 treatments 2 weeks apart to rid your home of them.

well i don't have a dog yet (getting mine on 7/15) but i've worked as a vet tech for years, and i've worked in shelters with dogs with tons of skin problems. If you pup gets drandruff all the time even when you know your completely rinsed all the soap off her, then you can try getting a different shampoo. maybe an oatmeal based one or a better quality one. you can also brush her more often. at first this will losen more of the dead skin flaking off but then after a while it might go away. Also people have changed their dogs food and noticed a decrease in dandruff. you may have to play around with a few things to determine what is causing the skin problems. changing the food should be the last thing you try because you don't want to upset their stomach and change their routine if you don't have to

Ok, here are some pics I took. Mind you I'm no photographer :D so some are a bit blurry.

What does everyone think??

Also, could it be ear wax/crud? We saw her shake her head and those bigger pieces in the 2nd pic fell out. Her ears haven't been cleaned since Jun. 09, which was when the breeder did it prior to us picking her up the following day.

If these came from her ears, they could be mites, which usually require medication from the vet....

What TCC forgot to mention is that Angel was playing with a toy when she shook her head, which is normal; however, we don't know where the pieces fell from. I just thought that they may have come from her ears. She also shakes her whole body sometimes, including her head, like she's wet but she isn't. She just sniffed around, and this time she only shook her head. Do ear mites or ear wax look black? Don't they look like bugs cuz the specks we've seen don't?

ah ha, we might have found the problem. Look inside her ears, do you see any black stuff? i'm thinking that's where it came from. does she shake her head alot or scratch at her ears? If you can hold her still enough (get someone to help you) take a q-tip and try and wipe out some of the gook in her ear canal to see what color it is. If those big chunks came out of her ears, i'm thinking it might be ear mites. She'll need to go back to the vet pronto to get that cleared up. It can also be just alot of build up in the ear.

One thing to remember about fleas, they need a food source to complete their life cycle, so if you have your pet treated with Advantage or Frontline or Sentinal, the fleas will eventually go back to the animal and die.

It is important to vacuum and wash bedding, but if you don't get them all, they will end up back on the animal and then die. So don't drive yourself crazy over it.