With their skin being the largest organ of your pet’s body, our epidermally-experienced team would love to give you the skinny on how to keep your pet’s “outer coating” in tip-top health!

You can support your pet’s general skin health through:

Regular ectoparasite protection

Ectoparasites are those that infest the outside of your pet’s body, such as fleas, ticks and mites. With fleas and mites causing varying degrees of itchiness, inflammation, fur loss and secondary bacterial infections, and ticks causing localised skin irritation, tick paralysis (in the case of paralysis ticks), and potentially spreading infectious diseases, it’s best to keep these critters at bay with regular parasite prevention. Consult our team for recommendations on the safest and most effective parasite prevention for your pet.

Grooming as required

All pets benefit from some form of regular grooming to remove old hair, prevent matting, and maintain their skin health and comfort. Short-haired pets should be brushed twice weekly, whereas double-coated pets will usually require regular combing to detangle their longer topcoat, plus the use of deshedding tools to remove their denser undercoat, particularly in spring and autumn. For dogs with long hair growth phases (such as poodles, schnauzers and maltese), clipping every 6-8 weeks is necessary to prevent fur overgrowth and matting, unless you’re willing to comb them every 1-2 days.

Skin-supporting supplements

As well as offering a high quality complete and balanced diet, you can support your pet’s skin health by adding an omega-3 fatty acid supplement to their daily rations. Ask our team for recommendations on a safe dosage for your pet.

The right shampoo and conditioner

Unless your pet has a diagnosed skin condition necessitating prescription washes, we’d recommend bathing them no more frequently than every 4-6 weeks (unless of course, they’ve rolled in something yucky!). Use a gentle shampoo designed for pets, and if your pet’s skin is on the drier side, add a pet-specific soothing conditioning product, such as one containing moisturising oils or ceramides.

For more advice on keeping your pet’s skin and coat healthy, consult our skin-savvy team!