[erika]

Just thought I post a note about dry skin and bathing. As a person with moderate excema and dermatitis, I know a thing or two about dry skin. One of the worst things you can do for dry skin is to sit in a warm or hot bath. Contrary to belief, soaking in water causes your skin to lose more moisture, not gain or even retain the moisture that was already there.

The way to combat dry skin is to bath only when needed, quickly, and in mildly warm water. Showers are recommended over baths.

You also need to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize!

My hedgie has VERY dry skin when I got him last week and he was scratching a lot. What I did that works BEAUTIFULLY was to use olive oil on him. I used an old medical syringe to get the oil onto his skin, not just the quills. I filled it with oil about 4 or 5 times, and ditributed the oil as closely as possible to the skin all over his back and sides.

He was a bit oily-looking for a few days as the oil stayed on his quills a bit, but it did get down to his skin and not 2 days later his skin was COMPLETELY healed. It's been a week and the oiliness has disappeared and he hasn't scratched in days.

I would highly recommend this method if you have a hedgie with dry skin and to NOT bath him, as this will probably make his skin worse.

Hope this helps!

 

[sebian]

Hmmm that's a good idea. Did any of it drip onto his fur? Someone else had an issue with an oily AND yellow-y hedgie. The hedgie was not amused :lol:

I think I may try that method though!

 

[erika]

Hmmm...no I don't think any of it really got onto his face or underbelly fur...that's why i used a syringe though, because you cn get it onto specific areas. Try it-it helped my guy SO much!

 

[PinnyMommy]

I use olive oil too,

I get it on him by using a Misto.

http://www.google.com/products?q=misto& ... 8&ct=title

 

[LizardGirl]

I use olive oil on Inky after bathing him, because of the same reason. It seems to work, although he's never actually had very dry skin. I know that dipping a Q-Tip in olive oil and gently swabbing the ears a bit can keep them from getting too tattered.