Late last year, shortly before Christmas, one of our customers, Victoria Bampton contacted us to ask us a question about her dog Charlie. Charlie, a westie, had started to change colour... his coat had gone from being beautifully white to a distinctly brown colour.
The sudden change was obviously very worrying and Victoria looked into what could be causing it, she had been used using Quistel shampoo on Charlie for about 6 months... and had been delighted with how it helped his flaky dry skin. But could the shampoo be the cause of the sudden colour change in Charlie's coat?
To be honest, we had never encountered this problem before... Quistel has been around for more than 10 years, used by both pet owners and pet professionals on just about every breed you can imagine and we'd never heard of a dog changing colour.
Our shampoo as most of you will know is a natural (and organic) product, developed to be used on all dogs but in particular to help dogs with sensitive skin... so we felt that it was highly unlikely to be the cause of Charlie's problem. But if it wasn't Quistel then what could be causing this sudden change in Charlies coat?
Quistel is popular with lots of breeds, but in particular its been used for years and years by westie owners and one of our customers runs a westie rescue centre. So we contacted her and and told her about Charlie, and asked her if she had ever encountered the problem? She confirmed that she had seen it before, although maybe not as bad, and that it wouldn't be the shampoo... the most likely cause would be his diet and that maybe it would be a good idea to introduce yoghurt and probiotics into his diet.
We passed on the advice to Victoria, and were delighted when she got back to us in February with an positive update on Charlie...
"Hi Tracey
I sent you a message a couple of months ago as my westie was turning brown, and I wasn't sure whether it was the Quistel or the food.
I just wanted to say thank you very very much for the advice. Your westie rescue lady was right, it did turn out to be the food. He's now on a raw diet, and between that and the Quistel, he's improving every day. His hair's growing through white again, and his skin is better than I've ever seen it.
So please pass on my sincere thanks to your westie rescue lady!
Victoria"
As you can see from the photos, Charlie is starting to look much better, his coat is getting whiter and whiter by the day... and we're all delighted that Quistel, alongside his new diet is helping to get him back to his old self!
Thank you so much to Victoria for letting us to share this story with you all, we felt that it was an important one to share as we couldn't find too many references to it online... hopefully Charlies story will help other westies and breeds that might encounter this problem.
2 comments
This was of great interest to us. Our Westie was doing the same thing! Our vet ruled out skin conditions, etc, and it didn’t seem like the “dorsal stripe” that is common in Westies. Thank you!
Great article. I spent hours online trying to figure out what was causing the change, and couldn’t find any information, so I hope it helps someone else out there. It appears to have been caused by an allergy to chicken, of all things!