I forgot to add...

One of the major causes of my dog's dry skin was allergies. For years, we could never figure out what she was allergic to - the vet was stumped and so was I.

Then I moved out of the home I shared with my ex, and into my dads house - and the dog's allergies went away. So we assumed it was environmental in some way.

Then I met my current husband and the dog and I left dads house and my (then boyfriend, later we got married) and I moved in together -- and the dogs allergies came back.

We finally figured it out - she was allergic to cigarette smoke. There were several smokers in the home I shared with my ex, my dad did not allow smoking in the home so I smoked outside when I lived there - and my husband and I both smoked when we first moved in together.

So we finally realized that she was allergic to the smoke - which is why her dry skin was always worse in the winter (because the windows were closed and the smoke lingered in the house).

Once we realized the problem, we got air purifiers and we tried to do most of our smoing outside -- and she got a lot better.

But the lotion stuff still helped a lot during times when she had a dry skin flare.