My b's fur is changing!

[Brodie79]

Hi all,

I have just noticed that in the past two weeks the hair on the back of my boy's head and behind the ears has changed. It has gottn much lighter and become more like fluffy down and not the texture it used to be. This is also happening on the back of his legs….but there it is getting longer and lighter. I'm worried because it is such a drastic change in texture in only 2 weeks.

He is 6 years old. Is this normal as he gets older? Do you think it is just from sunning and will revert back in the fall? Maybe from something he's eating? (he gets grain free kibble mixed with pumpkin but has been eating that for months)

Any ideas would be appreciated so I can stop worrying!!
Thanks!

[tanza]

@Brodie79:

Hi all,

I have just noticed that in the past two weeks the hair on the back of my boy's head and behind the ears has changed. It has gottn much lighter and become more like fluffy down and not the texture it used to be. This is also happening on the back of his legs….but there it is getting longer and lighter. I'm worried because it is such a drastic change in texture in only 2 weeks.

He is 6 years old. Is this normal as he gets older? Do you think it is just from sunning and will revert back in the fall? Maybe from something he's eating? (he gets grain free kibble mixed with pumpkin but has been eating that for months)

Any ideas would be appreciated so I can stop worrying!!
Thanks!

Sounds like he is getting ready to blow coat.. very typical…. it will take a while for him to blow his coat and then it will go back to normal... but I have found with spay/neutered B's that with age their coats do change and get a bit heavier...

I will say however I don't agree with free feeding... and you really are better served (and is he) to have a structured feeding schedule... I always say that you would not "free" feed human children....

[Brodie79]

Thanks Pat!

I can't believe I've never noticed this before. I did notice crazy amounts of shedding at the start of the summer….but it seems late to be losing a winter coat, and being where I am he'll need to start growing another one in a few months! So even though there is no regular hair under these fuzzy spots now it will start to grow back?

Also, he is not free fed. He used to be but it was impossible to tell how much he was eating after we got a second dog. We had a hard time getting him to eat his meal at one time when we first switched over but we added pumpkin to his kibble and he gobbles it up in one go!

[tanza]

Yes, it will grow back…. I find with older spay/neutered kids that they blow coat differently as they age... sometimes seems that they grow the undercoat and you don't see the real coat coming in under it for quite a while. And he just might keep all that coat for the entire winter.... I have seen that before too.

[Brodie79]

thanks, it's nice to know this is totally normal!

[UnluckyDrabBear]

When Stick last blew his coat it took so long I started to get worried. A friend of mine suggested giving him Missing Link and it worked miracles!!!! After two weeks he lost his "moth eaten rug" look and went back to being the shiny sleek boy that we all know and love.

Here's a link if you're interested: http://www.designinghealth.com/products/canine_products_main.html

Good luck!

[BasenjiDiva]

Cory looked awful while she was blowing her coat. If she was a horse, she would have been described as a strawberry roan. A woman who was familiar with basenjis even made the comment that she'd never seen a basenji that color. She lost her winter coat from the bottom up…which looked even weirder. You could see the line of demarcation. It took forever to even out. I don't know why she felt it was necessary to grow that thick of a winter coat down her! She's been on Missing Link for months and even that didn't speed things up. (Or maybe she would have looked worse without it. :eek: ) She looks great now.

Pat