 Barked: Wed Apr 18, '12 11:37am PST |
 | |  | | Sampson, I don't know if it's a male issue too or not- definitely female for sure though. I have heard of multiple accounts of it happening with neutered male Irish setters as well as with neutered cocker and cavalier king charles spaniels, though  Kip is not any of those breeds... and really, other factors could have caused those individual dogs to go "fuzzy," so who knows. I was only speculating and assuming that the hair growth regulators were to some extent hormone based- the only study I've found was this one which focused on spayed bitches -I think you need a membership to read it from that site, but if are currently in school at a University you might be able to find it in their online library database for free. With bitches, they don't go into the post-heat cycle sheds once spayed, so of course they will stay fluffier- it takes a while to regrow coat after blowing it out. Oogie's coat is looking fantastic post spay- she is just as shiny and fluffy as ever! I attribute much of her coat health to her diet, though; Kip's coat DEFINITELY looks better than it did when it was all falling out from his chicken allergy!! Little dude lost pretty much all of his guard hair and then some on his torso.
I didn't know that vitamin E was needed to aid in the absorption of fish oil- thank you for the information with that! And yes, my two are small; when I would give them the fish oil supplements I would squeeze a near half/half ratio out of one gelcap for each of the dogs, though Kip would get about 3 drops more than Oogie since he is nearly double her size. The one I used for them was one that the vet gave to me when Kip's hair started falling out from the chicken allergy (which had not yet been determined at that time). Anyway, I would probably just split a vitamin E gelcap in the same way between the dogs; if they were 400IU then Kip would get slightly over 200IU and Oogie would get slightly less than 200IU. Do you think that would be more appropriate for their size? Kip is 6.3 pounds, Oogie is 3.6. Or would it be better to find something smaller like a 200IU dose and split that dose between them?
Max, I am happy that your coat has improved! You sound like you are on top of it. And I agree, the fuzzies must go, regardless of how they showed up!
If the stones don't work as well as hand plucking, I will avoid them then. A metal flea comb seems like it would be a good investment anyway so I am going to go ahead and pick one of those up. I may end up getting one of those MCK brushes too just to have on hand- If I don't like it my parent's surely can end up using it on their Brittany Spaniel. Do you think the super-fine size 20 would be a good fit? |  |  | |  |
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