fur shedding

[Chris m]

I have about a 2 to 3 year old rescued dog. He appears to be a short haired lab crossed with something else like a husky etc as he has white eyes and loves to pull me on my bike. He appears to shed significantly year round. Is this normal? I was under the impression that short haired dogs did not shed hair so much. One can grab the fur and pull chunks out. I brush him constantly and get an extreme amount of hair. I have no idea if this is normal. He has had all shots etc and is well looked after.

[hazelrunpack]

Hi, Chris m!

Shedding all year is sort of normal, and it doesn't matter if the dog is short- or long-haired. (5 years after our lab died of old age, we found half-a-lab's-worth of his hair under a chest freezer that we moved... )

Some things to consider, though--getting chunks of fur out sounds a little excessive. We've seen that in our dogs that have low thyroid hormone, so you might want to have a thyroid panel (both T4 and TSH) done to check that out. Your dog is a little young for thyroid problems, but it's not unheard of.

Do you brush your dog daily? Even just a metal comb once each day can help keep down the loose hair.

Have you ever considered adding a little omega-3 supplement to your dog's food? It can help keep skin and hair conditioned and we've had marked improvement in our dogs as far as the shedding goes (and we have English setters, so the shedding can be considerable! Especially when we still had 8 of them running around! )

Finally, what does your dog eat? Sometimes just changing the food can help, especially if you go to a higher quality formula. Sometimes, excessive shedding can be caused by food allergies or intolerance.

Would love to see a picture of your dog if you have one to share, by the way. He sounds like a real cutie!

[growler~GateKeeper]

If your dog is a Husky or any other double coat breed mix pulling clumps of fur can be normal for twice yearly blowing of the coat. It is shedding season after all