Husky Not Shedding Undercoat

[Ricardinho]

Hi to all, im new here....

I am Ricardo and Im from South Africa.

Anycase, I really need as much advice as possible regarding my husky "Sam".

This is the problem:

------------------------

He is 1 year old at the moment and he has still not shed any of his undercoat yet..

As for his main GUARD hairs, popped up around his front legs, chest, back etc...but nothing on his hind legs (hip and sides)...

About 2-3 months ago he starting biting his fur very badly, to the point that I had to place a cone around his head to prevent him from biting...no luck though, as he managed to break all 3

As time went by, with new foods for sensitive skin etc, he completely stopped biting his skin..but the problem i have now, is that with his current age, he should have already shed his baby/fluffy coat, correct?

I was told to start giving him flexi seed oil and brushing him daily (even though hardly any hair falls - as its all still stuck to his skin).

I must add though, that the patches he bit ouf (hair), grew back, in a darker colour and harder hair..assuming its his guard hair...but those only popped up in the areas which grew back.

Perhaps he was biting his fur due to the fact it was itchy and the hair was dead??

Anycase...any comments?

Have any of you experienced this kinda thing? Husky 12months old, without shedding fur yet?

Attached is a pic, in which u can see the new hair growing back, but TONS of undercoat which has been there for all this time.

Thanks

Regards,

Ricardo & Sam

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

Blaze 1st shed his undercoat at 8 months old but i no sum huskies dont shed till later - diff huskies blow at diff times so i wudnt worry too much about it just yet - how often do u brush him?

[valkyries]

Odin did not realy shed his coat at all when young just bits here an there but not much, he is doing his first full shed now and he's 23month old

[Mazz]

Every dog is different. Our first Husky, Elke, shed her undercoat at six months and every six months thereafter like clockwork. Zoya, our current Husky, just turned 18 months, and she is just now starting to blow portions of her undercoat. I think your dog is probably like a lot of Huskies, simply different. I would not worry too much about it. Also, don't shave your dog. Not that you would, but some people have forced the issue of blowing the coat by having their Huskies shaved and that is the wrong thing to do.

[raindog]

Hi Ricardo,

One of our girls didn't shed for the first time until she was nearly 2 yrs old. Mind you, when she did shed it was a doozie and she went right down to skin. Her coat came back completely normally though and she had normal sheds after that.

The coat-chewing is a bit more worrying and could have a multitude of causes. The most common cause of coat-chewing in huskies (in my experience others might differ) are "hot-spots" resulting from too high a protein level in their food.

Mick

[Val (Zebedee)]

Hi, Ricardo

As you have read, each husky is different, there is no right or wrong age for their first big blow, so don't worry too much about it. Is the skin underneath ok, or is it red, flaky, anything like that? Like Mick suggested, it could be food related, what do you feed? Do you give oily fish to Sam?

How often do you bathe him? Do you use a mild or medicated shampoo?

Sorry for the load of questions, it might just trigger a thought as to the cause ...

[Ricardinho]

Hi there,

FIRSTLY THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR REPLIES!!!

What an awesome forum..wow!

Anycase, Val..yes, he's skin is flaky...so i spoke with a breeder today and she told me to give him a teaspoon of Flaxi seed oil a day.

I usually take him to the groomers to clean his coat, but have decided to do it myself now....

2moro i will be purchasing some an anti-allergic shampoo which should be good for his coat.

As im from south africa, i think our food brands will be totally different to what you guys have up in the states, anycase...the vet did mention the food i was giving him wasnt the correct one, as it dried the skin out..so i switched to

"Eukonuba" for sensitive skin.

Hope this helps...simply because he wasnt shedding his coat, i immediately thought he had some skin disease like Coat Funk.....either way, appreciate all the comments and will keep everyone updated.

Cheers

Ricardo&Sam

Hi, Ricardo

As you have read, each husky is different, there is no right or wrong age for their first big blow, so don't worry too much about it. Is the skin underneath ok, or is it red, flaky, anything like that? Like Mick suggested, it could be food related, what do you feed? Do you give oily fish to Sam?

How often do you bathe him? Do you use a mild or medicated shampoo?

Sorry for the load of questions, it might just trigger a thought as to the cause ...

[Lyn]

Can see from your pic he's doing a lot of chewing where he can reach! Givaway is the presence of guard hair where he CAN'T reach (Middle of his back) and looks like thats absent elsewhere due to licking/chewing and would make me think it's more of a skin irritation than a coat problem.

Wouldn't be concerned that he's not had a coat-blow (moult) yet. Plenty of ours have been a good 18 months before their first, possibly down to age and season (our current 18 month old is just having her first coat blow along with most of the rest of the pack right now).

Is he an indoor or outdoor dog?. He looks like he has an 'outdoor' coat from your pick (undercoat thicker and sometimes more oily than a dog who lives inside). They can hide skin problems very well under an outdoor coat.

We rehomed a dog last spring with such an outdoor coat. Shes only JUST lost it in favour of a flatter, sleeker indoor coat and it's took a lot of grooming out as shes lost it due to how thick and oily it was.

Have you checked for fleas/mites and de-flead? Has the vet suggested or done any skin scrapes/biopsies?

[Ricardinho]

[Ricardinho]

Hi Lyn!

Thanks for ur reply..

Sam is an indoor doggy..as for his guard hairs...thats the main thing thats worrying me, not his biting, as its basically come to a stop now since we have placed on a special food diet.

Anycase, the guard hairs are all over his front legs, back, haid and some on the sides....but nothing on his hip/rump area. However his feet have guard hairs..he is def not licking them off, as they simply never grew there.

I had a lady over who has bred huskies for 16yrs..she thinks he may have Coat Funk or something like that...but i dont see how, as symptoms show that dogs with Coat funk lose hair automatically...but his simply never grew there.

He likes to lay on the tiles on his side all the time, and iv noticed about a week ago, and he is wearing his hair away on the side he lays, to the point u actually see skin......and u will notice, no guard hairs there..maybe 1 or 2 springing up.

As for his biting habbit...its all stopped...as u can see his hair is slowly growing back, but it took forever as he bit it down to the skin!!

Any help much appreciated - As for vets, they terrible in my area...2 different vets suggested shaving the dog..so i walked out

Can see from your pic he's doing a lot of chewing where he can reach! Givaway is the presence of guard hair where he CAN'T reach (Middle of his back) and looks like thats absent elsewhere due to licking/chewing and would make me think it's more of a skin irritation than a coat problem.

Wouldn't be concerned that he's not had a coat-blow (moult) yet. Plenty of ours have been a good 18 months before their first, possibly down to age and season (our current 18 month old is just having her first coat blow along with most of the rest of the pack right now).

Is he an indoor or outdoor dog?. He looks like he has an 'outdoor' coat from your pick (undercoat thicker and sometimes more oily than a dog who lives inside). They can hide skin problems very well under an outdoor coat.

We rehomed a dog last spring with such an outdoor coat. Shes only JUST lost it in favour of a flatter, sleeker indoor coat and it's took a lot of grooming out as shes lost it due to how thick and oily it was.

Have you checked for fleas/mites and de-flead? Has the vet suggested or done any skin scrapes/biopsies?

[Ricardinho]

You will notice..all the baby fur parts...As his guard fur only grew out of the bald patches he bit out.

Basically where he bit the undercoat/baby fur out.....the new guard hair came through....i try and brush the undercoat out, but its stuck...so im totally lost now.

I guess il just let it all grow and wait for a couple months

[Lyn]

Just been doing a bit of 'asking' about 'coat funk' and one other suggestion was bloodwork to rule out hypothyroidism and cushings disease (both of which can occur in dogs)which can cause this type of coat problem.

Also found this article:

Usually the dogs have a beautiful, healthy coat at a young age, but as they get older, an abnormal coat condition begins to surface. First the guard hairs around the neck begin to break off as if a collar was causing the damage. Then eventually, the rest of the guard coat begins to break off or fall out, leaving behind only a "woolly" looking undercoat (these dogs actually look like woolly baby malamutes or like a sheep with a malamute head). This coat does not fall out, nor do they "blow coat like normal. Two areas may appear untouched by this condition  the head/face and along with the spine where there may be normal guard coat hairs but very sparsely spaced. The tail may become affected at any point  early or later depending on the dog. Because the coat does not "blow" normally, the dog may have a "reddish tinge" due to the dead hairs and possible sun damage of the abnormal old hairs. I have seen at least one dog that I would say had a "reddish tinge", so I cannot say that this is a requirement to the condition. Other unusual facts  1) when the hair is shaved in an area, it may grow back very slowly or begin to look like it is coming in normally again (only to eventually return to the abnormal coat condition), and 2) if the dead hairs are pulled out, new hair may begin to come in normally, but with time, resumes its woolly look with the guard coat missing.

[Ricardinho]

Hi Lyn,

Thanks..ya, i read that on a site yesterday.

However i also read that it is very VERY difficult to determine whether ur dog actually has Coat Funk or not, due to so many other similar allergies, whether being food, fleas, mites etc..

But the best is for me to wait a couple months, and just make sure these thinned out hair spots grow back normally without him continuing the biting.

I remember now, she didnt mention COAT FUNK, but mentioned something called AUTO IMMUNE

[Lyn]

Thyroid problems and cushings both fall under the auto-immune disorders group.

Reading around, if your change of diet etc don't show results in the next few weeks, I'd be investigating further. Auto-immune disorders, while not curable, are treatable, but seems true 'coat funk' is not, also seems theres still a lot of research to be done on it.

Good place to start would be a chat with the breeder to see if theres any known history of auto-immune problems or this problem in the bloodlines that may have caused this to occur as a congenital problem.

[Ricardinho]

Thank you very much for the info lyn! And EVERYONE else...

[Arty]

Hi Ricardo,

I hope you and Sam are doing better.

Something I haven't seen mentioned yet is that maybe his coat could be impacted?

A symptom for that is when the fluffy undercoat doesn't shed.

This is more common in dogs that go swimming or if they're bathed too often, as moisture causes the undercoat to stick to them and get matted. Being exposed to a lot of water can also cause their skin to dry out, and it might become flaky.

I hope Sam is only getting a bath when he really needs one.

As for food, I would like to suggest fish oil over flax seed oil.

A husky's diet should consist of mostly animal products, especially fish and chicken to help reduce allergies.

Organ meats like liver, heart, and gizzards are also an excellent source of minerals for a growing pup. If these are hard to find they may be supplimented with some vegetables that are high in iron - brocoli is a decent substitute.

Back to meat - beef is also good for it's iron content, but may be a bit fatty. I usually give my husky beef once a week.

Eggs can help to improve his skin and coat, but only give Sam an egg with his meal up to twice a week. They can get really smelly farts, otherwise 😆

Please try to stay away from veg that is high in carbohydrates for now (carrots, sweet potato, rice and other grains) as these can make allergies worse.

As Sam has tried to remove fur himself and guard hairs have come up in some places he bites, it might be worth looking into what can be done about an impacted coat, as well as looking after any possible allergies or auto immune disorders.

Mine has been showing symptoms of asthma, another type of auto immune disorder, and we're still doing our best to find out what's causing it. These things can be hard to treat at first, but I hope that doesn't discourage you.

Often it's a matter of trial and error to find what works best.

It's good to hear you don't agree with shaving 👍

Good luck guys, hope you find the best treatment for Sam.