[moonspinner]

Have a 4 yr old female rough collie. She went through her normal shedding period but it's been several weeks and she's still shedding some. I would not call it excessive but I have to pick up fur every day and she looks a bit more frowsy than normal. I started giving a bit of veg oil in her food but not improving. She otherwise acts and eats fine. She does eat some grass but so does my other dog whose coat is gorgeous.
What could this be? A thyroid issue maybe or missing something in her diet? Another cause?

 

[frogmammy]

My dog (male) has been shedding like he's paid for it ALL summer. Weird weather might have something to do with it.

Ok, first thoughts, thyroid, coming into season, stress. I don't know about vegetable oil, I'd be more in favor of salmon oil, or even just fish oil.

Mon

 

[1shotwade]

I'd try Brewers yeast. It is supposed to do wonders for their coat.


Wade

 

[aoconnor1]

Salmon oil or flax. But...I would go for a vet visit first to rule out an underlying condition that could be causing hair loss.

 

[GrannyCarol]

My first thought, if the diet has been the same, is internal parasites. A round of womer, keeping all types of canine parasites in mind (many wormers don't do a good job on either whip worm or tape worm and the ones that get one of those don't work on the other, for instance) would be a good place to start. You may want to get a stool sample to your vet, but some parasites don't always shed eggs and do a lot of damage to the digestive tract. They can cause all the good nutrition you feed your dog to be useless, as it is not absorbed properly by a damaged gut.

After that, then I'd look at improving nutrition.

 

[moonspinner]

Hi Carol and thanks for the advice. Worms were the first thing I thought of, but have not seen any in her stool. Generally if mine ever have them it's roundworms. But the grass eating could be a sign of that too. She hasn't been wormed in maybe eight months or so (could be longer) so I will definitely do that and see if it makes a difference.
As for diet, she's been on the same all her life and has looked great. Would the diet suddenly not be good?

 

[GrannyCarol]

Diets can change, sometimes they source ingredients from a different source to save money and the ingredients are a lower quality. It may just be that time of year and more than usual shedding.

If you show or trial your Collie, it might have picked up whip worm from dog show grounds too. Whips can be really hard on the coat and will rarely even show up in under a microscope (eggs). I mention that because I ended up with whips in my show kennel back in the day and you really can't ever get rid of them. If I see any change in weight or coat, I hit mine up for whips (and that will get anything other than tapes) and they perk right up. When I was showing, I wormed for whips every 3 months to keep good coat on my Silky Terriers.

My Smooth Collie had a lovely litter this summer, shed almost bald and is growing a gorgeous new coat!