Going from puppy coat to adult coat? Or something else?

AgilityPup

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#1
Okay, so I'm a little confused here. Psyche has very little coat on her rear end and tail. And when you go against the hair, there are short hairs that are prickly, almost like they're just growing in. And around the base of her tail (and bum) it's shorter, almost like it's been shaved, but not.

I can't figure this out. It's almost like her whole body's been shaved, but the owners would have only had her 4 months, and she would still have puppy coat, right? So if they'd shaved her, she wouldn't have as long of a coat as she does now, right?

So I'm wondering, when a dog starts to have it's adult coat (whatever it's called when it's not the soft fluffy puppy coat anymore) would it have this affect? Almost like she's been shaved?

And if it did, would it be itchy for her? Or would a coat that's been shaved growing back in be itchy for her? She's been itching a lot, and has been bathed and had flea drops put on, and they've been on long enough to have killed any fleas, so I'm wondering...

Thanks for any information!
 

Toller_08

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#2
I don't think it has anything to do with puppy vs. adult coat. All of my long coated dogs have gone from being super fuzzy, to smooth and sleek gradually as they changed coats. It was always soft, never prickly like it'd been shaved, and just got longer & thicker over time. Maybe it has something to do with poor nutrition? Or perhaps they tried trimming her a bit or something? I doubt she was shaved, as she appears to have quite a bit of coat. I've never heard of texture like that before on a Border Collie, so I'm not entirely sure.
 

AgilityPup

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#3
By 'shave' clip is what I ment. oops.

It could be the food she was on - she was on puppy chow of some sort - really crappy stuff. She had one feeding of it here and then we said to hell with it and switched her over to RAW.

She's also really itchy, so I don't know... I'm wondering if she had an allergy to the food she was on??? I have some natural allergy shampoo that's supposed to help with itching - should I give her another bath with that maybe (Don't know why I didn't use that the first time - it smells better!)...

We worried she had fleas but I'm allergic to them and always break out when they're in the house and I haven't broken out - and Psyche's been in my bed and all over me, so if I was going to break out, I would have.


I e-mailed the family to ask. Just waiting for a reply.
 

bubbatd

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#4
Hope you find out !!! I had a male that was very allergic to fleas ( before we had preventatives ) and his hair grew in that way .
 

Izzy's Valkyrie

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#5
Izzy is almost done switching to her adult coat now and it's happened only in the last month or so of having her. She went from a somewhat dull but very soft little girl to a sleek but still soft adolescent looking dog. So I think the coat switch probably happens around 4/5 months.
 

AgilityPup

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#6
We have two here who are allergic to fleas - Bella who breaks out into hotspots, and Gyp who gets a really nasty narley coat - similar to Psyche. I'm thinking that's what it is, and will probably take her to the vet. She's been done with flea stuff, so it would have killed all the fleas, but maybe there's something he could give me for her itching.
 

Izzy's Valkyrie

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#7
Hmmm... have you ever heard of chiggers? They're evil little bugs that get under your skin and start a colony. Only way to get rid of them is to suffocate them with something like clear nail polish over the spot.
 

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