What is the deal with this fur???

L

Lysette85

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Claussen's fur has always been funky on his sides. I thought he would "grow out of it" but here he is over a year old and his coat is weirder than ever. He hasn't shed AT ALL this year, whereas Little Bear's silky coat needed to be line brushed for 3 hours. I know sables can have sparser coats but does anyone have-or know of a sheltie that has this kind of flippy thing going on? His fur stands on end starting halfway down his back is this way all the way to his haunches. What gives?

The fur from his shoulders to his neck is long and silky...but the rest is almost...damaged looking. I condition the coat weekly so it can't be dryness. I also hate the "ring around the neck" look that both my dogs have-even though they wear collars for less than 2 hours a day most days.

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Any advice or info on what's wrong with his fur (if anything) would be helpful...
 
My two are littermates but their coats couldn't be more different.

CJ has a very soft wavy coat. Near her bottom, she has a section of fur that actually curls under. Edan has courser fur and his back tends to part down the middle and has been known to flip up at the ends - almost like fly-away hair. Both dogs get good quality food and treats, regular brushing, and I use a leave in conditioner. Their fur is not dry; it's actually quite healthy.

I'm not sure if that's much help but at least you know you aren't alone with Shetie coats doing funky things.
 
I'm no expert but I don't see anything wrong with his fur.

Some shelties can have curlier, denser fur, Claussen appears to be one of them. It can also take up to 3 years for some shelties to get their adult coats in completely, so Claussen still has a long ways to go.

Ginny's fur looked like that until she was approx. 1 1/2-2 years old, then it straightened out. But her fur is far less silky than Sadie or Toby's. Its almost wiry by comparrison.

Give it time and don't worry about the shedding, it'll happen eventually, then you'll miss the non shedding days. :smile2:
 
Yes, Claussen's fur is very curly. He has no undercoat past his shoulders though (besides his pants). He would shiver outside this winter after 15 minutes in 20 degree temps. His sides have practically no undercoat (its weird because that's the only fur that turns upwards, too). My bi black has a full coat around his body-but almost no mane lol. Arg
 
How old is Claussen again? As Melissa mentioned, it's not unusual for a Sheltie not to come into their full adult coat until they are about 3 years old.
 
It is so painful to be patient when waiting for our Sheltie's coats to come in. The photo's wouldn't load for me, so the only advice I can give it to wait it out.

Like what has been said before, his coat isn't completely in for a couple more years. Just keep those fingers crossed, feed him a good dog food and maybe supplement with fish oil? That's what I'm doing! Good Luck!:wink2:
 
Ah - I don't know about anyone else, but I see a pretty severe pinworm coat. We dose with panacur. Pinworms will absolutely wreck a dog's coat, and no amount of conditioning or brushing will help. After the panacur, you need to just wait until this coat sheds out and the new, healthy coat comes in.

Does it feel dry, brittle, or "crunchy", or "fried"? From what I see, this does not look like a normal "he'll-grow-out-of-ot" coat.
 
tofu pup said:
Ah - I don't know about anyone else, but I see a pretty severe pinworm coat. We dose with panacur. Pinworms will absolutely wreck a dog's coat, and no amount of conditioning or brushing will help. After the panacur, you need to just wait until this coat sheds out and the new, healthy coat comes in.

Does it feel dry, brittle, or "crunchy", or "fried"? From what I see, this does not look like a normal "he'll-grow-out-of-ot" coat.
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Claussen is almost 16 months old for those who didn't know. I didn't know what pinworms were but when I googled it, it said on several sites that dogs cannot get pinworm, but it's often confused with tapeworms. Can you explain pinworms further to me? I tried to find a picture of a dog with pinworm and nothing came up either...The fur just above his tail feels crunchy a bit, but the fur on his sides that's all sticking the opposite way I can barely feel it when I run my hands over it because it's so fine. How do I prevent this in the future? I don't give him supplements, and he eats Orijen. I've had him wormed regularly, even though his fecals always come back negative. His coat has always been this way. I posted about it back in June of last year because I was concerned. I'll put those pics up this afternoon for comparison. His hip bones also stick out a bit more than I'd like, as does his spine. I upped his food to nearly 2 cups a day but his bones still stick out. I'm going to weigh him again to see if he's put any weight on since last month.
 
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Actually, if you go to my album on my profile, you can see his coat from 25 weeks old is looking weird...check out the picture on the first page, top row, all the way over to the right. I have better pics on my other computer specifically taken to highlight the coat, but you can kinda see it in that (and other pics in the album)
 
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