double coated dogs (husky, skin, surgery, outside)

[Dashdog]

Jazz has a beautiful double coat where the undercoat is so very thick and soft. In October she had a big triange shaved on the front of her chest for the surgery to remove the large nerve sheath sarcoma. That was Oct here it is almost the end of Feb and the only hair that has grown back is a line of the undercoat that follows the actual incision line, The rest remains bald!

I spoke to a young groomer today and she told me that in dogs with double coats like hers especially when they are older ( Jazz will be 13 in May)you want to avoid shaving them down as sometimes the hair will not grow back anyone else have this problem or heard this before?

[leorah]

Yes, one of my dogs experienced this. It is called post-clipping alopecia and it is most common in northern breeds when the hair is shaved off to the skin. It can take up to a year for the guard hair to regrow. In my dog, the shaved patch grew in darker in color than the rest of his coat. My dog was 12 the first time it happened when his leg was shaved for a surgical procedure. I was told that no one really knows why the hair fails to regrow normally.

[APBT_Samara]

I would agree. I wouldn't shave my double coated dog. For surgery I know it'd have to be done though.

[carlyh]

This happened to my old dog too, it took FOREVER for his shaved hair to grow back. But he is 14, blind, and deaf so I figure a little bald spot is the least of his problems!!

[old_cold]

Our 13 year old has a bald spot on his tail where he lost hair. It's been a year so we've lost hope it will fill in.

[Niftybergin]

Originally Posted by leorah

It is called post-clipping alopecia and it is most common in northern breeds when the hair is shaved off to the skin.

My 7-year-old Siberian Husky had a procedure last October that required him to be anesthetized. They shaved the fur on his foreleg so they could run the IV line. Afterwards, I had the worst experience with the fur growing back. The whole area was about 3 inches probably, on the front of his leg and also a bit around to the outside. The "outside" part grew back immediatley, but the part on the front just wouldn't, and his skin looked terrible. I had to use YUK! ointment and some other things to keep him from licking it and creating a hot-spot, and it took probably a good 2 months for there to be a good coverage of hair. He's had other "shaved spots" (due to medical procedures) in the past, and the hair always grew back more quickly. So maybe the slow-growth this time was due to his age.

As for shaving a double-coated dog...my understanding is that you're not supposed to do this because it messes up the coat's cooling system. I don't know about all dogs, of course, but the literature on Sibes says that the undercoat they blow and then grow for the summer helps keep them cool, just as the one they grow for the winter helps keep them warm, and shaving that coat messes that up.