[Rua]

Has anyone found that their dogs coat changed after being spayed? I got Juno spayed nearly 8 weeks ago. She'd had two heats, and was 15 months old at the time. It was a laparoscopic spay and very non invasive (ovaries only removal).

Juno bounced back very quickly and has been her usual self - except her coat seems to have changed quite dramatically in recent weeks. I'm not sure if this is down to the spay or if it could be another reason. She's been shedding a lot, which at first I thought was just her blowing her coat (although I wouldn't have expected her to blow her coat until nearer Spring. It's still Winter!)

She seems to have gone from having a rather thick coat, with longer hairs around the scruff and tail, to suddenly being really short-haired! Her coat is still very shiny and nice, but it seems thinner somehow and not as dense as it was before.

Is this down to her being spayed? Or am I missing something here? Anyone else experience something similar?

Cheers!

 

[wolfy dog]

Yes, finally someone who notices this too. Especially longer coats are affected, like Golden Retrievers. Same after neutering the males. The coats become dull, sometimes curlier and the tails grow these long hairs. I can tell from a distance whether a dog is neutered/spayed or not. I think the short coats, like Dobermans, Malinois not so much (my experience).

 

[msvette2u]

I have heard of it but not seen it. If my Collie's coat is bad after her spay at 6mos., I'd hate to see it with her unspayed!

 

[Rua]

Yeah it's really weird....it's not that Juno's coat looks bad or anything. But it doesn't really look as "full" as it used to. I kinda miss her "mane"! It's gone quite sleek, and she doesn't seem to have any undercoat anymore.

She's a skinny dog that's impossible to keep weight on...so this coat change has kind of really exaggerated that even more.
I suppose I'll see overtime whether it will change again, but I'm a bit baffled by this.

 

[msvette2u]

Well they do blow out coat in the spring and it's not based on temperature as much as daylight.
Wolfy, I looked that up one day and it wasn't that the coat was dull as much as it had changed in texture, and was actually silkier (in the Goldens) than it used to be.

 

[Rua]

Well they do blow out coat in the spring and it's not based on temperature as much as daylight.
Wolfy, I looked that up one day and it wasn't that the coat was dull as much as it had changed in texture, and was actually silkier (in the Goldens) than it used to be.

This is what's got me so confused and why I think Juno's coat change could be related to her spay.

Our winters are very dark - in December we only have about 7 hours of daylight. This month it's going more towards 9 hours. But on rainy days (which is nearly everyday) it tends to feel much darker throughout the day. So I wasn't expecting her to start blowing her coat until about March - when the days start becoming more noticeably bright again. She started heavily shedding about two weeks after her spay in December.

 

[avonbankcollies]

thats interesting I spayed Jackpot at 15mths and she had gone thru 2 cycles and is blowing her coat even tho its the middle of winter here too. someone told me the anesthetic can cause changes in her coat but I thought this was a bit extreme and wonder if after she fully blows her coat if next year she will be back to normal

 

[Rua]

Really? It'll be interesting to see if our girls coats go back to normal or not by next winter. I hadn't heard that before about the anesthetic. How hard did the anesthetic hit your girl? Over here, dogs can go home within a few hours after having a lapro spay. I still got to take Juno home on the same day, but because the drugs hit her so hard, she took forever to wake up. So we had to wait until the evening to bring her home. Even then she was like a train wreck, the poor thing.

 

[wolfy dog]

WD is blowing his coat now and he is in the wet NW and is an intact male.
If I ever get a female dog I will consider a part spay; remove the uterus and keep the ovaries to maintain her hormone levels and the luster of the coat.

 

[KZoppa]

Shasta's coat didnt change at all after her spay. We had everything removed; uterus and ovaries. Zena's coat changed when she was spayed though. It got more course and hasnt really gone back to normal and she was spayed in 2006. The changes are likely due to the shift in horomones. Think of it like this. Some pregnant women have this soft silky hair before and during their pregnancy and then the baby is born and suddenly they have dry dull hair that gradually returns to normal or stays dry and dull. It's because of the horomone shift in the body. It's a sudden change to the body and your body basically runs to catch up with the change. For some that shift is more obvious than others. Happens in animals as well as people.

You also have to take into consideration how much energy goes into healing, no matter how small the wound. The body puts energy into healing while "rerouting" that energy from other sources. Its why we're told to keep an eye out for infection. The immune system is weakened.

 

[avonbankcollies]

she was supposed to come home mid afternoon but was held till 5:30pm and she pretty much slept all evening and night she was still wobbly when I took her out at midnight, next morning she was ok but still not herself yet. she played the poor me card as long as she could lol

 

[Freestep]

Spayed females and neutered males tend to have softer coats. They sometimes get these fuzzy hairs, almost like long undercoat hairs, on places like the legs. The guard coat is less coarse and there can be more undercoat. We call it "neuter coat" or "spay coat".

A sudden blowing of coat like the OP's dog is having can happen in mid-winter. I've been seeing lots of dogs blowing coat, and have been for the past month or so. Any stressor could cause it as well, possibly the anesthetic or the surgery itself.

OP, you can expect your dog to grow all her undercoat back and then some!

 

[msvette2u]

Not all dogs do this, though, right?
Or maybe it's the sudden lack of estrogen? Because Libby's coat has always been like a typical Collie. She was spayed before puberty.

 

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

WD is blowing his coat now and he is in the wet NW and is an intact male.
If I ever get a female dog I will consider a part spay; remove the uterus and keep the ovaries to maintain her hormone levels and the luster of the coat.

That's what he did.

Rua said:

It was a laparoscopic spay and very non invasive (ovaries only removal).

Soooo....guess it's not the hormone thing?

Anesthesia can do it.

 

[wolfy dog]

Not all dogs do this, though, right?
Or maybe it's the sudden lack of estrogen? Because Libby's coat has always been like a typical Collie. She was spayed before puberty.

You can tell by the long hair on her tail; not as bushy as with intact dogs.

 

[msvette2u]

Her undercoat was brushed out, it's a summer pic. The bushiness actually extends down to about the bend in her tail, then the undercoat sorta peters out by the tip. But I keep her brushed out pretty well or it'll mat.

 

[llombardo]

I don't think that spaying or neutering has anything to do with it. Dogs are constantly changing as they mature. Its been a weird winter where I am(not as cold) and the dogs are starting to shed some now. All my dogs are fixed and were all done so at about 6 months of age and their coats look and feel good.

 

[msvette2u]

I don't either...our last GSDs had nice coats, despite neuter.

Oh and Libs is this, anyway, not a traditional Collie.
http://gsbisco.mysite.syr.edu/dos1a.jpg

 

[wolfy dog]

Neighbors adopted a beautiful 2 year old intact male hunting dog but he had some behavioral issues. So the vet advised to have him neutered (....) I told them that neutering will not train him and he would just end up with a dull raggedy coat while still have his behavior issues. Well, he was neutered and that beautiful coat is gone. That was 7 years ago and it has never gone back to the sleek coat before neutering.

 

[msvette2u]

That's weird! ALL our Doxies are fixed and have sleek gleaming coats, like seals.
What'd they feed the poor dog?? I'm willing to bet he didn't eat a good diet and that's what was wrong.
We rescue around 150 dogs per year and I've never seen a dog's coat go ragged over s/n.

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