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Thinning Coat
Our black lab is 11 months old, so this is our first time going through a winter to summer seasonal change with him.
We have noticed that his shedding has increased SIGNIFICANTLY. I was always so pleased with how little Caleb shed, and how easy it was to keep up with sweeping up all the hair....until now. The black hairs are overtaking my floor. When we get him out of the crate at the end of the day, there are huge hairballs all throughout the crate. I comb him down with one of those rubbery Kong brushes every opportunity I can and never run out of hair that I'm pulling out. He appears to be thinning on the front of his chest, like in the breast area, as well as where his front legs meet his body, where you would expect some friction from movement. He's also thinning a little on the front of his legs between his knees and hips.
Is this just him losing his winter coat? It's been going on for maybe 3-4 weeks now (we were dogsitting another dog who is a notorious year round shedder at the same time it started so it was hard to gauge when exactly it began). Or is this indicative of another problem? His coat is still soft and shiny and there doesn't seem to be any thinning in any strange areas, like complete bald spots or anything asymmetrical from the other side of his body.
Thanks!
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My boy just started this month shedding his winter coat and man it is coming out in huge bunches. I would say this is probably just normal shedding for him however the thinning is also he is probably loosing a lot of his puppy coat and this winter will be getting his thicker winter coat this year.
Also you might notice this more since he is black. One of the reasons I decided to go with yellow lab was the lighter fur would blend in to my furniture and so on. However, I have black interior in my truck, You would swear the dog lives in my truck if you look at the truck seat compared to the living room carpet. So one of the things you might be seeing is just the black hair shows up more. My sister has always had black and yellow labs together. For her sweeping is just a daily thing.
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Maverick is shedding super bad this year, but we've been having coat issues with him due to vitamin deficiencies. His hair is thinning as well in the places you mention. I believe Sparky's boy Mocha goes thru heavy sheds like this as well.
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Our labs went through a major shed in the past several weeks and what has been funny is they never shed at the same time. Chase always completed his major shed before Lark's began. Plus, his coat was much heavier than hers to start with so the amount of hair I vacuumed up with him was just unbelievable. The fur on my dogs' backs has always been much, much thicker than the armpits, chest, and inner thighs which seem to have no undercoat. We can't really say if what you're seeing with your pup is normal seasonal/puppy shedding but if everything else for him seems normal, you haven't changed his diet, and there have been no abnormal stressors, hopefully that's all it is.
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My boy, 9 years old, has gone through the heaviest shed ever this spring and summer. Anywhere ther is iundercoat, the areas you mention, he is STILL shedding. You shouldn't see bare skin (except underarms and groin) and you should see mostly undercoat but some guard hairs come out too.
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They blow coat once or twice a year. When Tickle blew hers this spring, we had a bare belly and bare underarm pits. What was left was rough and dry as straw. A month and the new coat came in just as nice as ever.
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I would bet he is shedding his puppy coat, but if this persists for longer than a 6-8 weeks, or he gets other bare spots, I would check his thyroid. We just finished with a Major shed cycle here, one was after having puppies and she was down to bare skin with a few guard hairs, coats are coming back in now.