Excessive Hair Shedding In Dogs – Causes And Methods To Reduce Shedding In Dogs
Is your dogs’ fur, HAIR, there, and everywhere? Fur not! Fur shedding is a natural process, in which your dogs’ old fur is replaced with new. The quantity and regularity of hair shedding depends on your dogs’ breed, the weather and season and your dogs’ overall health. The problem arises when your dog sheds more hair than the usual amount. Excessive hair shedding in dogs, may occur due to various reasons.Causes of excessive hair shedding in dogs:
What may be excessive in some dogs, may be normal in some. But excessive hair shedding in dogs may be due to something more serious such as underlying disorders, stress, poor nutrition, health problems or parasites. Dog allergies are also a very common reason. Some common causes of hair loss in your furries may be:- Mange and Parasites: Mange-causing-parasites like lice, fleas and mites, may be living and breeding on your dogs’ skin or scalp, causing excessive itching that may in turn be leading to severe hair loss.
- Allergies and Infections: Contact allergies, flea allergies and food allergies are common contributors of excessive hair shedding in dogs. Infections caused by ringworms, folliculitis, and other parasitic infections can also lead to severe hair fall.
- Trauma: Acral Lick Dermatitis is a condition, where hair loss caused by trauma occurs as a result of a dog licking its own fur excessively. This trauma may also be a secondary response to an injury.
- Life threatening and immune diseases: Cancer, organ diseases, and/or immune diseases may also be causing your dog to lose hair excessively.
- Other varied reasons: Excessive hair loss in your dog may also be caused by sunburn, pregnancy or lactation, hormonal imbalances, certain medications, contact with irritating objects, and poor nutrition.
Methods to reduce excessive hair shedding in dogs:
- Grooming: It is important to keep your pets clean and well-groomed. Regular grooming also keeps your dogs healthy. A few steps you can take to keep your dogs healthy and well-groomed are: frequent hair brushing, regular bathing, clipping your dogs’ overgrown fur and occasionally spraying your dog with flea and tick control. Make sure you use proper grooming products, for better results.
- Proper nutrition: Poor diet and nutrition may also be the cause of excessive hair fall in dogs. Invest in good quality foods for your dogs, that don’t contain any fillers. Give your dog some human food every once in a while. Adding olive oil to your dogs’ diet may also help. Make sure your dog has access to clean drinking water.
- Consult a veterinarian: If grooming or changing your dogs’ diet don’t seem to help, it is wise to consult a vet. Your dogs’ excessive hair shedding may be due to underlying diseases or severe health problems such as cancer, infections and allergies, medications and hormonal imbalances.
Some other home remedies that you can try are: Frequent vacuuming, using lint roller on clothes, covering furniture with replaceable cloths or covers, replacing carpets with tile or hardwood floors. Don’t worry, it’s KNOT that bad!