Is Coat growth related to diet?
 

Hi again everyone! I've been wondering here lately if coat growth is diet-related at all? As some of you may know, we THINK Bella has a liver issue (shunt or MVD), but we're waiting to test again until after she's a year old (to get rid of some of the extenuating circumstances that MAY have caused some of her numbers to be off). She is still symptom free, so no worries there! (Oh, and no more UTI's either....her vet really thinks she got the only one she's had from her spay--she says it's entirely possible her bladder got bruised during the surgery which caused the UTI!)

Bella has a nutritionist and eats home-cooked food. I've been noticing that it doesn't seem like her coat is growing much, though it's still silky soft and smooth and shiny. She will be 10 mo. old on Sat., and when I look at pics of other Yorkies who are 12 or 13 mo., her coat seems really short! Soooo, do you think because she is on a basically restricted diet (mostly in protein) it's affecting her coat growth? Or maybe some Yorkies' coats just grow slower??

Its heredity or diet. A good balance homecooked meal though is a good diet. Im not familiar with liver issues but could you give her fish oil suppliment?

i think some yorkies coat just grow slower than others. All my girls are on same diet Primal raw and home cook meal (formulated by their nutrionist) and seems Tumi and Tsubi coats grow faster than Gracie. Gracie has silky and shiny hair but it grows slower than my other 2 girls. Gracie used to have fine hair when i first got her but it is a lot thicker now so i am just happy!

I give her fish oil now....1/2 a capsule a day. Should I bump it up a bit. I was giving her a whole capsule a day, but it just smelled so fishy! The nutritionist said to give her 1/2 tsp of fish oil per day, but if I remember correctly, one capsule wasn't even 1/2 tsp. Maybe I do need to give her more?!

I would give the amount your nutritionist said

each of my girls get 1/2tsp of fish oil daily. they are 4lb, 3.5lb, and 2.5lb. What kind of fish oil are you using?

this is what i use and I love it and swear by it. It doesn't smell and it has added vit E which some plain fish oil doesn't have. it is formulated by my girls nutrionist but anyone can get it off her site. Here is the link...
Fish Oil For Pets

I can't remember off hand, but I got it in the pharmacy section....I was told to make sure it was...something? (USP?) approved.....can't remember now exactly, but I did make sure that it was.

Bella is 4.2, so I probably do need to give her more. Do you notice the fish smell? I think I convinced myself that since I didn't like the smell, she didn't either :rolleyes:. He did tell me that if the fishy taste/smell seemed aversive to her, that I could give canola oil instead of the fish and vegetable. So, I'll go back up on the fish, and we'll see how she does. Maybe I can find it in a pourable container instead of soft gels too. Thanks!

the one i use is pourable and it has nice lemon smell..:thumbup:

Ok, I just sent her nutritionist an email to see if this would be okay as part of her diet....he's very flexible, but he likes to know what specifically she gets, so I thought I'd leave it up to him! I really appreciate the suggestion....who knew you could get fish oil that didn't smell like stinky fish! Yay! :D

Also, I asked him about the added vit. E in it because it looks like to me from the ingredients, the vit. E is just from the mixed tocopherols that are used as a natural preservative and won't be enough vit. E to cover her daily amount. I know there was something about you have to give vit. E if you give fish oil because fish oil can cause a depletion in it, so I just want to make sure!

Hair growth is mainly hereditary, and only the most extremely poor diet really affects hair. Have you ever notice anorexics still have gorgeous hair, until the very last part of the illness? At some point, baby hair will grow all over their bodies, to help regulate temperature, because of so little body fat, and at this point head hair growth is affected. Then hair growth on head becomes thin. A certain amount of fat in the diet is also necessary for healthy hair, and some people swear by different kinds. By the way, silky coats generally grow slower than cotton coats.

I think silky may be our problem....unless it's heredity. Bella's mom's coat was short-ish, but I think I remember her breeder saying that she had just cut it for upkeep reasons. Her dad's hair was long, long and silky, shiny. So hopefully it isn't genetics, but I guess it's not definitely out of the question. Her hair is very silky, so maybe it'll just take longer for her. I don't plan to keep it floor length anyway, and I think it's pretty cute now, I just wanted to see if diet was why it wasn't growing very quickly.....Nancy, your anorexia analogy was great! You're exactly right! Thank you for pointing that out...makes perfect sense now!!

Heredity determines not only how fast hair grows; it determines the life of a hair, which affects length as well. Using a human example, let say two people each have hair growing at the rate of ½ inch each a month. In one year's time, this would be 6 inches, however on one person, the life of the hair, meaning from the time it spouts, to the time it falls out is 4 years, while the other person's life hair is 10 years. The person with a 10-year life will have hair that grows a total of 5 ft. before it dies of a natural death, while the person with a 4-year hair life, maximum hair length would only be 2 feet. This doesn't take into account any trimmings or damage. This is why some people can grow waist length hair so easily, and others rely on extensions. Humans have been found to vary from 2 years to over 10 years on hair life. There is more variation in hair life than there is on how fast the hair grows each month, but both affect overall length. This same thing would apply to dogs as well, and with shorter hair breeds, hair life is very short. There is great variation among the Yorkie breed, and some will never attain floor length hair. Don't forget though, to keep that hair from being damaged and breaking off, show breeders wrap their hair.

I just got an email back from Dr. W. He said the vit. E (tocopherol) that's in that product is not the same as regular vit. E, so I am supposed to keep giving her 50 IU's of vit. E daily. Just in case anyone wanted to know....

Thats good to know thanks