Bad coat

[womble7]

My female Rottweiler is 17 months old and i have noticed her coat around her neck has started going a slight brown/ginger color and is quite a bit shorter than the rest of her coat.
anyone got any ideas to why this could be happening and is there any way to prevent it?

Thanks

[targonrotts]

is she intact? due in heat in about 1 month or so?
if you answered yes to above, it can be her shedding before coming in season.
they will seem to have shorter hair and the undercoat will show, which can be black, brown or gray.
if not, and her coat seems dull, you might want to do a thyroid test to be sure all is ok.
excessive scratching in that area from fleas can also pull out alot of the top coat and the undercoat will show thru.

[MyPuppyDakota]

You say the hair is thinner around the neck...does your dog have a chain (or some sort of metal) collar?...Because i find that my Chow has this probably with his hair...the hair gets matted (in his case) and looks to be shorter than the rest also. If this is the case then it's probably from the constant rubbing from the collar...just a thought

[fbkeays]

Any collar can break the hairs around the neck, not just metal. That was my thought too.

[fbkeays]

Originally Posted by MyPuppyDakota

Whoa ...fiesty...it was just a suggestion...isnt that what this forum is for???

Huh?
I am agreeing that the problem could be the collar. I have one dog in a rolled leather collar and she has a broken line of neck hair. I have another dog with a braided leather collar and he has the same thing. I have a third dog with a nylon flat collar and his is the worse. I wasn't picking a fight, I was agreeing that the collar could be the cause. Just pointing out that it doesn't happen with just metal collars.
Now who is being fiesty?

[tilly]

huh? what gave rise to the feisty comment? fbkeays simply responded to the question, IMO.

anyway, my girls all showed some undercoat right before coming into season for the first time. if that is the case, it will correct itself in time.

ps. edited to show correct spelling of feisty

[womble7]

Thanks for all the repies

she has never had a collar so cant be that

The coat feels very dry and course around the side of her neck as well
she is also shedding quite a lot but i am unsure if she is due in season or not.

my main concern is how long do i give it to clear up before it should concern me.

Thanks all
womble

[targonrotts]

if you see redness, crusty skin,scabby, excessive itchiness, patches of total hair loss, have a vet see it soon.
if not sure if was in season in past 5-6 months, maybe she will be soon.and after that, it returns to normal.
also, if diet lacks in fatty acids, that can make the coat so dry and harsh.

[newbrunswick]

As soon as I change Maggie from the crap her previous owners were giving her to a quality dog food, her coat turned a shiny black, no dryness and the shedding stopped considerably. What type of food are you feeding?

[womble7]

I was feeding her a dry food mix but over the last week i have fed her tinned dog food and her coat has still got a browny ginger colour around the neck but it has started to be come a lot softer so i take it it will get better.
I will keep her on tinned food for a while longer to see if it improves any more.

Thanks

[newbrunswick]

What type of dog food is it that you are feeding? I don't think it is as much as whether its dry or wet food, as much as the quality of the food. Check the ingredients of the food to determine what you are feeding.