Hi
I recently rescued a dog who was fed poor quality food for the last 2 years (happy shopper!). I’ve heard of excessive moulting due to poor nutrition but in his case he wasn’t moulting at all when I got him and he’s a husky so this is rather unusual. I’ve now had him for 8 weeks and he’s just started to blow his coat as well as shedding a lot of skin and I’m just wondered whether anyone else has experienced this? Can poor nutrition prevent a dog from moulting normally? Needless to say he’s on better food now 
Hi Mandy,
Your dog is probably undergoing a detox precess, ridding his body of accumulated toxins from his previous poor diet. This can often result in increased shedding of hair & skin. I think you’ll find it settles after a few weeks, though it can take up to 3 months.
Hello mandy1 - welcome to the forum. It’s good that you are giving your dog a better diet. Which product have you gone for? It would be useful to know. As George has said, the belief that dogs can go through a detox period is quite prevalent but it is mostly applied to changing the dog onto raw food. I don’t know if this is scientifically proven but there seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence. I could be wrong but I would have thought that eight weeks was long enough to complete a detox although it isn’t very long in terms of hair growth/hair life cycle. Please can you post back with information about your dog’s current diet?
That may be the context in which you have heard of it Dottie, but I have come across it (and seen it too) in relation to any highly significant improvement in diet - or more accurately to the cessation of a poor diet.
On one occasion a few years ago the nutritionist at Arden Grange warned me to expect it when changing a rescue dog who had been fed a very poor diet onto AG Sensitive; she also told me it could take 3 months to work through. It did.
That is interesting - thank you for sharing this experience.
I first came across the word ‘detox’ in relation to dogs when I joined a raw feeding Facebook group. Members were continually using the word so I asked why. The replies were a bit ambiguous so I looked it up on the Internet and found that it is well documented. I only found one author who did not believe that it existed. Personally I feel that there are good reasons why it would occur in a dog (such as the OP’s) who has had a poor diet.
One of my own dogs developed a sore patch of skin on her shoulder to chest area a short time after going on to raw food. Prior to the change they had had a good quality food but I did wonder about detox. However, the vet treated it as a bacterial infection, it healed up quickly and of course she was right.
1 Like
Thanks for your replies. He’s now on Eden original multi meat and fish and is finally starting to put on some weight as well as building up muscle!
That is a great product mandy1 - a good choice. It sounds as if he is becoming a fine, healthy dog. As George has said, give it a little longer as well as lots of brushing and combing to get the old, dead hair out and in a month or two you should be able to see a difference in coat and skin. Don’t know anything about Huskies but just wondering if a session with a groomer might help? My friend has Labradors and finds that when they are moulting a good bath usually helps. My little one is on a high meat diet and her coat grows quite fast too. I reckon that with all the good protein he is growing hair more quickly and replacing skin cells too. Please let us know how you get on - it is an interesting case study for us and for other readers.
Its not uncommon for moulting to occur on a poorer quality food. The body uses nutrition for the core body functions first, ie heart beat, brain, muscles etc and often the nutrition has been almost depleted before it gets to the skin and coat, which are essentially made from protein. They also shed fur as a way to eliminate “toxins” from the body.
We do see this “detox” process with a fair number of dogs switching to Eden (or other high quality foods) and it can take up to 3 months for the body to fully heal itself.
Also remember that a lot of dogs are currently shedding/blowing their winter coats, (been ongoing for several weeks now across the online forums) and Huskies will shed enough hair to make a new dog.
stick with it, and try a furminator to help brush the excess loose hairs away, many husky owners swear by them.
let us know how it goes, and come and join the Eden facebook group for free advice and to chat to other Eden customers about their experiences
Dottie thank you for your post I’m planning to bath him as soon as the weather is better! If it doesn’t improve soon then I think a trip to the groomers will be in order, although I would prefer to avoid this as he has trust issues!
David my query was not with him moulting now, believe it or not this makes me happy! I was curious as for the first few weeks there was no hair coming out during grooming at all. I’ve owned huskies for years and even when they aren’t blowing their coats they still lose a fair amount of hair all the time. I wondered whether anyone else had experienced a lack of normal moulting when a dog has a poor diet?
1 Like
Perhaps it’s a bit like feeding the lawn - plenty of good nitrogen and trace elements will stimulate growth and you wind up with a nice thick sward that grows quickly. If the grass is not fed then it becomes weak, sparse and doesn’t grow very fast. The high quality protein and nutrition is probably stimulating the growth of hair and skin cells. I have a harsh coated breed that is hand stripped and they always benefit by having all the old hair taken out, leaving room for new to come through. I would hazard a guess that in a few months he will look super.