Livamol

[Guest english.ivy]

So my nearly two year old liver and white Pointer is turning a strange gold colour on his tail and head. I know liver coats do change colour but the colour in his tail is strange. I need to take a photo, if I can get him to sit still.

Could this just be his adult coat coming through?

They both get fed Livamol with their dinner at night, Ivy gets a small amount, and Badger gets about a tablespoon.

I've started them on it daily about a 6 weeks ago.

Will this help his liver coat over time? Will it do any harm to Ivy? Should I stop feeding it to her?

I know a few Dolers feed Livamol so I thought I'd ask here The guy at the horse feed place where I bought it said it was very good for dogs.

[GSPDean]

So my nearly two year old liver and white Pointer is turning a strange gold colour on his tail and head. I know liver coats do change colour but the colour in his tail is strange. I need to take a photo, if I can get him to sit still.

Could this just be his adult coat coming through?

They both get fed Livamol with their dinner at night, Ivy gets a small amount, and Badger gets about a tablespoon.

I've started them on it daily about a 6 weeks ago.

Will this help his liver coat over time? Will it do any harm to Ivy? Should I stop feeding it to her?

I know a few Dolers feed Livamol so I thought I'd ask here The guy at the horse feed place where I bought it said it was very good for dogs.

Hi english.ivy. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to your question, but I am interested to hear about other's use of livamol and whether they thought it was having a positive effect on their liver dogs coat colour. I have two all liver GSP's. One has no issue with her coat, the other lightens up quite a bit. I have a feeling it's because he likes to lounge around in the sun on our back deck...

So, I'm interested in what others who use or have used livamol have to say about what they noticed.

[Guest english.ivy]

My Pointer also loves to lay in the sun too! He is nearly all liver, with a small amount of white.

GSPDean - Have you been feeding Livamol at all?

Edited November 29, 2011 by english.ivy

[brighton]

More likely to be the food you are feeding.

[persephone]

Gold....could be bleaching /dead hair ..

[sheena]

I used to feed Livamol but havn't done so for a while as I find their food is keeping their coats nice. The older BC started to get a bit bleached, but I stripped her coat with a Mars comb & got out all the dead stuff & she came up nice again. They both swim a lot in the pool, & lay around in the sun, so I expect a bit of bleaching. A friend of mine breeds beautiful Kelpies & she uses Livamol & her dogs are exceptional.

[Stitch]

Livamol is a good product however it needs to be used judiciously as it is based on molasses and the sugar promotes tartar on their teeth.

I found that not all dogs will be adversely affected but some will.

[Rileys mum]

My GSP is liver and white and does the same. Its sun breaching the coat in my dogs case. I feed my dogs livamol. its great for their coat but won't do anything once the coat is bleached. I can't see that it would hurt your other dog to have it.

gorgeous dogs btw :-)

[NOCTRL]

Ive never fed Livamol to a dog but when we feed it to the horses it generally has a darkening effect on the coat.

I'd say the orange is sun bleaching

[sandra64]

I have used livamol for a couple of years for my kelpies,my foster kelpies have it in their food as well while in my care....As their food is made up altogether, my black dog gets it as well, it doesnt hurt for them to have it, but they have gorgeous coats anyway the blacks...It does darken up the choc coats

[Guest english.ivy]

Thanks for the replies.

Is there anyway to stop the sun bleaching?

[Crisovar]

How do you prevent sunburn?

[Alyosha]

If the coat is faded from sun and or nutrition it will probably look like that until it sheds and regrows.

There are theories out there that animals with sufficient trace levels of copper in their diet will not fade, even in the sun. Hand in hand with that is the theory that the darker the animal, the higher the copper requirement.

Studies on humans have shown that black haired people require up to six times the trace copper of fair haired. This has been translated into changing supplementation levels in some types of animals with great success.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Alyosha

[GSPDean]

My Pointer also loves to lay in the sun too! He is nearly all liver, with a small amount of white.

GSPDean - Have you been feeding Livamol at all?

No - I haven't fed livamol. My two are both on premium dry (Blackhawk) and get plenty of RMB's along with added vegetables, sardines etc... I don't believe it would be diet in the case of my boy who has suffered a bit of discolouration. The fact that my female GSP does not suffer at all from it and is on the same diet also causes me to think that diet isn't as much of an issue. I think it's just a bit of genetics and environment (i.e. the slight sun bleaching from lounging around on the deck).

It's interesting to hear about the mixed opinions about these matters. I suppose it's very dependent upon cause of the coat fade and this changes depending on the dog and the circumstances.

I might give Livamol a go someday. It's not as though my boys coat is terrible. It's still healthy and shiny, just a shade lighter than it used to be before the Summer sun started coming out. It's only more noticeable when compared to my female when they're side by side as she is like dark chocolate. :D

[SparkyTansy]

I think the only way to prevent sunbleaching is to keep them out of the sun...

out of curiosity, the tail area, is that just one section? Only with Weis, they do have a glad in that area which causes a small patch of mingled white/grey hairs - its usually right at the spot where it used to be docked so it's really noticable on the tailed weis.

Weimaraners also tend to be affected by sunbleaching (liver dilute). they turn a yellow/brown!

[Guest english.ivy]

If the coat is faded from sun and or nutrition it will probably look like that until it sheds and regrows.

There are theories out there that animals with sufficient trace levels of copper in their diet will not fade, even in the sun. Hand in hand with that is the theory that the darker the animal, the higher the copper requirement.

Studies on humans have shown that black haired people require up to six times the trace copper of fair haired. This has been translated into changing supplementation levels in some types of animals with great success.

Really interesting, I didn't know this. I will defiantly look into this

My Pointer also loves to lay in the sun too! He is nearly all liver, with a small amount of white.

GSPDean - Have you been feeding Livamol at all?

No - I haven't fed livamol. My two are both on premium dry (Blackhawk) and get plenty of RMB's along with added vegetables, sardines etc... I don't believe it would be diet in the case of my boy who has suffered a bit of discolouration. The fact that my female GSP does not suffer at all from it and is on the same diet also causes me to think that diet isn't as much of an issue. I think it's just a bit of genetics and environment (i.e. the slight sun bleaching from lounging around on the deck).

It's interesting to hear about the mixed opinions about these matters. I suppose it's very dependent upon cause of the coat fade and this changes depending on the dog and the circumstances.

I might give Livamol a go someday. It's not as though my boys coat is terrible. It's still healthy and shiny, just a shade lighter than it used to be before the Summer sun started coming out. It's only more noticeable when compared to my female when they're side by side as she is like dark chocolate. :D

My two are on the exact same diet as yours. It's isn't a concern with Badger at all, just pure curious. Our liver spot Dalmatian lightened over time too. But not half as noticeable as the Pointer as she had spots and rather than large patches.

I think the only way to prevent sunbleaching is to keep them out of the sun...

out of curiosity, the tail area, is that just one section? Only with Weis, they do have a glad in that area which causes a small patch of mingled white/grey hairs - its usually right at the spot where it used to be docked so it's really noticable on the tailed weis.

Weimaraners also tend to be affected by sunbleaching (liver dilute). they turn a yellow/brown!

The section is in the middle of his tail. The side which gets sun.

Edited November 30, 2011 by english.ivy

[BC Crazy]

Both my BC's swim everyday & are sun bunnies, so I have just started to add kelp & livermol to their diet & see how we go. They both have badly sun bleached pants & through their coat their is also some reddish brown. I hope to

see an improve not sure how long it will take Would like to get their coats back to a nice black again. I rinse them off everyday after the beach & use heaps of leave-in conditioner. I see lots of others with

their BC's looking all beautiful & jet black.

Edited December 1, 2011 by BC Crazy

[sheena]

Both my BC's swim everyday & are sun bunnies, so I have just started to add kelp & livermol to their diet & see how we go. They both have badly sun bleached pants & through their coat their is also some reddish brown. I hope to

see an improve not sure how long it will take Would like to get their coats back to a nice black again. I rinse them off everyday after the beach & use heaps of leave-in conditioner. I see lots of others with

their BC's looking all beautiful & jet black.

Yeah....but they're probably not having as much fun as yours.

[BC Crazy]

Yes you probably have a point there Sheena. My 2 have a blast everyday at the beach for a couple of hours.Very fortunate kids. My males brother wins 'champion coated' in shows where ever he goes, Sonny will just have to settle for

champion 'multi colour' coated ;) We have just come back from a 2 week caravan trip, daily boating outings, so now I am trying to repair rub marks on their backs in their coats from their life jackets as well.

Hope this livermol & kelp kick in really quickly. :D .