Puppy Swallowing Hair When Playing With Our Other Dog

[spikey]

Our adult and baby Belgian love to play together. Alas, Belgians have a habit of using their teeth a lot and "grabbing" at each others' coats, which in the case of young Rex means he ends up swallowing a lot of hair from our adult girl's long black coat! Some of you may have seen other posts I have made over the past week or so where Rex was hospitalised due to severe vomiting and dehydration and ended up having exploratory abdominal surgery. On the day he got sick, the first time he vomited he brought up a mass of solidly matted hair, bits of wood and various other disgusting little bits and pieces (I took it along for the vets to look at, I didn't take too close a look myself). Afterwards he only brought up yellow foam and bile (sorry, I know that's pretty yucky ) Although the vets at the hospital where Rex was admitted seemed to dismiss it as not having any relevance (!), I'm sure all the matted hair at least contributed to his illness (if not the initial cause of it).

Obviously I can't (and don't intend to) stop the dogs playing together, and don't really want to shave off our Belgian girl's coat So does anyone know of anything I can give Rex to help him digest/pass/break down the hair? I'm really worried about this happening again and just wondering if there's anything I can do to avoid problems in the future.

Thanks

[ShesaLikeableBiBear]

With long coated cats, such as a Birman, (mine gets huge hairballs when moulting) adding olive oil to their diet aids in the elimination of hairballs. You could try feeding sardines in oil.

[apolo]

A few doses of Metamucil helps as well.

I give it to my dogs and cats as the cats shed their hair all the time but the dogs dont.

[fido666]

Thanks for the post Spikey, I have a similar problem with my 2 Collies. I'm having more trouble with the older boy as he has also developed IBD. When we first took him to the vet (in the latest series anyway), she pulled a huge ball of fur out of his rectum while doing her exam . The puppy also occasionally throws up balls of fur and mulch too. Between the 2 of them they never let up .

Thanks for all the tips everyone

Cheers,

Corine

[spikey]

Thanks for the post Spikey, I have a similar problem with my 2 Collies. I'm having more trouble with the older boy as he has also developed IBD. When we first took him to the vet (in the latest series anyway), she pulled a huge ball of fur out of his rectum while doing her exam . The puppy also occasionally throws up balls of fur and mulch too. Between the 2 of them they never let up .

Thanks for all the tips everyone

Cheers,

Corine

Well, at least I know now I'm not the only one with this problem LOL. Thanks for the advice everyone, Rex already gets fish oil capsules every day but I will give the sardines a try and get some Metamucil as well!