# Fluffy hair balls.



## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Is Lucy still scratching? She could be tugging out the little mats. Or could it be Shih-tzu undercoat? Or even fluff from a jumper - I have one that sheds nearly as much as Sophy!


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

Yes. She does scratch but not so much. It can't be shih-tzu hair. They don't shed either and they are gold and white anyway. Its definitely poodle hair. I would say that its undercoat but maybe poodles, even puppies, don't have undercoat. Its just very, very fine fluffy stuff. It doesn't matter all that much. I am not terribly fussy about my house, I just wondered if I should be doing something to stop the fluff coming off her. 

I do feed all the dogs Missing Link, but nothing else. And they all get fish based kibble. I sometimes feed them raw, but I haven't been to the store that sells raw lately so they haven't had raw for a month or so.


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

I occasionally find tufts, but I always put it down to him digging out a burr I missed (I do groom the poor neglected dog, but try to wait for a dry coat before brushing). Are they tufts? Or fluff hairballs like you get with a shedding breed?


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## WonderPup (Oct 26, 2008)

For what it's worth I have a spoo client who spends the day here once a month and he sheds like crazy. The bath tub is always FULL of hair and you get tons and tons of hair out when you brush him. He is not a mix, all poodle all the way, but he certainly sheds. He didn't get he poodles aren't supposed to shed memo I guess? Anyhow, he leaves little black tuffs all over my house when he's here.


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## apriljean80 (Aug 23, 2010)

Now I thought that I had read(possibly somewhere on this forum somewhere) that it is not true that poodles don't shed, but that they shed very little and that what is shed is caught in the curly coat? Sound right? I don't find lots of hairballs but do find occasional little tufts that I am pretty positive Biscuit has scratched after a bur or some other itchy spot and scratched out. But no, I never find lots of hair.


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## Purley (May 21, 2010)

I went over to my friend's today and she showed me how to groom Lucy, including ears, tails, feet, belly etc. etc.

Lucy has a little bit of a rash again. We have been putting the ointment on her belly - the stuff I got from the vet's. But I also noticed that she has dandruff - not an incredible amount, but little bits of white in her black coat. I am wondering if I should be feeding some kind of a supplement in addition to the Missing Link. 

When I give her a bath I use an iodine based shampoo that my friend recommended for the rash. 

All three dogs get Natural Balance fish and sweet potato and sometimes they get raw.

Maybe its just a teenage stage Lucy is going through. She will be one next month. I don't notice any change in her coat except it has got a lot thicker. But it hasn't got coarser or anything. Don't poodles eventually get an adult coat that isn't as soft and fluffy as the puppy coat?


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## lavillerose (Feb 16, 2011)

It sounds to me like you are in the first stages of coat change, given her age, which could be made worse by the skin issue (she's itchy from the rash, so she scratches a bit, which is why you find little bits of coat in your house). Some poodle's coat change is very gradual and long, to a point where you may not even notice it, while others drop it all at once (in a big matted mess!). It's an individual thing. I've had a few grooming clients that were like this.

Everything with hair sheds. It's a natural, normal cycle. Unlike double coated breeds that blow coat on a seasonal cycle, poodles have a much longer cycle, so each individual hair can grow for a longer period of time before the follicle releases it and starts over. Poodles don't drop coat because of the curly texture, dead hairs just get stuck and have to be brushed, scratched or rubbed out. My parents have white carpet and black poodles, and if she doesn't vacuum once a week, she gets a fine layer of black where the dogs tend to lay. So they do lose some hair, just not much at a time.

Are you using a good conditioner when you bathe as well? Colorado is so dry in winter, it's really necessary to replace the moisture that bathing washes away. Your region is almost directly north of me, so I'd guess you have the same conditions.


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