# 10 Year Old Golden Losing Hair



## Ash24 (Feb 20, 2012)

Hello! My 10 year old golden, Louie, has been losing large amounts of hair for the past month. At first I thought he was blowing his undercoat, but it has been going on for so long and he has patches of very thin hair now. I'm worried this is a sign of something bigger that wrong. Has anyone experienced anything similar?


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

I suggest you have a full blood panel run by the vet, including a full thyroid test. Thyroid can cause coat loss, and the rest of the bloodwork will be good information to have on his general health.


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## Ash24 (Feb 20, 2012)

Thanks- we had his thyroid tested in early February and it was fine. We had a full blood panel done in September and everything came back normal at that time. I thought for sure it was his thyroid, so I'm lost now.


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## alphadude (Jan 15, 2010)

Agree with mylissy, thyroid would be the first choice to investigate.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Please ask your vet if the thyroid test was in the low end of the normal range. Golden Retrievers as a breed need thyroid medication if they test in the low end of normal. Some vets are not aware of that.

Or, you could have blood drawn and send to Hemopet for the panel to be run there. Dr. Dodds is the leading endocrine veterinarian researcher and can give you a very thorough evaluation and advise if he needs medication or not.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

Did you run a full thyroid test? Most vets run only a T4/T3, and that is not enough information for a diagnosis. Also, if he was low normal, he should be treated. Low normal for a Golden is low, especially if the dog is symptomatic.

Given his age, and especially if he is neutered, thyroid would be my strong first option.


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

Thyroid is what came to my instantly, also. Our first golden, Scooter started having thinning hair, gained a lot of weight, low energy, and sudden aggression towards the two young boys net door (who were monsters). He had just turned 4. Low thyroid. Put on meds and diet food, and in two months, he was his old self and ready to retrieve ducks. We did lose him to heart failure at 5 

several years later a full brother, later litter, to Scooter was to have a dental (he was close to 11 if I remember right. Needed a tooth pulled and small tumor removed form near upper canine tooth. I had the full panel run and his thyroid was super low. He started out on 1 1/2 the dosage of meds that his brother had had all those years before. But the odd thing, Buck had no one symptom. Vet did the test a 2ed time becaue it didn't seempossible that Buck's thyroid was so low, but he didn't show any symptoms. Lost him to heart failure, as we had his brother years earlier, but Buck was 121 yrs. 3 months old.


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## laprincessa (Mar 24, 2008)

Apparently the thyroid can flare even if under medication - Max just had a similar massive coat blow and by the time I could get him tested, everything was fine and settled down.


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## G-bear (Oct 6, 2015)

As others have said hypothyroidism is very common in goldens. I have had 2 goldens over the years who have had it. I have also had several other breeds of dogs which have also had hypothyroidism and I agree that in a Golden Retriever even the slightest low level will cause symptoms. 
I have also had a dog with Cushings Disease. One of the symptoms of that was hair loss. 
And finally, my last golden suffered from hair loss from the age of 11 on. We ran countless tests trying to figure out what was causing it. Every single test came back normal. My vet said that some older dogs just seem to suffer from hair loss.


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## Ash24 (Feb 20, 2012)

Thanks- I double checked with my vet and she confirmed his levels weren't low at all and were the same as they had been in September. She's guessing he's just losing a lot of hair and hoping it will slow down. I googled and some people said the first sign of cancer was heavy shedding, so this got me freaking out. He's my crazy, hyper boy, so I can't imagine he's sick, but you never know!


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