# Coat burn?



## atravis (Sep 24, 2008)

My dogs live indoors, but we are outside constantly either training or just doing whatever... and Mulder, the solid black, has started to get really bad coat burn (black fur starts turning red).

I keep him groomed out as best I can, and he eats raw. Its not a major issue, but I do find it to be unattractive. 

Is there anything I can do to improve this? I know being in the sun so often is the primary culprit, but is there some sort of block or screen that I can actually put on the coat (or anything really, I'm open to ideas) to keep it from burning out?


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

Turning red is usually a dietary problem and is common in raw fed diets. This has been brought up a number of times over on the k9kitchen, but I forget what you need to add that's missing. You can run over there and do a search if you want.


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## TaZoR (Jan 26, 2012)

I don't know of anything, even black show horses are kept in or turned out in turnout blankets in summer for that reason.


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## Mooch (May 23, 2012)

Some of the horse coat sprays have an added sun block in them.
Sunscreen
I don't know how well they work though


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## atravis (Sep 24, 2008)

Elaine said:


> Turning red is usually a dietary problem and is common in raw fed diets. This has been brought up a number of times over on the k9kitchen, but I forget what you need to add that's missing. You can run over there and do a search if you want.


Are we talking about the yahoo group or some other site? I have to be a member to view anything at the yahoo group.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

Yes, it's a yahoo group. K9Kitchen : dog diets raw cooked allergies disease It only takes a minute to join and then you can unjoin when you are done, if you want. I would do a search for black dogs turning red and see what you find.


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## Kaity (Nov 18, 2009)

Whoa. Vida has a reddish patch on her leg, I thought it was just because she was blowing coat. She's outside running around the yard all day at work, doing whatever she wants. I never for a second ever thought that my dog might need sunscreen too - thanks for the awareness!


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## fuzzybunny (Apr 29, 2011)

My friend's black Shepherd mix turns reddish when he's blowing coat. Is it possible your dog is just shedding more heavily right now?


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## Kaity (Nov 18, 2009)

Yes definitely, she's almost 3 and I've never seen her coat change this much (she didn't really seem to blow her coat before, until this year) I just brush her with an undercoat rake and go over her with a comb, seems to work good. But still! I'd like to protect her from the sun


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## atravis (Sep 24, 2008)

Checked the group, the general idea behind it seemed to say a zinc deficiency. Nearly 90% of what I feed is red meat, mostly beef and venison, and my organ sources are beef, pork, and fish... so I highly doubt this is due to lack of minerals. 

Had someone else suggest to me that if the hair is red to the root it could be dietary, if only the top its sunburn.

His appear to mostly be the top portion of the hair, so I'm going to go with sun bleaching. 

I will look into some of these horse products and see if any of them work, thanks for the suggestion.


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## JanaeUlva (Feb 5, 2011)

In my experience with my black GSD, if she gets a reddish brown tinge to her coat. It is always in the summer when we are outside a lot. She goes in the water so she stays cool enough to really be getting a lot of sun and it bleaches out her hair like it does my hair. 

So I found a nice coat conditioner that has UV protection and that seems to help. 

If the color change is not due to the sun then it may not be the same issue as I see in my black dog.


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