Tele Vet: Neil McIntosh on unexpected hair growth in pets

(I should pause at this point and say, for the record, that normal things happen to me too. My heart rate drops. Levels of my stress hormone, cortisol, are considerably reduced, resulting in less puffiness around the face and an overall more relaxed demeanour. Similarly, my fight, fright and flight hormone, adrenaline, is also given a break, so that anxiety is diminished and I become an altogether easier person to live with. But I digress.)

Strange things happen to me too. After about a week, the backs of my hands start feeling rough. Then, slowly but inexorably, they change dramatically as black hairs start to sprout.

That's right: their normally smooth, hairless appearance is altered as follicles are seemingly activated by the sun and the sea. Within the fortnight, I am mistaken for The Werewolf of the Algarve. (I may be exaggerating a little here.) When my children were young, they were really quite traumatised by it all.

Tele Vet Neil McIntosh says unusual hair growth patterns are not to be ignored. (Image: Archive) Of course there is a simple reason for this amazing transformation from baby boy hands to gorilla guy mitts. In my normal day to day job, I wash my hands over and over again.

Every consultation will result in around three sessions of soap and water. Surgical procedures are preceded by many minutes of serious scrubbing. All result in insidious exfoliation, so that it looks like hair growth stops at my wrists. Until holidays come, at least. When normal service is resumed.

Our pets can suffer from some hairy moments too. Their normal hair growth pattern is different from ours. They go through three distinct phases. Hair grows, then it rests, then it falls out.

Obviously, were it to keep growing like ours does, they would need regular clipping. Individuals have variable, set lengths of hair, so that, for example, there are short and long haired cats and German Shepherds, to name but a few.

This growth pattern can become important if hair is lost artificially. Say a famous show dog has a wound clipped up for treatment. Depending on where it is in the hair cycle, it can be a long time before it recovers a normal coat.

As you might expect, the season of the year, age, sex, neutered status and environmental temperature also play a part.

Neil McIntosh says any unexpected changes to hair growth in your dog should be reported to your vet. (Image: Shashank Verma/Unsplash.com) Similarly, illnesses such as hypothyroidism, Cushing's disease and tumours of the gonads can have remarkable consequences for hair growth, which can be both useful diagnostically and very distressing for owners.

Hormonal conditions tend to cause bilaterally symmetrical hair loss and a reduction in the quality of the coat generally. You can spot this a mile off.

Feminisation of male dogs suffering from Sertoli Cell tumours of the testes, on the other hand (pardon the pun), will result in the coat becoming softer, longer and curlier. (See my picture above.)

Any unexpected changes in hair distribution, colour or quality should be reported to your vet, even if your pet appears to be healthy.

Now where's that handy razor?