[Joeybz]

I have a question for those who have Maltese that have grown into adults and gone through the change of type of hair.

I have two Maltese. Ages... 13 months, and 14 weeks. My older one is the Maltese in question. She has had very thin hair that is kinky in some places....esspecially the rare and behind the neck. About a month ago her hair matted up really bad no matter what I did. It took me 4 hours to demat her. She lost a lot of hair in the process. I see the hair is growing back where she lost it, but I've noticed the hair on her tail has gotten silky and the strains are much heavier. It actually is very pretty. Today during grooming I notice the hair around her legs the texture is also changing. Is this a sign of things to come on the rest of her body? The rest of her is still fluff.... and it is not fun to work with. How old are they when the adult hair finally comes in.

Thanks,
Joanne, Jasmine, and Chester

 

[TikisMom]

Tiki had very cottony fur when we first got him. It matted often and he had to be brushed daily if not twice a day.

He is now just over a year old. I put him in a puppy cut at the end of October. His hair is now growing in much silkier and doesn't mat nearly as much. Since I do all his grooming myself I have no one to ask regarding the adult coat, but I must say I have seen quite a change. Still a little curly around the neck and bottom, but much silkier.

I found the following while doing some research on the topic:

Maltese puppy coat/adult coat

hope this helps,
Judi

 

[kit001]

That webpage was very informative and gave some good food for thought, thank you. I may have not been asking, but it was a FYI worth reading

 

[Jasmine's and Chester's]

Thank you for the article. It was very informative!!!!
Jasmine is 13 months old now and I've noticed the change in her tail hair, but not really in the rest of her body, but a little on her legs. When she was 5 months old the vet put her on a special low protein diet because he thought something might be wrong with her liver. That is still up in the air. She ate it for a while, but then she wouldn't eat it at all. Her hair got horrible as it grew. It changed for the worse from when she was a pup. The vet now says it did that because of the low protein food. But the timing could have also been the starting of the change of hair.

I have found a dry food she will eat that is formulated just for toy dogs and it is a premium food, so I'm hoping to grow some good coat now. The vet says it is fine as it's more important for her to eat something as she is so thin. She is very picky and finding a food she will eat has been hard. I feel good that we finally found something and it is a good food.

About 6 weeks ago she matted so badly even with brushing all the time, that she lost about half her coat, mostly under her and on the top of her legs, due to the matting. It took me 4 hours to try to save her coat. Well, we did it... sort of. She was so wonderful!!! Now she looks very thinned out and by the third day after a bath she doesn't look to good. I see the hair growing and it has grown about an inch since I cut it in some places, but mostly it is still the cotton kinky coat. I am seeing little hairs sticking up that look like my hair out of the thin cotton hairs on her back, but it's not a lot. It's just a hair here and there. I was wondering if that is what will happen to her whole body in time? Your sounds the same age as mine. I was wondering how long this process takes until the whole body is covered in this new hair. Are they two or three years old. The way it's growing, she might be 5!!

I was just looking for hope as these hairs look straight. I just want some relief from the battle of the mats all the time.

Joanne, Jasmine, and Chester

 

[maltesers]

don't know if you know about this other maltese web site www.malteseonly.com. anything you could ever want to know is there!!! lol......malt

 

[Jasmine's Mom]

I do know about the Maltese Only Site and I have also posted this message there. I have looked in the archives for some subjects, but I guess I missed this one. It has been brought up before, I'm not sure what I'm looking for exactly. Adulthood is new to me in the Maltese ream.

Joanne, Jasmine, and Chester