Damaged hair follicles

Question
QUESTION: My Golden's hair is always cut in the summer because she gets so hot.  Usually a beautiful cut, the feathers are not cut, just trimmed, but last August the Groomer did something different without consulting me and just about took all of the hair off her body.  It was so short I could see the skin in places.  I've been waiting since August for it to grow, slowly some of it is growing but this is definitely not her normal rate of growth. I feel so bad about it.  Will it ever grow out again?  Please tell me it will.

ANSWER: Check this dog for low thyroid hormones.  Goldens are very prone to that and when the hair doesn't want to grow, it is often low thyroid causing the problem. Thyroid tablets are relatively inexpensive, but they do an amazing job if the dog is hypothyroid.

If the dog is not hypothyroid, then you can try Melatonin tablets at a dose of 3mg twice a day for a month to see if that will stimulate the hair follicles.

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QUESTION: She has already had the thyroid test, so did the groomer damage the hair follicles and if so will it grow back as long as it once was?  Before this last cut, there was no problem with her hair growing back.

Answer
Was the thyroid test recently done?  If it was tested a year ago, it can be low now, since thyroid disease is a slow progressive scarring of the thyroid gland in Goldens.

There is a syndrome described in some of the Nordic breeds (Chows, Poms) where the hair follicle is suppressed by a hair cut.  It has to do with the change in the temperature within the hair follicle.  I am not sure if this occurs in the Golden Retriever.  I have never seen it.  Melatonin can help hair follicles re-start. Most dogs with slow hair regrowth will grow their hair back with time.

IF you are really concerned, you can ask your vet to do a skin biopsy and have a veterinary dermatopathologist look at the hair folicle anatomy to tell you if there is a problem.