Shaved hair - slow regrowth?

[Leslie, Dexter & Kirby]

I feel crazy for even posting this...

 

Dexter had knee surgery in mid February.  The vets had to totally shave his butt and most of his one leg for the surgery (by shaved, I mean no hair and all you could see was his pink skin).  His leg is growing in nicely, but the hair on his butt is almost non-existent.  We tease that he looks like a baboon, but has anyone heard of having issues with regrowth of hair after a shaving?  I feel a little silly calling the vet to ask if this is a problem :)

 

Overall his fur is a complete mess.  We haven't given him a bath because we don't want to deal with lifting him into the tub.  I haven't kept up with his brushing because he doesn't like to be brushed and I feel bad since he's recovering (so now he's started to get matts).  Finally he really needs to be groomed again because the rest of his fur is getting really long.  We have to board him (we found a special place that takes injured dogs) this weekend and I told my husband they're going to think he is totally neglected. 

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

A baboon? Poor baby!

I'm not sure if certain areas take longer-do what my husband does and call another vet to ask!!! Good luck!!

[Karen and Bridget]

My Lab, Cooper, had knee surgery in January and the area that was shaved for the epidural still has not grown back.  The leg hair is short but filling in.  Unfortunately he is going in next week for surgery on the other knee so he'll be shaved again :(

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Dogs, heck I don't know, but from just my own personal experiences with surgeries, and difficult post-op  recoveries my hair  was the thing I complained most about, long after the everything else had healed.  It fell out, went from straight to curly, became so thin I was afraid to take shower sometimes.  The same thing happened with several surgeries. 

As I understand it, the hair shows the stress much later ( months later ).    Don't know if this helps, but for me it eventually resolved itself, but it took a long time.  Without knowing anything about the effects of shaving, I think it was the stress of being ill and not shaving.  Just my hunch.

Poor Dexter had a really hard time.  Hope he has a great summer.  Winter was  not so nice to him

[Shelby and Kev]

These animals are hairy by nature.  Im sure it will all come back in! 

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Rooney had an area shaved on his front leg waaaaaaaaay back in January.  It is still not the same length as the rest of his fur but finally it is close.  So I'm going to say that you'll need 5 months for it to really get back to normal.  It is hard to wait but it will come back.

[Becky & Sheeba]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. When Sheeba get's her fur cut for the spring & summertime, it seems to grow back fast. The groomer's had to cut the hair around her butt & it did give it the baboon appearance as well. Now, it's grown back out.

[Judi, David & Maddie Irishdoodle]

When Maddie was spayed they shaved her front leg and it took forever to grow back - I bet it was almost 5 or 6 months when I noticed it was finally filling in and getting some length to it.

Maybe if you keep his hind end trimmed a bit shorter than the rest of him the shaved part won't be as noticable.