Our bitch had a litter of pups back in February, everything was fine with Mum and pups. She kept a thick glossy coat throughout everything even though breeder friends said it would go, she has now lost her coat, it is very coarse in texture and sparse. She is fine in herself, eating well and playing.

The vet said it is due to her hormones "being up in the air" and things should return to nomal evetually.
Can anyone advise if their bitches have gone through similar and how long did it take for their coats to return ? Is there anything I can do to help?

Thanks for any advice

Bitch's that have whelped tend to lose their coats at around 12 weeks after the birth so this would tie in with what has happened to your girl.  I think all bitch's have different coat loss but I do know that with one of my bitch's births she had a lot of hair loss and what was left was horribly coarse.  The coat didn't come back for another 5-6 mths - I gave her evening primrose and used Vitapet and believe these helped bring her back to full bloom.

My breed is well known for it, my girl had a big bare patch on her shoulder, her throat and her rump where you could see skin showing through, she also lost all her tail feathering! I tried her on Yumega though I expect anything with Omega 3 would work as well and she soon regrew the body hair, but her tail is still a bit pathetic and the pups are now 6 months old - she does have hair on the tail, but it's too short to hang down as feathering yet.

Pomeranian's are renowned for it also.  We used to have two girls that used to go almost bald around their necks, it would look awful for about 2 months then all of a sudden the coat came back as good as new.  They did look terrible though.

My German Spitz bitch had a great coat throughout her preg and rearing her litter as the other poster said when her litter was 12 weeks old she lost all (all of it!!) her coat within a week. I was really shocked seeing her bald,(although I had been warned it would happen) her tail had very little hair and I could clearly see her skin thru what was left of her coat. She needed a jumper on she was so cold,really miserable and she is a coated breed. However her litter is now 9 months and she has most of her coat back, her trousers are just starting to come back, and I have to say her body coat is better than it was before her litter. I have been supplementing her RC with Kronch Salmon oil, Vit E and keepers mix and I would say its helped.
Angela

This is the normal post partum moult.  In my girls it normally starts when pups are about 8 to 10 weeks old and goes on for several weeks until they look dreadful with sparse hair that is like wire wool. 

It takes until pups are at least four months for them to be presentable and usually when pups are nearly 6 months they may just be showable.

Perfectly normal, but if your breeding from your show bitch in a coated bred you will loose about 9 months of showing.

Thank you for all your replies. Whilst it looks awful it is some comfort to know it's normal. I will definately try some of your suggestions