The canine hair metabolome encodes age and coat exposure in over 700 dogs

Untargeted LC-MS profiling of 782 banked hair samples from 700 Canis lupus familiaris Golden Retrievers distinguishes topical imidacloprid exposure (AUC 0.865) and encodes age-linked chemistry.

• Why it matters: Hair is noninvasive and can be stored, but the chemical signals it preserves in dogs—especially for environmental exposure and life-stage biology—were largely unknown.
• What they did: The study profiled 782 banked Golden Retriever hair samples using untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, detecting 4,533 compound groups, then tested associations with topical flea/tick products and modeled age from chemistry (cross-validated r = 0.66).
• The result: Imidacloprid-treated dogs showed a distinguishing hair signal, and chemistry shifted with age: oxidized lipids declined while amino acids and peptides stayed largely stable; date and age were correlated, but date-restricted analyses supported an age-related contribution.

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