Grooming Smarter

Flea Traps DO Work!

I have a confession to make. My dogs have had fleas. We have a lot of feral cats at my house. A LOT! As a result, my guys, even on flea prevention, pick up a few fleas. We do treat the yard and play yards with Bayer Flea control granules that contain Imidocloprid (the active ingredient in Advantage).

However that is not enough to keep every flea at bay here in South Georgia.

We live in an area where fleas are impossible to control no matter what you do. You see, we have fleas the size of watermelons and as tough as armadillos! Ok, that may be a slight exaggeration, but it feels that way.

Clients who take immaculate care of their dogs will sometimes have a few fleas, so imagine how bad it can be when they don’t take care of their dogs or forget their prevention for the month! We had a schnauzer in the shop yesterday that had so many fleas that we had to spray the trash can and take out the trash after she was groomed, and this was AFTER a flea bath and AFTER a Capstar! The white towel she was sitting on was covered with at least 200 fleas. It was sad really. This was an inside dog!

I refuse to allow that type of infestation at my home or shop, and with 30 dogs it could get out of hand really quickly if I didn’t stay on top of it.

We generally use Comfortis for flea prevention, but we have also been known to use Capstar as soon as we start to see any fleas on the puppies and then apply Frontline or Advantage (depending on the dog). That takes care of the fleas on the dogs, but of course there are always some in the house as well and you need to take care of them as well.

At the grooming shop, since we see so many fleas on the pets we groom, we use Capstar (with parent’s permission of course) and do basic flea baths as I have discussed earlier in previous posts, but we do know that some of them may escape into the room.

I dislike pesticides. They are dangerous and not as effective as other methods. To solve the fleas in the house or shop without harsh or dangerous sprays, we use a simple flea trap.

You can buy flea traps that use night light bulbs and sticky paper to catch fleas, but you can also make your own that works just as well or better.

To build a flea trap you need a small lamp, a bowl of water and a drop of dishwashing detergent.

Simple? Yes. Effective? ABSOLUTELY!

I use a gooseneck lamp like you would use on a desk with a 40 watt bulb. The light attracts the fleas at night and will help clear up infestations in a matter of days. It works great because the fleas hop towards the light, and then end up in the water drowning. We use a drop or two of dishwashing soap to help break the surface tension of the water, which means the fleas drown faster and fall to the bottom of the bowl instead of floating.

You can see the small specks in the pan above and those are fleas.

Here is a close-up of two dead fleas, and the only good flea IS a dead flea.

So when a client comes in and has a lot of fleas and they keep saying they need to have the house treated, or that they have already had the house treated and yet there are still fleas, tell them about this simple, safe, effective way to eliminate fleas in the house. It is much safer than toxic chemicals and just as effective.

But what about emerging fleas? A pest control company needs to come back several times to spray again and usually people fail to have them come back. The ones that hatch out after a few days have to be killed quickly or they lay more eggs and we start the entire cycle over again.

This method catches them early before they can lay more eggs.

It is much more cost effective than a pets control company as well!

Let’s do the math.

• Lamp $9.99

• Bowl $2.00

• Water negligible

• Dish soap negligible

• Electricity maybe .50 a day

Now, I run a flea trap in my dogs room all night every night, even if I don’t think there are any fleas on my dogs. It prevents a problem from beginning. After a week of grooming, I set two flea traps at the shop: one in the bathing/drying room and one in the room with my cage dryers. I rarely have to use one in the grooming room but it isn’t a problem to move a lamp in there if we think there is an issue.

On Tuesday, after a weekend off, generally I find no more than 3-4 fleas in each trap. After an especially bad day I am able to set one and catch whatever managed to survive our flea killing regimen.

I know mobile groomers and shop groomers who set bombs off when they have a problem but in 10 years I have never had to do that. I do not have fleas in my shop or house and I credit a simple thing like a flea trap to preventing infestations.

I know the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true it is” but in this case it isn’t. It works. It’s easy. It’s safe. It’s inexpensive.

And I will say it again. The only good flea is a dead flea!

Sometimes a bruise is more than a bruise!

Thursday Ashley called me into the bathing room to look at a dog that she was bathing. There were several small red dots on her belly and some smaller (unde rthe size of a nickel) bruises on her leg, and a few in her ear, similar to the one in the photo above. I was concerned and told her to get her dry after she was done and I would look at her then. 

By the time she had her dry they had already spread, and were now the size of a quarter and there were more coming out on her body. Of COURSE I called her mom immediatley, but we both decided since she was at a doctors appointment of her own (she has cancer) I would just finish grooming her and she would call her vet.

By the time I was done grooming her her ear flaps were purple along the entire edge and the bruises were much more prevalant and getting darker. 

Her vet had told her to bring her in as soon as she could get her there.

She has a condition called Thrombocytopenia.She is being treated with vitamin K, prednisone and two or three other medications and being closely monitored.

The vet said had she gone home and not been treated she likely would not have made it. 

So knowing what to look for may have saved this puppies life.

Bruises that come on suddenly for no known reason and spread qucikly, getting deeper in color in a short period of time need treatment as soon as possible. 

Bruises that come about with no injury and maintain shape and size should be monitored, but if you are concerned a visit to the vet is advised. 

Bruising in the mouth or along the eye rims should be referred to the vet asap.

There are many different reasons that bruising can occur, and many are benign, but in other cases it is a matter of life and death!  

Because we concentrate on skin and coat of the dogs and cats we see we are much more likely to see the bruising than the owners. 

For more information on illnesses that cause bruising in dogs, go to More information or ask your vet for insight on what to look for and when to refer pets to their doctor.

We are the first line advocates for our pet clients. You can save a life. 

To wet or not to wet....

Sometimes it just doesn't make sense to do a wet shave on a matted dog. If the dog is clean, it might make sense to shave first. I KNOW that comes as a shock to you since I am the "wet shave queen" but every now and then I find a dog that can be done without bathing first just as easily as it can be after the bath, and I will SOMETIMES shave first.

Meet these two poodles. They had not been groomed in almost 2 years. YES two years. Their hair was matted badly but not tight to the skin. They were clean. VERY clean. Dad had bathed them them the day before we groomed them, so they were very clean. I was able to get a 7f to go under their hair extremely easily so it worked out well.

I am not going to show you all the photos I have but a few that show how bad they were.

YES that is a lot of hair. YES those are two small poodles. 

By going slow, steady and using a 7f I was able to remove these matted coats safely and easily.

Trying to decide whether or not to wet shave can be tricky. I usually only dry shave dogs that are casted, which these are not, or ones that are extremely clean, which the vast majority of dogs that need shaving due to mats are NOT. 

It is very rare, but in the instances that I choose to shave dry the mats have to be far enough away from the skin that I can do a 7f or longer. I will not shave a dog with a ten or the Bravura on any setting unless I have bathed them immediatley before and they are wet. That will minimize the risk of injury and the chance of irritation as well as save your blades.

Like I said, this is an odd situation for me, but in some cases it may be to everyone's advantage to dry shave instead. Knowing when to use what technique is critical for groomers to learn. It can take years to figure out what works best for you and I am hoping I can help you get there faster with my blog posts.

Smile!!!!!

Most of us have seen this happen and yet we do not understand why it happens. 

Some people think its submissive behavior. Others think they have mimicked human bahavior. 

I remember the first dog I ever saw that did it, and her name was Zelda! She was a mutt of total unknown parentage. We found her in the parking lot behind the grooming shop one morning when we came in. She might have been 8 weeks old and she already SMILED! We had no luck at all in placing her because of her smiling. People thought she was being mean. We had her for 8 years and she smiled until the day she died. 

My next smiler was an Austrailian Shepard name Lacey. She smiled all the time. In fact, she smiled so much that the scottie she lived with learned how to smile as well. 

Truth be told I have NO Idea why they do it. I just think its precious!

In many cases, like Princess, the yorkie in the picture above, they will do it on command. Whenever you say her name, she smiles. If you say SMILE, she smiles. If someone new comes in the shop and speaks to her she smiles. Her dads say she smiles for several minutes every day when they come home from work. 

Most dogs that smile do it when they are happy. My dog Scrappy, whom I have yet to catch doing it on camera, will even do it at bedtime, as if he is saying PLEASE MOM don't make me go up! 

Scrappy, his brother Alley Oop and their mom Maxie all smile! 

I have also seen dogs in the same household as a smiler learn to smile.

SO, while some people think that dogs can't smile for real and if they do there is something lurking behind it, I don't think so.

I think they can. I think it's cute, learned behavior that because the dog gets positive attention from doing it, they continue doing it.

So don't be afraid when dogs smile. Smile back! Bet they think you are being goofy as well when you do!

 

Golden Retriever Short Haircut

We all get these requests: can we cut him short but not shaved? 

Well we all know that sometimes we can and sometimes we can't, but in many cases groomers don't know how to do it.

What we do in my salon is simple. A really good bath (or two) and then a proper dry and deshed. When the dog is completely dry and thouroughly brushed out we take a Bravura and the Stainless Steel snap on combs that fit it and depending on the coat use either a zero (the yellow one) or the #1 (dark blue one) and take off excess hair. 

We always follow the lay of the hair. Going across it will make it choppy and irregular. If you follow the natural lay of the hair it will look natural and even.

There is a theory that clipping down golden retrievers can cause the hair not to grow back properly but I have not found that to be the case unless there is an underlying health issue like Hypo-Thyroidism (which that breed is known for). Clipping short however should ONLY be done when the matting is excessive or you simply cannot talk the owner out of it. 

If you cannot talk the owner out of it or the matting is too prevalent to avoid it, then educate the owner that there is a chance the coat may not grow back. Some people ask clients to sign a waiver making it clear that they understand the risks. I don't. It is just not an issue I have seen a problem with.

By using a snap on versus a regular blade you can minimize the chance for a coat regrowth issue.

Here is a picture of a Golden we groom with a Zero guard.

A close up of the side of the dog.

I take the same snap on over the ears and then use thinners to smooth it up afterwards.

 

This gives owners an easier to care for coat, with shorter hairs to shed out and a dog that will be cooler (at least in the parent's eyes) and more happy.

This is perfect for older dogs who do not tolerate brushing as well, and dogs that swim a lot. We all know dogs that swim a lot tend to mat and take a long time to dry if they are heavily coated.

So while it might not be politcally correct to shave or cut back a Golden, and it might sometimes damage the coat, in many cases it is something that will be done by someone. By learning how to groom one this way you can make it easy on your owners, yourself and the dog. 

AND charge for it! Because not everyone can do this well.

Wow! Sao Paulo groomer frees poodle

This article showed up on a friend of mine's Facebook feed and I am posting it here to share it with you.

It is one of the worst matted dogs I have ever seen in my career.

The story as told in the newspaper is as follows (I did work on the translation a bit)

At the end of last week, around 1 am, the staff of Pet Center Marginal Marginal Tietê, which runs 24 hours, jumped. The poodle came up there for the aesthetic center (grooming center) of the site led by a trio of young people who had left a concert and rescued the pup on the street. The surprise, of course, was the deplorable state of the animal.

Her long-haired and filthy that had not seen scissors for at least four years. Some wires were wrapped into the dreadlocks. Customers waiting in line at the bathing and grooming once gave way to the poor pooch. For two hours, the employee Araceli Sousa unfolded it to get rid of more than 3 pounds of badly tangled hair that was hard like a cast. Fleas nor water could penetrate the coat it was so hard and thick.

During the procedure, done with scissors and electric shaving, the poodle was angry, because it was necessary tugging your skin to remove the hair. Furthermore, his ear, for example, was hematomad. The result was worth it and it came out pretty clean (and much lighter) as shown in the last picture. In the end, kissed, licked the groomer and returned to his new home with one of the boys who saved him from the streets.

 

I wanted to share this with everyone, because we do not see th ings like this often, thank goodness, but some people DO see them, and knowing how to remove t his type of hair is a tremendous skill. 

That groomer needs an award!

 

Air Conditioning Maintenance

_{My filter after ONE WEEK. The location of my air intake is right outside of my drying area.}

_{Cleaned filter. This breathes much better improving the AC efficiency dramatically.}

Most of us know we need to change the filters on our AC and heater units regularly but do you ever have the units serviced? I have mine done at least twice a year, usually in March and October. In March we start needing the AC in earnest and October we need the heat.

A good Ac repairman will clean, service, inspect and recharge the unit. This will cost about $100 here but will save me HUNDREDS of dollars in electricity over the summer. This can be important to shops and mobile units. 

A clogged or poorly charged AC will not perform well. When it doesn't perform well it works harder to cool and that costs you money. My shop wasn't cooling properly and was muggy, so I called my guy out, but before I did that I took the cover off the outside unit and cleaned it up as best I could.

Here is what the coils on my AC unit looked like last week:

Now it doesn't look like much, but what you are looking at is HAIR that got past my filters regardless of how many times a month we vacuum and change the filter. AND it's HARD. I used a wire brush to remove the hair and then called my AC guy to co me out and do a professional cleaning job.

That is what I pulled off. Now I have to tell you I run two filters on my AC unit. The intake is in the hallway outside my drying room and as a result is not exposed to a lot of hair (we keep the drying room door shut 90% of the time) and yet weekly filter vacuumming and changing does not stop hair from migrating to the coils.

Here is another picture of what we pulled off:

 

Can you see how thick and almost like fabric that is? When that is clogging the coils on your unit it cannot cool properly because air cannot get across the fins of the coil to be cooled. That can actually lead to AC failure or even fire.

With heaters, it is really important that the unit be checked for cracks or breaks in the seals. If these are present then carbon monoxide gas can be returned into the building from the unit. Having your gas or electric heating unit serviced before use can save not only money; it can save your LIFE!

SO it is critical to get your units serviced routinely. Have you had yours cleaned lately? 

Have a little faith in me

I know that many of you are ardent ear pluckers and have the thinking (albeit flawed) that if you do not pluck that a dog will have ear infections. I am of the other school of thought but generally we trim the ear hair back to allow airflow.

WELL, on Bo we obviously didn't do that. Here is a picture of his ears with the hair that has never been plucked in his life. 

It is the same length as the hair on the outer part of his ears. 

Please note that it is not discolored, not stained in any way. the ear is clean, not inflamed, red or smelly. This dog has never had the first ear infection that I know of in two and half years. 

So this is to prove my point that NOT plucking does not always lead to ear infections. Plucking alone does not lead to healthier ears. 

i am a firm believer of  the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" way of thinking.

I think that cleanliness of the dog, diet, and genetics play a huge role in whether or not a dog will have ear problems. 

I know that some dogs need plucking but this is proof that not all do. When a client says to me "The vet said to have you do it" I tell them why I don't do it, and tell them that if the vet thinks it is medically neccesary to do it let him do it. I ALSO hear "The vet said it doesn't hurt them" and I explain that it CAN and quite often DOES hurt the dog and that I do not want to be the bad guy causing their puppy pain unnecessarily. I then go on to explain that the hair is actually a sheild against dirt and water and will help the ear stay healtheir if they just leave it alone. 

I have not e er lost a client that I know of because I refused to pluck the ear hair. I did have one person years ago get angry with me because I told her I couldn't pluck her dog's ears but it was a lab with no hair in the ears. There was no reasoning with that person. I have had clients get pset when I refused to clean or pluck inflamed, obviously infected ears, but I don't deal well with clients who put other things before the health of their dogs.

SO whenever you wonder if the ear plucking has to be done or else, look at  Bo. Obviously it doesn't. 

What the owner doesn't know

can really injure the dog. I have had two owners who were completely clueless as to the condition of their pets when they brought them to us for grooming.

CAUTION! THE PHOTOS BELOW ARE GRAPHIC AND MAY BE UPSETTING TO SOME OF YOU!

First was Bear, a Shih-tzu-Poodle mixed puppy that had not been groomed in 3 months. He is about 6 months old. He HAD been to the vet for his vaccines, including a rabies vaccine given four weeks prior to his grooming. 

When his dad came in he asked me to check his collar because the vet had told him it was getting a bit tight and he needed a new one and since I had some left from Christmas I told him I would find him one that fit better. I had not checked it at that time, but I wish I had. I placed Bear in a crate on a pad while I checked in the next client, then took him out and went to put him on my table to check the collar before I forgot.

I smelled what I thought was a badly infected ear and yet when I looked at his ears nothing was wrong. I then start looking for the infection and I found that his collar was not just too tight it was actually buckled into his skin and the buckle itself was growing into his skin. 

_{The picture above is his collar we took off and the collar we fitted him with.}

I tried to remove his collar but could not do it. I could not get the buckle to push in because of the skin growing into it and as a result had to call my son from the other room to come help me. It was a para-cord collar and my son makes those and survival bracelets so I thought he may have some wisdom for me. 

_{The little bulb of skin you see is stuck in the buckle between the para-cord and the buckle itself.}

I called the vet clinic that treats this dog and they refused to see him unless the owner brought him in. Since I had been unable to get the owner on the phone, that wasn't possible. I was livid that they would not treat this dog as it was an emergency in my opinion.

Brian, my son, managed to use my nail clippers to remove the para-cord from the buckle and it gave me enough play to be able to get the buckle undone. I know this had to hurt but he was really a good puppy for the entire procedure.

_{This is what we found after we removed the collar from the dog.}

I shaved this area just a little bit and then put the dog away to wait for the owner to pick him up. I supposed I could have groomed him but I was afraid to as the loop and even water from the bath might have aggrevated the injury and caused a big problem. I wanted this dog treated before I groomed him

Three weeks later this puppy came back in and we were able to groom him. This is the almost-healed neck.

Now I k now some of you think he should have been reported for neglect or abuse, but honestly he was shaken by the condition of the puppy. He is an older man and he did not know this was an issue. He knew he needed a new collar, but he did not know it was this bad. In all honesty I blame the vet as much as the owner because they told him he should consider getting a larger one but did not remove the too small one or make it a big deal. He said they acted like it was OK still, just something to think about doing. I know he loves this puppy. 

Then we see Callie, the cocker, who stays outside because she wants to not because the owner wants her to. They thought they were doing the right thing putting straw in her dog house for the winter so she could stay warm. The thing is they got very small, hard straw. It then got into her hair and worked its way into the skin. Under her front legs where mom and dad could not see it were abcesses.

I literally pulled straw out that had worked its way straight into the skin over a half of an inch. I was floored. Her mom was in tears, but honestly she could not see it and had no idea that what they thought was the right thing to do was the wrong thing to do. Her vet called me to let me know she was going to be ok and to thank me for sending her straight there after the grooming. He went on to pull out more pieces from her pads, which I could not touch, and her underams when he opened the abcess further to clean it up.

So sometimes, good owners are oblivious to problems their pets have, and it is our job to direct them to the vet. Sometimes it is neglect. Sometimes it is simply lack of knowledge. Our jobs include the responsibility to know when to report an owner for neglect or abuse and to know when it truly was something they just didn't know about. It is a fine line at times, but knowing how to evaluate a situation and make an informed decision is a skill we all need to have and work on.

I do not think either of these families deliberately mistreated their pets. I think that had they known there was a problem they would have addressed it really early in the situation and it would not have been as bad for either pet. But I am glad I was able to help these dogs.

When does it stop?

I remember someone asking this question on a message board recently "How long do you groom before accidents stop and you don't cut one anymore?" 

The answer is, unfortunatley, never. It still happens to me once in a rare while and I think it happens to most everyone at some time. Happened to me today in fact.

Elderly poodle. Blind. Mom is a "shop hopper" and the dog is not used to getting done in one place - or often enough for that matter - so she is a kicking-pulling-screaming-twisting-hard to groom dog.

And today,while I was scissoring around her foot, she kicked out her back foot and took off a chunk of pad. It did not bleed at all because I felt it happen and was able to immediately clamp off the toe applying pressure to the top and bottom of the toe. My groomer heard me say "S###" and asked "what do you need?" and I told her I cut a pad, so she grabbed me a paper towel, a baby wipe and the Styptic pads, all within 30 seconds. She then secured her dog and came over to hold my poodle while I took a closer look at it to see what had happened.

I wasn't closing my shears, thank goodness, but they are freshly sharpened and she basically "shaved" the pad off. She had taken the flap of black pad skin almost completely off, barely skimming the pink skin underneath. I knew we couldn't leave that flap of skin (it was hanging by just a tiny sliver of skin) so I just snipped the rest off with my shears. I cleaned it with a baby wipe, then followed up with an antiseptic wipe, all the while keeping pressure on the toe. Still not one drop of blood. I dried it with the paper towel and then applied the styptic. The styptic pads have Benzocain ein them for pain. Even though it wasnt bleeding I was afraid it would start when I took pressure off, as pads are known to do, but it never did. 

The funny part of this is that this crazy whirling dervish of a poodle was perfect for all of this. We were both in shok but she stood still, didn't fuss, fight or flinch the first time. 

I told the owners immediately what had happened and they are fine with it. I sent home three more styptic pads with instructions on how to use it if it should start bleeding and told them to take her to the vet if they think she needs it and keep me posted. I will call them tomorrow to check on her but I am 90% sure she will be fine and there will be no issues with this cut. 

IF it had been a "closed cut" where the V was cut into the pad but it wasnt open, or a slice which has happened before as well, there would be much more chance of an infection, but when the cut is more of a scrape its not that big of a deal.

If it had been a closed cut I would not have used styptic either as it can cause problems in closed areas. I would have used vet wrap and a non-stick telfa pad to wrap it up in and gone to her vet for further treatment.

How you handle this type of situation is critical.

• Be honest
• TELL THE OWNER
• Accept responsibility
• pay for any medical treatment needed
• comp the NEXT GROOM if that is what it takes to keep the people happy.

As long as you behave in a professional and respectful manner the client will be fine in most cases. Trying to hide it or run from your responsibilites will cause you lots of trouble in the long run.