# what do i do for a very uncomfortable furbaby?



## biancasmom (Jun 24, 2008)

Bianca has always been the type of dog where if she is not comfortable in a dress or clothes of any sort, she will just lay there and not move and look uncomfortable.

Well now she is doing the same thing after grooming without even wearing clothes..what can i do for her?? She had a lot of mats and i took her to petsmart. Usually they use the #4 clipper on her and they said with the mats, they might have to go shorter and i said a #6 shoud be ok.. they used a #10...My baby is pretty close to being bald... and in fact she is around her bottom and on her elbows!...they made her tail look like a horse or.. like Eeyore is the way i describe it.. they shaved the part nearest the body..i know for a fact there were no mats there..there also were not any on her legs and they shaved her legs completely down... Not only is she cold ( i have turned my heat up really high to keep her warm.. plus put warm sweaters, etc on her) but she is so uncomfortable she wont walk.. she takes a few steps and then something tickles her and she stops to scratch and then looks at me to carry her.. she is just lying around not doing anything..the only way i could get her to eat was to bring her food to her.

I am sure she is feeling itchy since they pretty much shaved her bald.. is there anything i can put on her? here is a pic of her.. and the pic doesnt even show the bald pink spots.. its awful!!


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## iheartbisou (Feb 13, 2007)

oh poor Bianca! I would try to put a very soft sweater on her now anyway...maybe the kind without the sleeves, just to help keep her warm. And lots of warm blankets for her to nest in. Other than that I"m sorry, I don't have any other advice.

I have this sweater for Bisou and it's an incredibly soft material and not too expensive. 

dog sweater


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## Snowball Pie's Mommi (Oct 16, 2008)

Bianca looks sweet anyway. :wub: :wub: 

What was the cause of her having a lot of mats? Maybe for Bianca to feel comfortable in clothes ... she needs a size larger ... clothes that are not too constricting? And, maybe clothing that is very soft, like cotton? Maybe she is allergic to something, thus making her itch and mat more than usual?

As far as her hair ... it will grow back. In the meantime, it might give you a chance to zero in on the cause of her itching and matting so much.

She sure is a sweet looking baby doll. She has an adorable looking face. :wub: :wub:


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## Snowbody (Jan 3, 2009)

Poor baby. She must be thinking "where'd my hair go??" :bysmilie: I know that some of the groomers go overboard. I think they just make it easier on themselves. As everyone's said try some very soft clothes. I put a fleece on tyler who also hates wearing clothes and he's warm and comfy in it. Maybe try a little at a time. Am wondering also what they may have bathed her in. Maybe she'll need a new bath in a more soothing shampoo...there may have even been little hairs let on her that might be itching her. I'm sure she'll get used to her new look and feel and get around more. Just try to distract her with fun and treats. She's still got the cutest face. :wub:


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## bailey02 (May 1, 2009)

Why dont you buy a doggie heating pad for her bed that might work. Or you can buy her a snuggie I hear those are pretty warm and loose fitting. Also maybe you might want to find a private groomer. I have only heard bad things about Petsmart and Petco groomers.


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## cleooscar (May 28, 2008)

Is she shivering? One time this groomer shaved Cleo nearly bald and she was shivering from the chills. I think putting soft comfy sweater like the others suggested could help. Could her skin be dry from the bath? I used to take Pasha and Raine to Petsmart for grooming but they always scratched their body afterwards especially Pasha which has a 1" puppy cut. I now switched to a Maltese breeder who also has a grooming business with her sister and they don't scratch afterwards. I wonder if it's the shampoo Petsmart use? If you don't have other groomers nearby perhaps you can bring your own shampoo and conditioner next time? I know when I bath ours between grooming, they don't get itchy afterwards. 

Hope Bianca feels more comfortable soon.


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## almitra (Apr 24, 2009)

Aw, I hope your little chilly dog ((wink)) warms up soon---definitely a super soft material sweater seems to be in order. Poor little girl.


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## EmmasMommy (Jun 2, 2008)

Maybe a dusting with a light corn starch would help with the itching? I know it helps with chaffed human skin...... just a idea?


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## LJSquishy (Feb 27, 2008)

Aww, poor Bianca! It will take her a few days to feel more comfortable with her temporary "shorter" cut. After a week or so it will have grown out enough to where she feels a little better.

I shaved London with a #10 myself when I first bought my own clippers because she had a couple of mats, and she acted the same way the first couple of days. I just ignored the behavior (but did give her extra snuggles to make sure she stayed warm) and after a few days she was fine! Their hair grows SO fast -- next week you will be shocked at how much her hair has already grown. What is really funny, is that London used to get mats all over her body/legs before I owned my own clippers/shears, and now that I've been grooming her myself she doesn't get any mats at all! So the problem was solved...lol


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## Maglily (Feb 3, 2009)

Did they bathe her? Maybe she needs another bath or a rinse to remove whatever soap they used, or to remove any little bits of hair that might be itchy to her skin or in the pads ???


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## Hunter's Mom (Dec 8, 2008)

I use petsmart but I love our groomer. For 2 years we have been struggling to find someone we can trust and that we really like but we hit the jackpot with Michelle, our new groomer. In the beginning we had to shave Hunter down like that because of mats but it grows back really fast (like Lisa said). I might suggest rebathing her in her own shampoo and dry her yourself if you think that might help relax her a little bit.

I think she looks adorable and (look on the bright side) they didn't shave down her hair and ears!!!


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## tamizami (May 1, 2007)

If you add Omega oils to her diet, like Wild Salmon oil or Hemp oil, that will help ease her itchy skin and also help speed the hair growth. I hope she is feeling better soon!


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## biancasmom (Jun 24, 2008)

QUOTE (shanghaimomma @ Dec 8 2009, 02:33 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=859543


> oh poor Bianca! I would try to put a very soft sweater on her now anyway...maybe the kind without the sleeves, just to help keep her warm. And lots of warm blankets for her to nest in. Other than that I"m sorry, I don't have any other advice.
> 
> I have this sweater for Bisou and it's an incredibly soft material and not too expensive.
> 
> dog sweater[/B]


i have that exact same sweater! Ive been putting her in that sometimes


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## biancasmom (Jun 24, 2008)

QUOTE (Snowball Pie's Mommi @ Dec 8 2009, 03:00 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=859547


> Bianca looks sweet anyway. :wub: :wub:
> 
> What was the cause of her having a lot of mats? Maybe for Bianca to feel comfortable in clothes ... she needs a size larger ... clothes that are not too constricting? And, maybe clothing that is very soft, like cotton? Maybe she is allergic to something, thus making her itch and mat more than usual?
> 
> ...


as far as the clothes issue.. there are some dresses that she just doesnt like.. and i can always tell because she just lays there.. but there are some she is perfectly fine in. Sometimes i think it has to do with newness.. because when i get her a new outfit she can do that but after wearing it a while she is fine in it.. 

as far as the itching and scratching.. she hasnt been doing that... much.. recently.. its only after the haircut.. i honestly think its because she was shaved so close.. i wish there was some sort of doggy aftershave i could put on her!...she definitely has allergies.. hence the tear staining.. but my vet doesnt believe in allergy medications.. he said as long as she doesnt seem to be in pain from the tear staining then she is fine.. 

as far as the matting.. i dont know what caused it.. the ones on her belly i get because she lays on her belly a lot and the hair rubs ...but i would brush all the mats out and they would come back the next day..i think its the way they cut her if thats possible.. Also it was her length.. whenever her hair gets too long she starts to mat up a little...but yes i am going to use this opportunity to try to keep her from matting


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## Cosy (Feb 9, 2006)

QUOTE (biancasmom @ Dec 8 2009, 09:12 PM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=859928


> QUOTE (Snowball Pie's Mommi @ Dec 8 2009, 03:00 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=859547





> Bianca looks sweet anyway. :wub: :wub:
> 
> What was the cause of her having a lot of mats? Maybe for Bianca to feel comfortable in clothes ... she needs a size larger ... clothes that are not too constricting? And, maybe clothing that is very soft, like cotton? Maybe she is allergic to something, thus making her itch and mat more than usual?
> 
> ...


as far as the clothes issue.. there are some dresses that she just doesnt like.. and i can always tell because she just lays there.. but there are some she is perfectly fine in. Sometimes i think it has to do with newness.. because when i get her a new outfit she can do that but after wearing it a while she is fine in it.. 

as far as the itching and scratching.. she hasnt been doing that... much.. recently.. its only after the haircut.. i honestly think its because she was shaved so close.. i wish there was some sort of doggy aftershave i could put on her!...she definitely has allergies.. hence the tear staining.. but my vet doesnt believe in allergy medications.. he said as long as she doesnt seem to be in pain from the tear staining then she is fine.. 

as far as the matting.. i dont know what caused it.. the ones on her belly i get because she lays on her belly a lot and the hair rubs ...but i would brush all the mats out and they would come back the next day..i think its the way they cut her if thats possible.. Also it was her length.. whenever her hair gets too long she starts to mat up a little...but yes i am going to use this opportunity to try to keep her from matting
[/B][/QUOTE]


You can bathe her in an oatmeal shampoo to reduce the burn from the clippers. You can also use a bit of Benedryl spray on
any hot spots she may have. Hope she feels better soon.


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## mymalt (Apr 3, 2009)

I can recommend a couple natural products for you to try. It seems when dogs get clipped close they get a little itchy. Dermasol Skin Care Gel can stop the itchies. I use it after I clip one of my yorkies so he doesn't get itchy. You just rub it over the body where it was clipped. This gel works great on hotspots and any itchy areas. You can purchase it at pet stores, PetSupermarket.

A product that may help with allergy eyes is a homeopathic eye drop called Similasan Allergy Eye Relief. I recommended it to a girlfriend whose Malt started getting tear stains and she has seen dramatic results in tear stain reduction...not to mention how the drops must be helping the eyes. These drops can now be purchased at WalMart and probably other chain stores.

You can google these products for ingredients and to see if they might be something you may want to try. 

Diane


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## biancasmom (Jun 24, 2008)

thanks everyone for your help.. i bathed her and that seemed to sooth the itching and the hair is starting to grow back in..

but here is the thing.. she is not acting herself.. she is a very independent dog and loves to go play with her toys and only comes to snuggle with me on the couch when its almost bedtime. now she wants to be on the couch with me ALL the time and doesnt want to play.. She refuses to walk on the linoleum (i know im not spelling that right) in the kitchen so i have to put her food and water on the carpet.. I imagine she thinks its going to be cold.. but its not.. i walk on it in my bare feet all the time.. It used to be if i was cooking soemthing in the kitchen, she would come by my feet and bark at me..the other day i was cooking and she sat in the living room on the rug barking at me.. she wouldnt come into the kitchen.. nothing happened in the kitchen to scare her at my house.. unless maybe whereever they cut her looks like my kitchen... I have her pee pads near the kitchen and there is linoleum there too and what she does to go to the potty and jump from the rug to the pee pad.. skipping the linoleum all together.. 

last thing she is doing is holding her tail funny sometimes.. like when i get home, i ge ther out of the playpen and put her down to run to the living room.. and she will run like normal then stop.. hold her tail sideways and try to scratch the top of the tail (wher they shaved it).. the other nite she went #2 and then came over to me whining and crying.. i thought maybe something was wrong with her bowels or something so i was feeling her sides and trying to see when she reacted.. she only reacted when i touched right below her tail and above her butt (sorry if thats crass) there is less an inch space there but she screamed when i touched it.. its shaved there too.. i wonder if when they shaved over her behind area if they nicked it.. i cant see any cuts but have u ever shaved your legs and shaved part of the skin away.. you cant see it but it hurts! maybe that happened.. 

i have some doggy ibuprofin (not sure what it is called but thats what the vet said it is the equivalent of) that i gave her when she hurt her leg a few months ago.. do you think i should give her a little of that?


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## drclee (Jul 16, 2008)

Poor thing. Maybe there is a cut there that you missed? Maybe you can put some neosporin there?


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## almitra (Apr 24, 2009)

You did indeed spell linoleum correctly! 

My DH's schnauzer won't walk on tile or the like at all--she feels less sure-footed, I imagine. She did get better after a few weeks, though...especially since she wanted to be close to him and he went in there all the time. But since this issue began for your baby at the same time as the other stuff, it may certainly be an illness related idiosyncrasy. If it didn't bother her before, then as she feels better (and she should really soon), it too will return to normal. Let us know how things go.


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## cleooscar (May 28, 2008)

I don't know what to tell you about the pain she may be feeling near her tail but if it persists you may want to take her to a vet to take a good look at. As for walking on linoleum, could it be that the groomer trimmed her nails differently and it made her feel uncomfortable when walking on hard surface? 

Hope she's back to her normal happy self soon.


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## princessmolly (Oct 1, 2004)

How's Bianca doing since it's been a few weeks now? Hope she is more comfortable now. Sounds like she got a very poor haircut from Petsmart. I would suggest searching for a groomer but be careful with them as well. Be sure to do your homework. The last time I took Molly to a groomer it was a shop in a small stripmall and everything was out in the open where you could watch and they invited you to stay if you wish. I went in initially and talked to the groomers and felt I was making the right choice. I made an appointment for Molly and took her in the next week. I decided to leave her and come back. I came a few minutes early from when they said she would be ready and they had her on the table and another maltese on another table, which belonged to the one groomer, both being groomed yet. I parked and sat in the car to watch. I couldn't tell which one was Molly from the car because I parked back away from the window so they wouldn't notice me. As I watched they finished the one maltese and took her from the table and just dropped her to the floor, from table height. At that moment I got out of the car and went inside. Lucky for them it was their maltese and not Molly that they did that to. Then as I was paying, the one groomer had her little girl with her and the girl was grabbing the maltese, playing or whatever, I'm not sure but then I caught eye when she started spanking the poor little thing. He didn't squeal or anything but this was all unsettling for me. I never took Molly back there again and have done my own trimming on her. 
I have to be careful when I trim around Molly's fanny because if I trim it too close she will scoot for a few days. She'll be walking and then just sit abruptly. I think maybe the short little hairs poke them? Sounds like they may have scraped Bianca's skin if it was sensitive when you touched it. Could have also been the case with her not wanting to walk on the linoleum. Maybe they scraped or cut the skin between her pads. 
Do you use a conditioner after you shampoo her as well. That may help against the matting problems, but just good ole daily brushing is the best thing if you want to keep her fur long. Molly doesn't matt up if I keep her fur trimmed down shorter to about an inch or so. 
With her tear staining, I just bought Spa Lavish Facial Scrub and have been using it once a day on Molly's face. She has a horrible time with tear staining but I am seeing a big improvement already. 
Hope Bianca is doing better.


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## Kissi's Mom (Apr 21, 2006)

QUOTE (biancasmom @ Dec 8 2009, 12:19 AM) index.php?act=findpost&pid=859501


> Bianca has always been the type of dog where if she is not comfortable in a dress or clothes of any sort, she will just lay there and not move and look uncomfortable.
> 
> Well now she is doing the same thing after grooming without even wearing clothes..what can i do for her?? She had a lot of mats and i took her to petsmart. Usually they use the #4 clipper on her and they said with the mats, they might have to go shorter and i said a #6 shoud be ok.. they used a #10...My baby is pretty close to being bald... and in fact she is around her bottom and on her elbows!...they made her tail look like a horse or.. like Eeyore is the way i describe it.. they shaved the part nearest the body..i know for a fact there were no mats there..there also were not any on her legs and they shaved her legs completely down... Not only is she cold ( i have turned my heat up really high to keep her warm.. plus put warm sweaters, etc on her) but she is so uncomfortable she wont walk.. she takes a few steps and then something tickles her and she stops to scratch and then looks at me to carry her.. she is just lying around not doing anything..the only way i could get her to eat was to bring her food to her.
> 
> ...


So sorry she is so uncomfortable. I went through the same thing with Kissi several years ago.
The itching may be from the shampoo they used or she may even have some "razor burn" that 
needs some medication?? As for her being cold...Kissi didn't want to wear clothes before being
clipped too close either but now loves them. I went to the baby department and bought some white
cotton preemie sized undershirts...they are very inexpensive and sooo soft...Kissi loved them (they are
lightweight but still help hold in her body heat). Good luck.
Linda


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## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

I'm sorry she is going through this!

You mentioned in your original post that she had many mats. To remove those the groomer had to shave those spots way down, probably almost to the skin. therefore would have to shave the rest of her hair so that she wouldn't look all uneven. This happened with Ollie during his coat change. So....I'm not siding with the groomer but she may have just done the best she could.

Everyone else gave good advice--I'm sure she will adjust soon--it's probably just weird-feeling for her. Hope she's comfy soon.


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## biancasmom (Jun 24, 2008)

***update (not sure how to edit the original post title)

so about 2 weeks after the grooming with Bianca still not acting herself, i went back to Petsmart and made them pay for a vet appt. I had to go to Banfield (which scared me because Ive heard horror stories) but they paid for everything. It turns out that Bianca had a really bad ear infection (which they wouldnt admit came from the grooming.. but come on.. what causes ear infections? wet ears and I hadnt gotten her ears wet since the grooming) and she had a fever.. They didnt know what caused the fever and said sometimes if a dog gets excited they can get a fever.

They felt her tail and couldnt feel anything and they expressed her anal glands and said they werent blocked.. 
they said that sometimes with wiggly dogs (and she is a wiggle worm) when they are wiggling on a table during a grooming, they can strain a muscle in the tail.. they think that may be what happened and why she was holding her tail weird. 

they gave me medicine for the ear infection and an ear wash and told me to use it til gone.. i asked if she was going to get an antibiotic and they didnt want to at first.. but since christmas was just a few days away and they would be closed they gave her a bottle of amoxicillin and told me to give it to her until it was gone.. (2x a day .45cc)

So i started doing this.. after 2 weeks i still had a huge amount of the ear medicine left and over half a bottle of the amoxicillin left.. but something happened.. Bianca became her old ornery self.. i checked her ear and i no longer smell the infection and i cant see anything.. so I stopped giving her the medicines.. My vet has never had her on medicine for more than 10 days since she is only 4.75 lbs.. so i assumed it would be ok.. I still use the ear wash becase thats not medicated and it does smell nice.. she doesnt mind that either. im just not doing it every day.. maybe 2x a week. 

its now been 1 1/2 weeks since then and no recurrence of the ear infection.. her hair is starting to get longer (altho it is all uneven from the way they shaved it) and I am making sure to brush her sometimes 2-3 times a day. Its been too cold for a bath but i did buy some furbutter and i am going to make sure and use that with my shampoo to help keep her from getting matts again.

I honestly think she picked up some kind of bug at the groomers and thats why she wasnt feeling well.. combined with the ear infection and the really short hair and whatever happened with her tail.

as far as banfield.. they werent too bad.. the only actual problem i had was they gave me the wrong paperwork when i was leaving.. they were closing and just handed me the paperwork and said it was paid for.. and i had the dog in my arms so i just took it and left.. when i got home i noticed it was for another dog that was there that day.. Funny thing was.. that one was a problem with the groomers too that was getting paid by petsmart.. so im definitely not going to use their groomers anymore

janie


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## drclee (Jul 16, 2008)

I'm so glad to hear Bianca's back to her old self! I definitely agree that you should not use Petsmart's groomers anymore. But most important is that she's healthy and happy.


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