Dog Grooming Archives | Page 2 of 2 | 1st Low Stress Handling Pet Groomer in SG

Diseases: How to quickly cure an ear mite infestation

April 10, 2013 By Sunny Lim

When your pet have been scratching their ears or shaking their head relentlessly, it may not be because they can’t get to the itch (Or maybe that’s the reason. I would go nuts if my fingers became stumps and couldn’t reach where the itch is.) but rather, it may be a case of ear mite infestation, dermatitis, fungal or bacterial infection. Imagine an itch that NEVER goes away. Today I’ll talk a little on the more common ear problem: Ear mite infestations and how you can get rid of it quickly.

What are ear mites?

Ear mites are biting insects that are almost naked to the human eye which lives on the bodies of animals, even humans, and feeds by sucking blood in the ear canal. They are most active and tends to multiply faster in warm and humid places especially when the immune system of the host is impaired. The result of the feeding would cause dark brown ear wax, severe itching and inflammation or redness of the ear. Left unchecked, it may lead to nasty ear infections.

How to test for ear mites

1. Smear some ear wax on a black surface and spot for white specks, the size of a pin head, moving around.
2. You can also try smearing some ear wax on a paper towel and apply a few drops of hydrogen peroxide on to it. If some of it smudges and turns reddish brown, it’s a sign of dried blood, indicating that ear mites are feeding.

Unfortunate, but it ain’t all that bad

What differs from animals and humans is that get ear mites infestations rather easily, especially if the ears are not kept dry or when they come in physical contact with other animals with ear mites. The worse part is that ear mites don’t go away by themselves, torturing your pets with constant itching and secondary infections.

However from personal experience, it’s a problem easily treated at the onset of spotting the symptoms.

So when you find that your pets ears are getting dirty and a tad red from inflammation, do try some of these tips to see if it clears up:

Ear mites don’t just stay inside the ear. Hence you may discover that even though the ear might clear up after a few days of treatment, you’ll find that the redness and brown debris would sometimes soon find it’s way back. If that’s the case, you might want to try treating the rest of the body with an anti-parasitic spray or spot on treatment. Look for ingredients like moxidectin, selamectin or ivermectin, but if you already have flea and ticks spray at home, you can try that as well.
Get a bottle of ear mite treatment or a.k.a ear canker drops for the shop. After cleaning your pet’s ears, apply it twice daily and the ear should clear up in 7-14 days. Some ear cleaning solution like Earriffic has properties to treat ear mites and they are a great compliment to ear canker drops.
The next thing you should have in your house is a bottle of ear powder. Pet groomers use it to help them remove hairs inside dogs’ ears (which should be an important part of your weekly grooming schedule at home), but apart from that, ear powder keeps your pets’ ears dry, which prevents bacterial growth. Also, most ear powder contains boric acid which acts as an antiseptic and insecticide, working together to treat ear mite infestations. Use it after baths or daily when the ear drops has dried.
If you have multiple pets at home, treat all of them, because ear mites spreads easily through physical contact.

When to seek medical attention

If your pets’ ears shows no sign of improvement after 2 weeks.
The condition worsens after 2 weeks.
Green or yellow discharge/pus in the ear canal, a sign indicating a serious infection.

Prevention

Be it bacterial infection or ear mite infestation it’s caused by excess moisture in the ear and poor immune system. As a preventive measure, always clean your pets’ ears with a ear cleaner after their bath and/or dry their ears thoroughly, especially floppy eared breeds. If they refuse to let you dry their ears with a hair dryer, use ear powder instead. It’s okay to apply liberally as they will shake off the excess.

—

If you like this article, why not share me share it? Also, please let me know if you have any questions about grooming, health, behavior that you may want me to answer.

Pet Grooming: Dental hygiene for your pup

March 4, 2013 By Sunny Lim

The love we feel when our cute little puppy lick us on our faces, but to some people, it may also feel like they’re smearing crap at the same time (not because thy enjoy licking themselves down south).

Causes and effects of tooth decay

Like us, the food they consume (carbohydrates and processed foods are usually the main culprits) will cause the formation of plague. As plague crystallizes and hardens, tartar is formed. When that happens, brushing alone will not be able to remove the tartar. If allowed to form further, tartar will cause inflammation of the gums, also known as gingivitis.

Left unchecked, the bacteria will damage the tooth and this is when your dog will show symptoms of bad breath (I mean REALLY bad breath), receding gums and tooth decay. In very serious cases, the bacteria from the tooth decay may cause infection of the nose, eyes and even the brain.

We have to brush our teeth twice a day and the only difference between us and dogs is that their teeth are spaced further apart and they don’t eat as much junk as we do, but still brushing still needs to be a part of their grooming regiment.

It’s a one way street

Besides, if the tooth is already damaged, extraction is usually the only solution. And because poor dental hygiene affects the whole set of teeth, many of the serious cases sent for dental scaling and extraction goes home with only a few remaining teeth. That is why, protect your pet’s teeth before irreversible damage is done!

And please, do not send it to the pet groomer thinking that a simple tooth brushing will miraculously remove all the tartar build up and bad breath. You have a little more sense than that right?

Besides, little to people know that tooth diseases have a deep impact on the overall health of the body. There is an increasing evidence proving that tooth diseases causes bacteria to enter the bloodstream causing damage to other organs. Just do a quick search periodontal disease and its effects on the body and you be the judge.

So if your dog’s breath smells like death, it’d be a good idea to book an appointment with your vet to have your pup’s teeth checked first.

Prevention is better than… actually prevention is the only way

Luckily, there are products in the market to make this easier, ranging from water additives, to mouth rinse, sprays and gels that you can use without the need for brushing. Then again, I do not like the idea of adding anything to drinking water (although all dental products are safe to ingest, but I believe water is essential to cleanse the system and nothing should be added to hinder the process), so if you really have to use non-brushing methods, I would recommend gels where you can spread with your fingers. Why? From experience, if your dog refuses to let you have their teeth brushed, you’re not going to get a lot of luck with sprays and mouth wash either.

Alternatively, you can use natural seaweed food additives that can be sprinkled on your pet’s food like ProDen PlagueOff. The supplement alters the saliva and prevents plague from adhering to the teeth.

Why I still prefer brushing and how to do it

Finally there’s the age-old method of brushing their teeth that is fast, cheaper and highly effective.

If your dog tends to be on the playful side or refuses to let you do anything at all, I would recommend you to start with more gentle grooming activities like brushing their coat or ear cleaning first.

During this phase, frequently meddle with their mouth – massage their gums, pry open their lips to look at their teeth, start with just the front lips and slowly proceed day by day until your dog lets you stretch their lips to see the rear molars.

You should even let them taste a little of the pet toothpaste. Most of them are flavoured and dogs love the taste! My dogs treats their tooth brushing session as a reward session, jumping wildly when they see that I’m grabbing the tube of toothpaste.

My best advice with difficult, active dogs, be firm and don’t give up. Reward when they comply and be firm and reprimand when they don’t.

One step at a time

To get them accustomed to the sensation of brushing, you can try any of the following methods and adjust accordingly depending on how well your dog accepts it. Suggestions are listed in ascending order with (1) being the least stressful:

Brush their teeth with just your finger and nothing else.
Wrap your index finger with a thin cloth and brush their teeth.
Pet finger brush.
Using a proper toothbrush. Personally I use baby toothbrush for small dogs and normal adult toothbrushes for medium to large dogs. There’s really no need to get pet toothbrushes or those fancy “3-way” toothbrushes.

Be patient

For every method that you try, do not attempt to brush their full set of teeth unless your pup allows it. Start slow, bit by bit and slowly increase the duration and area covered every day. There is no need to clean the inside of the teeth, as plague mostly forms on the outside and the insides are taken care of when they lick off the toothpaste.

Remember to reward and reprimand accordingly and try to end the training session with a reward. That means that if your pet struggles, wait until he calms down, revert back to a shorter duration or less stressful method and reward the well behaviour and continue the next day.

Natural Alternatives

Call me old-fashioned, but given that plague is a sticky biofilm that clings firmly on the teeth and surrounding plague, I’m still quite critical of how well non-brushing products would work and even if they do, I wonder what effects they may cause if ingested in the long term, even if they claim to be “Natural”.

As for toothpaste, I choose enzymatic toothpaste as they continue to work even after brushing by inhabiting bacterial growth and at least I know that they’re derived from milk.

If you really want to control what goes into your toothpaste, you can mix 2 tbs of baking soda, a teeny bit of olive oil and 1/4 tsp of broth to taste and mix it into a paste. If you want, you can add some chopped parsley or basil into it to freshen their breath and to fight inflammation.

Remember, be it commercial toothpaste or home-made ones, a tiny bit goes a long way. I don’t like the idea of them swallowing toothpaste and baking soda is a source of sodium, so you’ll have to watch that too.

How about starting your pup on that dental regime today? Don’t forget to comment on the problems you are facing as well as your suggestions! Finally, please share this if you find this useful!

Pet Grooming: It’s not just giving your pet a bath.

February 25, 2013 By Sunny Lim

Taking a shower – most of us do it twice a day so we should be experts even when it comes to giving our pets a bath isn’t it? Hell, even some professional pet groomers aren’t doing a good job.

So today I’d like to offer some advice and hopefully you’d learn something new. Apart from its purpose of keeping your pets clean, proper pet grooming technique aids in promoting skin health, although the opposite is also true – when done carelessly, may lead to skin problems. Here’s what you need:

Squeeze bottle. Those selling for a dollar in hardware shops for chilli sauce.
Quality shampoo. Doesn’t have to be expensive. I like to look for those that are sulphate free. Most soaps have sulphate based surfactants which are cause for irritation and other problems manufacturers don’t want us to know. An alternative is to look for Cocamidopropyl betaine, a coconut oil derived surfactant used in most organic product as the main cleansing ingredient.
Quality conditioner. Again, doesn’t have to be expensive. If possible, look for products without mineral oil (or look out for key words like paraffin or petrolatum) and silicone (chemical names ending with -cone e.g. dimethicone, -conol or -siloxane). Or else, make sure they are at the bottom of the ingredients’ list.

Directions:

Mix the shampoo in the squeeze bottle and mix it with 5-10 parts water. How much water to dilute is up to you. As long it’s easy to apply and it foams sufficiently, then it’s OK. Why dilute? The reason is that all shampoo leaves residue no matter how well you think you have rinse it away. Diluting prevents too much residue from accumulating on one area of the skin and coat. Secondly, diluted shampoo spreads easily, rinses easily and saves money!
If it’s a treatment shampoo, please leave it on for 5 minutes or as directed.
As residue does more harm than good, it’s imperative that the shampoo get rinsed off thoroughly until the coat feels squeaky.
Dilute the conditioner like you did with the shampoo and apply it to the whole body. Pay extra attention to the armpit, legs and undercarriage as these are places usually neglected during brushing and more commonly exposed to factors that cause tangles.
Similarly, make sure you rinse off the conditioner thoroughly. A thoroughly rinsed should feel powdery, not slick and oily. A good conditioner should not feel too smooth as it’s a good indication that there is too much silicon or mineral oil in it.
Once a month, mix a teaspoon of baking soda into the shampoo (you may add unfiltered apple cider vinegar too if you want to) and shampoo your pet as usual. This removes the residual build-up and clarifies the hair shaft and skin, making treatment products work better as well as to add volume to the coat. You can even use it on your own hair once a week!

Even when the conditioner indicates that they can be left on or rinsed lightly, my past experience has shown that it may cause skin problems rather than help it. One possible explanation may be that because of Singapore’s humid weather, the conditioner retains excessive moisture on the skin and coat, creating a moist environment that promotes bacterial and fungal growth. Most pet products, including food, are designed and used in cooler climates and we have to keep that in mind.

If you need any more pet grooming tips, let us know what you would like to be featured!

Diseases: Natural cures to chronic skin problems

January 30, 2013 By Sunny Lim

Have you wondered why your pet’s skin problems keeps recurring after spending so much money on vet bills? Even if you’re the lucky few who don’t face the problem, please read on. Given the rise of unscrupulous breeders, there’s a high chance that your future pet is going to develop chronic skin problems. Besides, the recommendation I’m going to give today will help to improve your pet’s overall well-being. That in turn is going to save you a lot of medical bills and more importantly, heartaches.

I have two dogs and they are both on the same diet. Why is that only one of them is suffering from skin problems?

Unfortunately, whether your pet is susceptible to diseases is already written in the genes and others, are more prone to certain problems because of their physical attributes. The reason? Let’s go a little into the details. Female dogs ovulate twice a year and this period is the only golden windows in the year when breeders have the potential to earn money from the dogs in holding (or what we call the ‘breeding stock’).

Because of this pressure, they would try to breed whatever dogs they can, usually resorting to in-breeding or line breeding (mating siblings or close relatives). This act results in what we commonly see in humans when genes of both parents are closely related, the incidences of birth related defects or genetic problems would be higher.

Furthermore, because of the defects, it lowers the animal’s chance of getting bought, the breeder in his effort to utilize all resources efficiently, would use the defective pet for breeding again and in turn, creating a next generation who are carriers of the faulty genes.

In addition, businesses being businesses, would seek to minimize costs and maximize profits. With that in mind, would you think that the animals in the farm would receive quality care? Would they be fed quality food that is essential to good health? That is why so many animals grow up with poor immune systems that’s so prone to diseases.

Secondly, some breeds are more susceptible to skin problems than others. E.g. Dogs with wrinkled skin (Shar-pei, Pugs etc) are more prone to Skin Fold Dermatitis where because of moisture trapped between the folds causing bacterial and fungal growth.

My pet has not have skin issues for the last couple of years up until recently. What’s wrong?

Just like in our human bodies, viruses, parasites, malicious cells are present in and on your pet’s bodies all the time. They lie dormant only because they’re being suppressed by the body’s immune system. Whenever your pet is exposed to long term stressors physically or mentally, take for example separation anxiety, possessiveness, change of environment, pregnancy, heat cycles, illness, allergens from food or the environment, it may cause the body’s immune system to weaken and cause skin problem outbreaks and other problems like intestinal parasites and obsessive paw licking.

What do I do then?

Like humans, they can be stressed about anything and allergic to anything, therefore, a process of trial and error is inevitable.

If your dog is calm and you don’t think it is mentally unbalanced in any areas, you can follow these recommendations:

See a vet and get skin tests done to see what might be causing the problem (Bacterial? Fungal? Demodex or Mange mites?) Medications can be prescribed to ease symptoms for a moment. Zymox is a range of enzymatic products usually prescribed for bad cases of bacterial and fungal infection. It’s usually my choice too because of its natural ingredients which doesn’t have any of the harmful side effects that other medications, steroids or antibiotic does. You can get it from the vet or from The Grooming Table.
Identify if there’s any changes in your pet’s lifestyle or environment lately. Food, new member in the family, new pets, pregnancy, products, floor cleaners used etc.
Feed your pet a high quality, grain free diet, or even better, commercially available raw diets (commonly known as BARF diets). If you see an improvement, you can try reading up on how to prepare raw diets at home for your pets. A complete, raw, varied diet that is close to their ancestral diet helps to bring the body back into balance. (More on this the next time.)
Eliminate any forms of bread, biscuits, commercial treats. They either contains carbohydrates which fungus feed on, yeasts or contains toxins that just wrecks the system. Here’s how to make your own.
You can also try using raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar aka ACV (Bragg or Solana Gold) in their diets or as a leave on treatment. For small dogs, add a teaspoon into their food daily, 2 teaspoon for a medium breed and a full tablespoon for large dogs. It contains numerous enzymes and minerals which has a variety of benefits, including improving digestion, balancing the body PH levels, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial properties and much more. As a leave on, dilute 1 part ACV with 3 parts water and apply to the body after shampooing and conditioning. Dry as normal.
Bathe your dog every 1-2 weeks. Too much sebum will be removed if bathed too often which will stress the skin to produce more sebum. Too infrequently, the bacterial flora will over colonize on the dogs skin especially if the skin is already weak.
Always apply conditioner after bathing. This helps to bring the skin back to balance after being exposed to cleaning agents. Also rinse the conditioner thoroughly as too much product left on the skin will also encourage bacterial growth especially in hot and humid weather. For more information, read our article on how to give your pet a bath.
Dry thoroughly after its bath.
Do not use any fragrances on your pet.
Although Singapore is warm all year round I have customers who claim that during cooler periods their pet’s skin did show signs of improvement. If really so, have your pet stylist give Fido a shorter clip or have the undercoat removed. Or place a metal sheet in sheltered areas to serve as a cooling pad.

Remember, the key is really a lot of trial and error. It is a tiring and painstaking process, but it is essential to solving the root of the problem. It is a long term solution to save your pet and your pocket, not antibiotic and steroids. I wish you all the best and please take a before and after picture of your pet’s skin and post it on our Facebook page will you? Or did you have any similar experiences? Please share it on our Facebook page.

Pet Grooming: The Never Ending Struggle With Ticks

December 26, 2012 By Sunny Lim

In Singapore, ticks are just like mosquitoes. Even as the weather turns cooler, I’ve still been getting a lot of complaints about ticks lately. Inevitably, I’ve brought a few home from the grooming shop and passed it on to my poor dogs.

This.Means.War!

Some of you who bring your dogs out for daily walks may often find ticks on them and you may have chosen monthly spot-on treatments as a form of convenient solution. However, based on personal experiences and feedback from customers, it’s effectiveness

on subsequent applications is questionable. Why? I really do not know and neither have I found any answers online. Instead of answers, I found more people complaining about the same problem on the internet.

What I have realised that works though, is using sprays and switching around brands often. Although I do not know why spray works better, but it may be possible that some factors may be preventing spot on treatment to spread evenly throughout the body. So the most obvious advantage of using sprays is that you can make sure that the whole body is evenly treated. Secondly, be it sprays or spot on, the effects do wear out. So with sprays, you are able to give the protection a boost when ever needed with just a spritz here and there.

Resistance is Futile

It could be that some sort of resistance has been formed that made spot on treatments less effective as it should be. Also, I’ve experienced scenarios where I applied the spot on and the same brand of spray a week later, the spray did not work as effectively as before. Luckily, I had another brand of flea and tick spray with me and it worked quite well in the end.

Apart from having a different brand, it’s useful to note that you should have different active ingredients as well. Try switching around Fipronil, permethrins, Pyrethrins, as well as natural alternatives like Etofenprox. Neem and eucalyptus are more of a preventive measure than an insecticide. But if you have the patience and is meticulous enough to give your dog thorough checks, then of course I would recommend using natural alternatives.

I Will Find You, And I Will Kill You

Even after applying flea and tick products, it is still necessary to give your pets a thorough check to remove any dead creepers as well as to see if there’re still any live ones. It would really help if you pet has a short coat. If it doesn’t, I would recommend you bring it to a pet a stylist and get it trimmed short for ease of checking. Don’t give yourself too much credit for being meticulous. I even have problems finding those pesky ticks on my Maltese. The animals’ health should be of top priority and it’s looks should come later.

If there’s really a lot of ticks on the body, you may request your pet groomer to remove the ticks for a charge. Just make sure the services includes the physical removal of the ticks rather than just soaking your poor dog in a chemical dip and just letting the ticks die attached to Fido. Worse still, sometimes they wouldn’t even die.

As a word of caution, do not let your pet groomer charge you by the number of ticks removed. It’s a good indication that the groomer is a rip-off. Charges for a small dog is usually $20-$30, maybe $40 tops (rarely), if the condition is really bad.

How to remove them

Other than keeping a keen eye during daily grooming sessions, a particularly good time to groom for ticks is after bathing your dog and its body is still wet. The coat would stick would stick together and close to the skin, giving you a better view of the skin. If your dog’s coat is just a centimeter long, you can use a flea comb and by placing it almost flat against the dog’s skin, comb against the lay of the coat. Remove any ticks you have found on the flea comb with sticky tape.

Otherwise, you can use a strong hair dryer, set it to cool and use it to part the dog’s hair. Remove the tick by holding the tick at the mouth and pulling straight up. Squeezing the tick or killing it whilst on the skin will risk releasing toxins and pathogens into your pet.

If you do find baby ticks crawling around your house, try to find where they hatched. But unfortunately, fogging your house is usually the solution.

Prevention is better than cure

Ticks usually wait on grasses for animals to pass by and latch on them. But I also have owners who let their pets roam around without having any tick problems. Similarly, I have also found that there are areas around my house where my dog commonly get ticks from. After I change the walking route, my dogs seldom got ticks any more.

For topical prevention, mix water, a few drops of dog shampoo, neem oil and eucalyptus oil into a bottle and apply over their body. Towel lightly and dry them as usual. This method usually lasts two days tops.

Remember, keep your pets away from grass, apply flea and tick spray every 3-4 days and check everyday.

—

If you find this article useful, please share it and if you like us particular grooming tips, please share them in the comments below!

How To Find Us