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Pet Grooming: Should I shave my dog if it has skin problems?

May 6, 2013 By Sunny Lim

If your dog ever suffered from any skin problems, you’d realize that sometimes it takes forever to cure. Even vets need to do some trial and error and neither do they have any magic bullet that’ll stop the problem from resurfacing months later. This is because as mentioned in my earlier post on chronic skin problems, skin problems can be caused by anything. As a result, not only is it torturing to the poor animals going through all that itch, it’s heartbreaking for us to see them this way and frustrating trying to find out the cause.

What seems right might not necessarily be

In our quest for a solution, we are often made to believe that shaving down the dog for the easy application of creams and to observe the condition was a good idea. Although it may sound logical and a practice widely propagated by vets and groomers, but just imagine for a moment you had a rash somewhere and you ran a clipper across it. It’s the same as how scratching makes a rash worse, or how shaving usually irritates our skin, clipping usually irritates skin and if you were to shave the whole dog down, imagine the itch from their nose all the way to their tail!

Self mutilation

And what would they do when they have that insatiable need to kill off that itch? They scratch, chew and lick on the itch until the skin becomes red, raw and wounded, But still it itches and scratching and chewing are the only ways they know how. So the vicious cycle continues until the point of self mutilation and we have no choice but to don on the elizabethan collar, also infamously known as the cone-of-shame on them.

Don’t cause uncessary problems for yourself

Even dogs with perfectly normal skin, shaving too close sometimes causes redness and irritation especially on sensitive areas like paws, throat, groin, anal region and under the belly.

That’s why I don’t recommend customers to have their pets’ feet shaven bald for whatever reasons, be it because of their pets’ licking their own paws or because of the discolored paws from the licking. Usually shaving only makes matters worse and it’s more important to find the cause of the behavior rather than aggrevating the problem.

If you really have to

However, if you insist that clipping is to be done, please instruct the groomer to leave at least a centimeter of their coat. During grooming process, the shorter the cut, the smaller the blade would be used – the problem with that is the edge of the blade in contact with your pets’ skin would be sharper and heats up faster, two of the most common irritant during pet grooming.

Besides, the coat acts as a protectve layer and it’ll buffer the skin against any external irritatants they’re being exposed to everyday (e.g. chemicals, materials, heat etc. which they’re allergic to). Furthermore, the coat also cushions the skin when the dog chew on or scratches themselves.

And since most vets prescribe shampoos instead of topical creams, the medication would have no problem working down to the skin.

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Have questions on pet grooming? Write them down on the comments below and I’ll be glad to answer them!

Pet Grooming: Cleaning your pets’ ears is not as dangerous as you think

April 21, 2013 By Sunny Lim

In my earlier post, I talked about how ear mite infestations are one of the most common ear problems affecting household pets in Singapore. However, no ear mite infestation can be cleared quickly without proper cleaning. This is because if there’s too much ear wax, it might interfere with the effectiveness of the medications. Although there are exceptions where some products do not need prior cleaning, or if there’s nothing wrong with your pets’ ears, regular ear cleaning is still an important part of your pets’ grooming routine to maintain proper ear health.

Ear anatomy of cats and dogs

However, I admit it’s terrifying for some, especially one who’s not aware of the anatomy of your pets’ ears. The difference between human ears to cats and dogs is that

unlike human’s ears, dogs and cats have ‘L’ shaped ear canals, which prevents us from reaching the ear drums if we just clean the observable part of the ear canal with cotton buds. A word of caution is that although it’s unlikely to damage the ear drums with cotton buds, it’s possible to push debris further down the ear canal with improper cleaning techniques.

Ear flushing

As you can see, if the ears are dirty, the debris may lodge itself in the horizontal portion of the ear canal where we can’t reach. Therefore to be able to clean the whole length of the ear canal and an effective method would be to flush the ear with surfactants to loosen the debris and have them shake it out.

*Disclaimer* It is not recommended to flush ears that are bleeding or badly inflammed. If your pets’ ears are oozing with pus, constantly tilting its head or they’re experiencing pain in their ears, seek medical attention immediately.*

First, liberally fill the ear canal with a liquid based (as opposed to oil based) ear cleaning solution and massage the base of the ear. Feel for cartilage and that would be their ear canal. Secondly, if you have a eye dropper, suck out the solution and repeat for 2-4 times in each ear, depending on how dirty the ears are. If you don’t have an eye dropper with you, then just let them shake the dirt out. What flushing does is that it removes the bulk of the debris so that we will not be pushing the dirt further down into the ear canal and on to the ear drums when we use cotton buds later on.

Why aren’t cotton buds called Q-tips here? Love the sound of it. Q-tips.

Next, moisten a cotton bud with ear solution and with an upward motion, clean all sides of the observable ear canal. Repeat until the ear is clear of dirt or almost there. Usually if the ear is really dirty, it’s almost impossible to thoroughly clean the ears, keeping in mind that there’s a lot of areas we can’t reach. If that’s the case, just clean as much as you can, around 4-5 times and continue tomorrow. The abrasion and ear shaking during ear cleaning causes further irritation and inflammation and will do more harm than good.

Finally, if your dog has floppy ears like Retrievers, Beagles, Spaniels, or if your dog has lots of hair inside the ear, like Poodles, Schnauzers or Shih Tzus remember to apply ear powder afterwards to keep them dry.

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.

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