Matted like Crazy...EEEK!!!
Ok, the other day Maisey and Kuzco were playing in the drizzle and refused to come in. Kuzco still has his puppy coat, but Maisey at 1 1/2 yrs old has never had a haircut before. Unfortunately, from them wrestling Maisey's got some ridiculous matting. It's like the undercoat is matted, but not like a little mat, but all over. Not pulling the skin yet, about 1/2 an inch above. Can I save...or shave??? How do you guys get bad matts out? |
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| I use a rake and matt breaker in addition to his normal brushes, small matts I try to tease apart at first.
I try to give Archie a good brush every day, and also lightly run the rake through to detect any new matts before I can feel them with my fingers. If Maisey was fine beforehand and is only matted from this wrestle wait until the coat is dry and try some normal brushing firstly. |
| I've also resort to cutting into the mat. I use bandage scissors from a nurse uniform shop (get the stainless steel ones and the smaller size). The bottom blade has a blunt end to reduce the change of poking or cutting the skin.
I work the blunt end in between the skin and the mat, then cut toward the tip of the hair. I do lose a bit of hair, but it is pretty painless for the dogs and I manage to keep most of the length. For a large mat, I may do 3 or 4 of these cuts before I comb it out. And remember to start the comb out at the tip of the hair, each stroke starting a bit closer to the skin. |
| This is gonna sound crazy, but they are big and flat???
Like they don't show, but are all like big flat matts that are like a sweater?!? The top 8 inches of hair is fine, but about half an inch to an inch up from the body, the hair is knitted together?!? I hope this makes sense... I have a de-matter, but that could take days to get through... |
| By the situation you're describing, it definitely sounds like a shave down may be the most humane answer. Are you line brushing? It sounds like you may not have been getting close enough to the skin everywhere so when it got wet, it tightened up and became obvious as a mat then. |
| I agree with Jill, matting like that just does not happen so quickly getting wet and playing.
It sounds like you have been top coat brushing and not line grooming right down each layer to the skin. Less stress for Maisey to clip off and start again if she is felted underneath. Start again then to grow the coat and if you look at the top of this section on the forum there is a great line grooming essay to follow as the coat grows back.  |
| Hi Maisey's Mama, it really sounds like you have not been brushing right down to the skin. This is an easy mistake to make, if I had not read the line grooming essay I would have had no idea how to do it properly!
I suggest taking her to a groomer and ask for her to be shaved down while keeping the hair as long as possible. It will be worth the initial expense. After that you can probably look after the hair yourself, as it's got this bad, it's going to be best to ask a professional at this stage. You could do it yourself but you need good dog tools, human shavers will not work There is some advice here on blades and electric clippers, they don't come cheap but I think it is worth the cost.
You have two sheepies? Ours is 9 months and we line groom about every 2 days, bath every 6 weeks, that depends on your weather conditions and how they play etc. The line grooming essay at the top of the grooming section is fantastic, there are threads on here also with people asking specific questions which might help. Let us know how you get on- and good luck!  |
| Summer has got matts right under her chin, like cotton wool , you can tease them out but I got a matt breaker and that is good. |
| OK, is a Matt breaker the same as the mars coat rake I have? What is the difference of a Matt breaker and a rake? |
Quote: The top 8 inches of hair is fine, but about half an inch to an inch up from the body, the hair is knitted together?!? I bet Jill's right. It sounds like the fur near the skin just hadn't been brushed through. Have you seen the video from the "Learn To Groom" they recently had in Harrisburg? http://www.lostinclouds.com/OES_Line_brushing.wmv I think a shave down is best... it would be very difficult to try to save the coat and it might also be painful for Maisey if the matting is extensive. Quote: What is the difference of a Matt breaker
These actually cut through a mat with razor blade type cutters... they are not used if you're trying to save the coat- http://www.pfwh.com/Merchant2/merchant. ... Code=APCMB http://www.pawplus.com/products/longhai ... litter.htm You need to be very careful though... they are very sharp. A friend cut herself with one of these. |
| But we DO line brush..sigh...
Maybe we are doing it wrong? She's about 1 yr and a half and she has been matted before but not these crazy flat ones. I was gonna bring her to get a puppy cut, her hair is just too long...it's just gonna happen sooner than expected. Thanks Guys!!! |
| It could be poor brushing technique combined with the rain. Water will turn a little bit of webbed hair or small knots into cement. That and the dogs playing together will definitely turn your dog into a big walking matt. If water was involved, even using a matt breaker is going to give you really bad chunks of short and long and you'll end up in a puppy cut anyway. Probably best to just make it sooner rather than later, like you said.
It's a running joke at my house that the dogs rough house but they aren't allowed to touch each other's coats. No yanking, pawing or chewing on coat. That doesn't stop Suzi from grabbing Toby by the head but I think it's just jealousy since he's showing right now and she's sitting at home! |
| Is it possible that the playing (aka friction aka knots), plus not getting right down to the skin PLUS perhaps some blowing of the coat may be the cause? A little combo action here? Tucker was shaved a month ago because I just could NOT keep up with the mats. He was 13 months old for his first shave down (we left about 3/4 of an inch....check my pictures if you want to see that). It was SO worth it, honestly. I was always, always going at him with the de-matter, I think he was starting to resent even sitting beside me because it seemed like that's all I ever did. I would suggest, for everyone's sanity, that you just shave down and start again.
Quick question: lisaoes wrote: Less stress for Maisey to clip off and start again if she is felted underneath.
What do you mean???? |
| Dixie just got cut down from 8 inches to about an inch. It is so hard not to notice it forming, but once I started cutting there was felt everywhere throughout.
It is exactly that....felt-like fur all nice and soft, and woven together like felt...And impossible to brush out. It is usually just above the skin, like maybe an inch above it. You have to cut it in patches, or shave it. Dixie gets it easily...Bosley doesn't. |
Maisey's Mama wrote: But we DO line brush..sigh...
Maybe we are doing it wrong? She's about 1 yr and a half and she has been matted before but not these crazy flat ones. I was gonna bring her to get a puppy cut, her hair is just too long...it's just gonna happen sooner than expected. Thanks Guys!!! Unfortunately, if she's felted near the skin, you can't do a puppy cut because the mats are still there, you'd have trim below the mat line which is probably the equivalent of shaving. It's so easy to miss the matting at first. As the coat changes and the undercoat comes in, you never see the mats coming because you really haven't seen much undercoat before. We've all been there! |
| Just one question
Is this matting really all over, or is it mainly concentrated in the white areas? Why do I ask? well for some reason Archies only, so far, seems to form mats in the white parts of his coat - is this normal? |
| Hi Archies slave
I have found the white fur seems to be softer & more prone to matting, probably because it is mostly the lower undercoat. The dark hair on top is thicker and more corse, so does not mat as easily. The worst areas for me are the ears, under the chin & the armpits, specifically the rear leg 'armpits' where the rear legs meet the body at the sides. These areas are really thick soft fur and difficult to brush because they are so frizzy and that area is very delicate. I think what you said is normal |
| Riley's problem is the cats love to chew on her front legs and chest while they cuddle with her. Cat spit = mats.
If the girls get mats, I just take it slow and easy. Thirty minutes of combing and cutting into the mat and then thirty minutes of rest. It can take everal days, depending on the amount of matting. The trick is to make as many cuts into the mat as needed to keep the mat about 1/2 inch wide. And wet mats tighten up and are harder to work out. The cats like to make sure that I have lots of practice. Sometimes daily combing barely keeps up with the little monster's hairstyling. |
| I had this kind of matting with Dodger. It was like, all of the sudden his coat was more than I could handle and within a few days, it was mat city. I had been planning to take him in for a shave down any how, and when I did the groomer wasn't surprised at all, just said that it was part of blowing the puppy coat, and that it'd be really difficult to keep him in full coat through it.
His cut was uneven in spots for a week or so since she tried to keep about 1/2 to 3/4 an inch all around, but had to go shorter in some spots because of the mats. I'm loving having him trimmed down though! |
Summers coat is so grey at the roots now! Where she was shaved for her Easter emergency it is now about half an inch long and is lovely and soft. I want Hubby to give her a cut but he is hanging on as long as he can. Luckily my son loves combing her and does it every night.  |
| I'll chime in and add my voice to those suggesting the shave down-- I shaved mine down a little more than a month ago preemptively because I'd read here that it was almost impossible to manage during the blowing coat phase and saw the matts just starting to form... it also happened to coincide roughly with the coming of warmer weather. He seems to like it, and I sure am enjoying the break from the heavy grooming. |
| Maisey is shaved..she looks like a little deer...lol
She seems to like everything except the bug bites...Don't really want to put pesticide on my pooch though... Any ideas for a bug spray? Living in Northern Ontario we have TONS of mosquitoes and black flies, with the full coat, the bugs can't seem to get in there (not that I have noticed with the line brushing) But now she seems to get a little chewed up... |
| What about some Avon Skin So Soft? No idea how greasy it might make her but it got most of us through Girl Scouts when we were little. |
| Check out your nearest pet store - we actually have a dog bug spray that we got from ours. It comes in a big spray bottle and seems to work quite well. |
Maxmm wrote: What about some Avon Skin So Soft? No idea how greasy it might make her but it got most of us through Girl Scouts when we were little.
we used it in the rinse water on a poodle we had and it was actually the only thing that got rid of her flea colonies! not to mention keeping bugs etc off. |
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