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| Silly Tater dog hamming it up for the camera, photo by Andy Hurly |
This afternoon I decided to try and do a bit more grooming on Tate. It was not an easy task given my painful sternum and the fact that it is very difficult to groom a dirty coat, especially a Rough Collie that has been neutered.. In my experience as a professional dog groomer, clean coat is way easier to groom.
As you know I skipped Tate's last bath thinking I would wait until Christmas to do it. He is old now & it is hard for him to stand in the tub. I had my car accident on Nov 20 and any plans of bathing him went out the window after that.
His undercoat was so thick it was horrible, the poor dog. I feel so awful for him. It is packed & thick & very hard to get out now. Also Tate is so stubborn, worse then ever before. He does not want to stand still at all, he refuses to lay down if he is not on a grooming table & I can't get him on to a grooming table by myself. So I just thought I'd work a bit on him in the livingroom, well 1.5 hrs later I was almost in tears! I made a dent in the brushing but I have so much more to do! His left side, right at his stomach, was so thick I just cut it all out with scissors, it looks horrible but I couldn't pull out undercoat in that spot without hurting him. Old dogs are much more sensitive to being brushed. His skin is also in horrible shape! Very dry, most likely due to the fact that it can't breathe with all that undercoat on it.
I will definitely have to come up with a plan and soon. This has got to be taken care of.
The other problem is that I may have some complications with my sternum. I saw my Dr on Thursday and he sent me for an xray, long story but I won't get it until Tues now. He is wondering if my sternum has not healed properly, that the bones have shifted instead of healing straight, super.
Anyway, fingers crossed I will be able to get more coat out of Tate, I will have to wait a couple of days now, he was tired after today, poor guy.
4 comments:
Oh how I hate spay/neuter coats and trying to groom old dogs. I can't put SeaB on the grooming table anymore because he cries when I try to get his front end up, so he gets groomed in the dog bath. I don't blame you for taking the scissors to him....in cold Iglooland where he has way more coat than my dogs do.
Good luck brushing out the coat.
I hope you get all better too.
Sherman
Oh no, that's horrible about you chest. Ugh! I hope it turns out to be ok.
I have dogs shedding and growing coat at the same time!! Lanny's 1st birthday puppy shedding came as winter kicked in, so poor boy has to see his coat coming out, but he needs it for the cold!! So he's got grow it too. And Duffy's coat is out of whack--the really warm weather in September got him shedding. Now he's growing it and it's just not fast enough!!
Would some steps to the grooming table help? I see them shown to help dogs get up on a human bed. I use a hassock for the dogs to jump on and then get onto the table because I could barely lift Duffy and Lanny is quite a bit bigger.
Sorry to hear there might be problems with your sternum--although I can't say it surprises me. With that fall you took on the ice and maybe with bending and stuff, it might have caused problems. Fingers crossed that the x-ray shows that things are good!
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