Grooming & Hygiene

Regular grooming keeps your dog looking and feeling their best and can help you detect illness or injury before it becomes a more painful and costly problem. Early detection is key.  

By checking over your dog's body areas (see below) on a regular basis (every 1-4 weeks), and ensuring good hygiene/ grooming, you can detect issues early.  Even if you determine you should seek veterinary care - addressing a possible problem early can avoid more painful & costly treatments down the road!

• Skin 

  • Skin can signal a variety of health and behavioral problems indicating that your pet is not well or happy – Bald spots, hot spots, skin infections, itching, excessive paw licking all examples.  The cause may be difficult even for a vet to know. 

• Before seeing a vet you can try “ruling out” common causes such as fleas (including a “flea allergy” where a single flea bite with no other fleas can start the problem), and indoor home allergies such as smoke residue (see above) and molds or dusts.  Use of flea prevention and cleaning indoor environments may prove to reduce or eliminate the problem.

• Though less common than outdoor (pollen) allergies, food allergies also can cause itching and excessive paw licking.  Food allergies require switching to limited ingredient/ specialized diets – which takes about 2 months before knowing if effective.  Outdoor allergies unfortunately cannot be avoided, though regular grooming/bathing may reduce exposures.  Otherwise, vets can provide medications to prevent severe skin infections from developing.

• Fur/hair.  Especially dogs you grow hair longer that may form mats – note that mats themselves are painful and will pull at your pet’s skin and can lead to skin infections.  

• Ears.  Check for smells, dark crusties.  But caution pushing items in ears trying to clean – ear drums have been ruptured. Once you pet is scratching at ear or shaking head a vet visit is warranted right away.  Problems are typically due to parasites, infection, allergies.

• Eyes, nose, mouth. Dripping or sneezing may be a sign of infection or allergies. Any difficulty breathing should be seen by a vet  right away.

• Teeth.  Excess tartar can lead to teeth loss, gum disease/infection, and several other health problems.  Small dogs are especially at risk of dental disease as they age.  Check for bad breath, red gums, and or severe tartar on teeth, and (though not always) difficulty chewing/eating and or external salivation.

Note about at-home grooming.  

Grooming can be costly, but for certain breeds (e.g., shih tzus, doodles) is critical (usually at least every 6-8 weeks) to prevent painful matting.  Otherwise grooming may be as simple as regular brushing, tooth brushing, nail trimming. 

Use of shears or pet razors and even nail trimming needs to be done safely so use cutting tools with caution or find a professional.   Occasional baths (for dogs) may be needed – bathing should always be followed by though rinsing to avoid skin irritation   Cats generally should not be bathed.