Meridian Park Veterinary Hospital

Why Grooming isn’t Just for “Show”

Regular grooming of all pets can help contribute to longer, healthier lives. The benefits of having your pet groomed regularly can include making your pet more comfortable and clean, as well as having attention paid to often overlooked parts of your dog or cat.

Skin Irritations
Regular professional grooming can remove excess fur, painful mats, dander and shedding hair that can cause skin irritations. These irritants can often lead to excessive itching and scratching causing lesions that can become infected. Grooming can also provide a close up review of the skin and coat. Your groomer will take note and inform you of issues they come across while working on your pet. Key health warning signs like hot spots, rashes, hives and other skin irritations can be noted as can a dry or brittle coat.

Ear Problems
Many ear problems can be detected by your groomer when she removes excessive hair from the ears and cleans them out. Both ears will be examined and cleaned with an ear cleaner made specifically for pets. Your groomer can tell you of any odors, discolorations, redness, swelling or build up of debris in your pet’s ears so that you can get them to your veterinarian to have it checked out before it beomes a major problem.

External Parasites
External parasites such as fleas and ticks are more easily noted when a pet’s coat is trimmed and in good order. The tidy fur makes it easier to get at and remove any such parasites. Regular grooming and good monthly preventative flea/tick control medications help make keeping these pests under control much easier.

Body Heat
Maintaining your pet’s coat also provides for more efficient control over their body temperature. Especially during the summer months when excess hair can cause overheating, a good grooming will allow for better air movement through the coat, allowing excess heat to dissipate. When your pet is severely matted the body cannot maintain agood temperature in heat or cold weather. Badly matted coats do not allow your pet to maintain warmth in the winter months, nor maintain coolness in the summer months.

Nails
Regular clipping of your pet’s nails is extremely important. Excessively long nails can lead to lameness and result in painful ingrown nails. Elongated nails affect the comfort and health of your pet. Some pets will find it difficult to place their full body weight on their feet because of discomfort from elongated nails. As a result these dogs develop sore feet, legs and hips and overall discomfort. Just to walk can then be a painful experience for them. If you can hear your pet’s nails clicking on the floor, then they are too long.

Anal Glands
There are two ways to empty the anal glands. Externally, which is usually done by a professional groomer, and internally which is done by your veterinarian. How often your dog needs this done varies with each pet. Some never need it done and others require it to be done every few weeks. Symptoms your pet may have if they are needing their glands emptied include scooting the rear end on the ground, licking or chewing at the area around the rectum or any other sign of discomfort in this region, as well as a foul odor. When your pet is professionally groomed your groomer checks the glands and empties them externally if needed. It might be noted here that external anal gland expression never truly empties the glands completely. The only way to achieve this is to have your veterinarian do an internal expression of the glands. If anal sacs aren’t expressed and the dog can’t express them on its own they may rupture. When this happens there is usually a draining tract about 2 inches below the rectum and about 1 inch away from the rectum on whichever side the anal sac ruptured on.  Immediate veterinary care is needed when this occurs.

MPVH has Lori, “The Groomer” at Meridian Park available for all your grooming needs! Please see her page for more information and pictures!