I got a pet clippers for

[Arlene]

I found a new electric pet clippers at the Salvation Army in Roanoke for $3 darn dollars!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe my luck!! I said does this thing work and the lady said it supposed to.. I said can I try it out? she said ok but it wouldn't be on the floor if it didn't work blah

I tried it and it freaking works!!!!!!!!! OMG!!

I tried it on Shea already!!

she hates me now..

but haha it works! and now she has a bald butt. she would not let me finish.. sigh. haha It don;t have the attachments tho.. so I just used the thing anyway.. haha. but I have the others on the people one.

[silkifyre]

Cool! Congrats! ;D

[Arlene]

Shea is skinny!!

and her tail is short and teeny


she looks like Lady now!! Mitchell called her lady today when he came home and then Lady came out and he said WHOAAAAA!! Moooommmmmm!! Shea is LITTLLLLLLLLLEeeee!!! LOLhahaha

[silkifyre]

What, you shaved her whole body??? Post a pic!

[Arlene]

YUP!
errr all but the belly am gonna do that today.. hopefully.. cleaning house like a mad woman today. Nephew came by this morning and I was too embarrassed to let him in haha. not too dirty.. just cluttered. I hate it when mitchell throws his things in the chairs.. better than the floor I guess but after a while I just let it pile up. I dug out dirty socks and all sorts of things. sigh..

I put the hamper in the living room.. right in front of the tv last week just to see what he would do.. he used it! I said cool at least he knows what it is for haha. just too lazy to walk all the way to the bathroom to put them in it..

I need a few good dressers.. I waslooking at mine and I have 2 dressers.. the 4 drawer ones and one little wardrobe I could not pass up from a friend and they all have a drawer that don't work.. the two dressers .. one has the bottom one out and the other the top one.. the wardrobe... Mitchell pulled the face off the bottom drawer and the little one right above it..

he did the same to a little one that I keep the movies in.. what does he do!!! wonder how he rips them off like that??? the one little one is like new..or was. and heavy oak.

ohhh but as for shea.. was I not supposed to shave her all over.hahha..

she even has mats under her ears. and I got her neck too.. it is so thick there I have to do that some more too..

then I will give her a great warm bath! I can't wait.. Lady needs a bath soooo bad too. she is smelly! that beagle in her makes her hair feel oily ..

bad dog last night.. she peed in 3 places. thank God I don't have carpet... she was so mad at me for not letting her help when I got the chickens in the boxes to take to the lady .. she only got 15 .. that was all I could find!! besides my favorites !

now I have to get rid of some roosters and I will be at peace..

anyway Lady was so mad too because I let River the cat stay in the house last night.. he was acting so weird I just let him in.. first time he has slept inside in a year or more. AND he slept with Mitchell.. that pissed Lady off sooo bad haha she is not allowed to get on the bed.. (she does sneak tho.. gets caught but she tries )

that is why I am cleaning like a madwoman .. house smells like pine sol..mmmm . I went to the barn and back and could smell it outside

I talk too much..

[silkifyre]

Too bad I had to go to Mom's or we coulda chatted. Oh well. Another time.

As for Shea, I just didn't expect you to shave her all over, . But that's ok... we get lots of customers who want their hairy dogs shaved down. It's odd, sometimes, what the dog looks like afterwards, cuz then they don't have the bulk of all that hair. I don't think a lot of the customers realize it either. But they like that their dog isn't a hairy beast anymore. Sometimes, they decide it's not for their tastes and they let their dog grow it all back in again. Just depends on whatcha want, I guess.

[Arlene]

oh.. I want her to grow it back.. she is beautiful .. but I had to get to the skin so I can wash and treat it with meds.. it is yellow funky stuff flaking off and dandruff and her skin has a red rash..

It was much worse when I first discovered it and started getting the matts off.. they never ever never brushed or washed her for soooo many years I guess.. at first she was an inside dog there then she was put out .. I think she got in a lot of trouble as a pup haha. and was punished for it.. she is still a bit weird when it comes to brooms and if I fuss at Mitchell she goes and hides.. sad..

She gets to feel more and more at home as the months go by.. lately I have been having to tell her not to get on the chair!! Oh my goodness when she first got here she was terrified to even lay in the floor.. now she plops down in the middle of it and we have to go around her.. made the mistake of trying to step over her a few times.. haha she flies striaght up and knocks you sideways running away haha! now she still gets up but she trusts me a lot more.. not Mitchell.. he has fallen on her too many times when she freaks haha!

but anywayyyy.. her skin is just nasty,, rotten almost.. or was.. it is drying up a lot now and just peeling off.. I treated what I could get to with the yellow stuff in the bottle.. stinks!! for sebrisis or something haha. cant pronounce it either haha..

but now I can wash her,, didn't do that today..had to do other housecleaning chores.. like trying to kill spiders and mice.. I bought one of those mouse traps that encloses the mouse inside with out poison but the stupid mouse chewed its way out.. I found the top on the floor and the bottom where I had it and the spring beside it.. chew marks all over it. .. it is round and black.. if you see it don't try it.. wasted my money.

Hopefully I will get her washed soon.. she smells bad.. wish I had not made her bald in a few places.. sigh.. but it is growing already. she is going to be beautiful when it grows out again..

If only they had at least brushed her or something she would not have been in this bad a shape.. I wish I had taken pics of her matted up .. she was just one huge matt.. it was horrible..

[silkifyre]

Yeah, it's sad when the owners bring their dogs into the shop, all matted and sore skin, etc. I feel so bad for the dogs. And the owner tells us, "Oh yeah, I brush her, but she won't let me do her legs." Or "I try to brush her, but she always bites at me." Or "I just brushed her out yesterday." Or "I brush her, but she likes to go swimming in our pool and it makes her coat all matted up." Oh, here's one... "She's not really my dog. She belongs to my son (or other family member)." Oh BULLONY, people!!! You're ALL liars!!!

The fact is this: If you groomed your dog properly, your dog would NOT be matted!!!! PERIOD! End of sentence! Stop making excuses! I hate when the customers do that! GRRRR!

Thank goodness Shea now has a caring owner! See if you can find some tea tree shampoo for dogs. We use it at work on dogs with irritated skin. It helps for those with dry, flaky, itchy, flea-bitten, sore, red skin... whatever the cause. Once her medicated shampoo is done with, go with the tea tree. It also has a pleasant scent to it. The brand we use at work is called TropiClean. It seems to work pretty good. Some of our customers want us to use only that on their dogs.

Oh, for dogs with long hair like Shea... after her hair starts growing in more, where it's longer again, take your one hand and push the hair backwards a little, and with your other hand, use the brush and brush the hair back down. Start at her back end and work your way toward her head. That lets you part the hair, so you can get down to her skin.

Most people brush the "usual" way, by starting at the head and just brushing down the way the hair grows. But that won't let you get down to her skin. You have to lift up the hair in sections and brush each one out at a time. It doesn't really take all that long, especially if you brush her out every day. With heavy-coated dogs, you HAVE to! And owners just don't realize, or else they don't want to be bothered. And I say, "Then why did you get a dog with a heavy coat?" I don't actually say that to them, but I sure wish I could!

[Arlene]

I notieced since I shaved her she is really licking a lot. drives me crazy ! but I think is is like she is saying
"wow! skin!! now where did that come from?!!"

hahaha

she has licked the ick and it is red.. I put more stuff on her.. I am ordering some tea tree stuff off jeffers if they have it!

got to go.. late for work!!!!!!

[silkifyre]

Just thought of something. When you were shaving her, did the blade get real hot? If so, it can cause burning. You need to check the blade every few minutes. If it feels hot to you, it'll feel hot to her, too. You will need to get a can of "Cool Lube" and spray it directly on the blade (with the clippers switched off). Spray for a few seconds, wipe the blade dry, feel it. If it's cool, continue clipping. If it's still hot, spray a few more seconds and wipe dry. Keep doing that until the blade cools off. Once it's cool again, you can resume clipping.

Some dogs have sensitive skin and just being shaved (even with a cool blade) could cause some irritation... like if you razored your bikini area, maybe.

Also, she just may feel "different" without her hair and maybe that causes her to lick. Or, perhaps she wasn't able to fully satisfy herself because there was too much hair in the way, but now she can get to her itchy spots. Who knows? Matted hair will cause irritation, too, so if those spots were where matting was, it's understandable why she's licking them now.

I would continue with the medicated shampoo until it runs out, then start using the tea tree shampoo. I would bathe her like once a month maybe with that and brush her thoroughly, down to her skin (but gently, of course, until all her irritation is gone, then more firmly), every day.

If you like her with shorter hair, you will probably need to reshave her about every 6-8 wks to keep the hair at the desired length. Depending on your blade sizes, and how fast her hair grows.

Good luck with her. I hope her skin irritation is nothing major, and heals up real quick now that air can reach her skin.

[Arlene]

I love her hair.. just needed to get it off so I can wash her skin.. for the first time EVER .. poor girl.. I think she likes it! she is running round a lot..

it is not shaved all the way.. It is about a half inch or so.. I had the comb attachment on it. .well except for that one bald spot when I was testing the thing haha.. and it does get hot.. I just stopped and let it cool.. I still need to get her belly .. she said NO freaking way.. so I stopped . she is such a good girl. am so happy I got her. never did like dogs but she is so special..