• If you're a past member of the board, but can't recall your password any more, you don't need to set up a new account (unless you wish to). As long as you recall your old login name, you can log in with that user name then select 'forgot password' and the board will email you at your registration email, to let you reset your password.

Had to Clip her coat...but didnt want to:-(

Karen and Ruby

Well-known member
Hello All,

I feel a bit sad today. I know alot of you take your Cavaliers to groomers for hair cuts and so on BUT I never have.

I always wanted to keep their coats as natural as possible and although I trim Rubys feet and clip behind her ears to prevent matting, I've never done a full clip on her coat.

But with Regret I gave her a hair cut yesterday. She cant cope with the brushing as much and is very sensitive on her left side of her head and face. She copes much easier with trimming than she does brushing so I've trimmed her chest hair and leg feathers right back and her belly hair is still short anyway since it was all shaved off in July when she was very ill. I'm going to keep it short as well ive also trimmed back the hair around her rear and inside back legs.

She barely has any hair behind her ears- but that isn't visible unless you look under there.

She doesnt look terrible by any means but I just feel sad that I cant brush her much anymore as she used to sit there for hours and let me- It was like our bonding time almost :(

Yet another thing I can't do becasuse of this bloody horrible condition :mad:
 
We made the same decision for Daisy at the start of the summer.
It was just sheer hell for her to stand and have even a bristle brush go over her.
As you said,so sad to see the lovely coat lost,but no prolonging the stress of grooming for her.
The trimming upsets us quite a bit, dogs as a rule are devoid of vanity(Thankfully)* and she won't be scratching matts into her coat again..
Sins
 
I know it's hard. Though Sydney doesn't have SM, his meds for his heart make him have very frequent potty breaks, and sometimes in the house. Lots of times it ends up on him! So with all the frequent cleanings, I have asked his groomer to trim down his leg feathering and of course a sanitary trim. I've been trying to keep the sides of his coat longer, but that doesn't seem to be working so he may just get a shorter cut next time.

No matter what length their coats, they are all adorable, beautiful and wonderful.
 
Oh, this must be so hard. Not so much the trim itself, but what it all signifies. You are doing the right thing tough to make grooming as comfortable as possible, but I know that does not change the emotion around it.
Hugs to you.
 
Karen, I know this makes you sooo sad. It's just one more change, and that is what is hard.

My Claire has this bizarre disorder called stud tail. It bothers me a lot.....but my Vet said that Claire is a happy, beautiful and sweet girl whether she has hair on the top of her tail or not. And my Vet said, Claire doesnt know. As Sins said, dogs aren't vain. And that is a very good thing.

I am sure she is still a stunningly beautiful girl.
 
Thanks All

I knew you would understand, people around me just don't get why i'm so sad about it!

I think I wrote something on another thread about the constant grieving that comes with having an SM dog, constantly grieving the dog that was and accepting the dog you now have.

Its very hard and a rollercoaster at times too.. she is still stunning and she knows no different but like you all said, its more what it signifies than the act itself:(
 
I have had Ebony completely clipped since April as she had to do Hydro every week. Also I don’t want to brush her every day with her having SM and she hates it. She got that sort of fur that is fine but she has lots of it and it gets knotted even if you don’t brush her for just one day. First I was upset as I always said Cavaliers should have their beautiful coats. But now I understand that it isn’t always practical, and I got used to it now. I am lucky Harley has not got much fur around his ears.
 
It is hard to do this as we love our Cavaliers to look gorgeous, but we have to put them first.

Teddy couldn't tolerate being groomed and he had to be sedated to be clipped :( strangely his coat never grew back afterwards :yikes he had hair loss [sometimes a side effect of Gabapentin] but we never found an explanation for why it never grew anymore...

He was much more comfortable though and could be managed with only the minimum of grooming.


The other thing to avoid is bathing dogs with SM if they find it difficult - there are ways around it to avoid having to give a full bath.
 
Yesterday I had to clip almost all the hair from Holly Poppet's ears because it grows in clumps and matts and I think it may be the source of the raw and tender skin around her muzzle. I have tried everything known to veterinary science to cope with the sores and discharge which collects on her skin, but nothing works. I was starting to wonder whether this was the beginning of the end for Holly, but 24 hours later I seem to see an improvement in her skin.

Of course it could be either the Hydrocortisone starting to work or it could be the dry weather. I will just have to cross my fingers and hope that it was excessive heat induced perspiration.

I do also understand the plight of all the SM suffering dogs and how difficult it is to groom them. Clipping a beautiful coat feels absolutely horrible, but as somebody else said, the dog ends up happier without the stress and discomfort involved in grooming long hair.
 
A lot of us do understand how sad this can be.

Leo used to have the most beautiful ears of all of my dogs–very long and very full and deep black. Because of his scratching, he eventually removed the top black layer leaving sort of a mixed grey underlayer and also, the scratching would create mats very easily and he could easily get his hind leg caught in the mats, causing more distress. :( So I had to take the decision to keep his ears trimmed short at puppy length. This has allowed some of the darker black to regrow and also just makes life a lot easier for him. Other than that, he has managed brushings with no problem and still enjoys this and will fall asleep having it done. But I sometimes look at pictures of when he was one or 2 years old and really mourn those beautiful ears.

Lily, who also has SM, is in the same boat with her ears–I have to keep them very short as well and her coat tangles more than Leo's, so it's really important to keep the ears short and free of knots. She is also very sensitive around her legs and hindquarters for grooming so it has to be done very gently–I always carefully hold the base of the hair and then gently work on the mat and straightening out the rest of it and this seems to work for her most of the time. But increasingly, I just snip out mats and I also keep the feathering on her hind legs quite short so that there is less to tangle or brush.

One thing to consider is to look for those really small slicker brushes that are for cats–I have one that is only about 2 inches wide–as it is very useful for getting into mats and delicate areas rather than using a normal dog sized slicker brush. The tiny brush means you are not pulling other adjacent hair and can just focus on a single mat. :)
 
I understand what you are going through.
Well, partly, becuase i do not have a dog with SM nor have I had one.

But i did have to clip my old dogs hair VERY short in the summer because he always got some form of rash.
The vets had no clue what it was and neither did we, but all we knew was taht he was much more comfortable and his rash was always better when his hair was kept short in summer.
That is one of the reasons i always loved winter. He always had his beautiful full coat.

I am hoping i dont ever have to clip Kokoda fully, but i do do under his feet so he doesn't slip on our floorboards and stairs.

Just remember that your dog is much more comfortable and happy.
 
It is hard to do this as we love our Cavaliers to look gorgeous, but we have to put them first.




The other thing to avoid is bathing dogs with SM if they find it difficult - there are ways around it to avoid having to give a full bath.

Yes, gave up bathing a while back now- although she still enjoys a swim down at the local nature reserve in the lakes :)
 
Back
Top