What's the worse......?

[cajuntank]

What is the worse thing you have ever done to a dog? I nicked a dogs ear today and wondered if I'm the only goofball !!!

[Pawshpooch]

shaving down a puppy yorkie coz it was matted with a 5 and cut about where her rib cage was, dont know how i did it, but i did! i have cut ears in the past when scissoring them, and a few pads but thats what i can think of! you are NOT alone sister!!!

[astrordog]

What is the worse thing you have ever done to a dog? I nicked a dogs ear today and wondered if I'm the only goofball !!!

Oh Boy! I've been doing this for 30 yrs. The stories...............

I had a client that had 2 white St. Poo. She lived on the lake and they were always fifthy, even though they came in every 2 weeks. She brought them in and was doing Xmas pics that day. I irriatate BOTH eyes on one of her poos. She didn't even get upset, she asked me if this was serious, I said YESSSSSSS. We got pics of the dogs, the one has his eyes closed. ouch!!!

Her husband was a plastic surgeon, makes me wonder what mistakes he's made.

Caught a sch. gums with a dematting rake, thought it was just his tongue since he wasn't very good on the dematting part. ooops. Doing his beard.

Saw a cocker's ear split like a sandwich when trying to demat the ear.

Ear nicks happen once in a while.


I went to a grooming sem. once and was told that most everyone has done something. If not they are either very lucky or lying.

[dtailgroomer]

My worse thing was when I was shaving an "older than dirt" matted poodle, I cut his arm pit pretty good....... I felt terrible.

[diamienono]

I have nicked an ear before. It happens. Especially when they can't stand still.

[k9stylist1968]

My worst was a very OLD cocker with matted ears.... Owner didn't want shaved, of course.... After several minutes of brushing, I was checking with the comb.... Caught what I thought was a tangle, dog yips and turns to bite me; I jerk hand (and comb) away--tore a chunk of skin off his ear. Of course it bled like crazy.

The owner was very nice about it--and ended up consoling me when I started crying telling her what happened. The vet sutured the ear, and it healed nicely. I ended up shaving Dudley a couple weeks later and every 8 weeks until they did one final bath/brush before having the last family photo with him in June. His health was declining and they wanted their college-age kids to be able to say goodbye to him and have that last picture that included the old man.

[mskittylitter]

Aww the old tongue that flicks out into your scissors b-4 you get a chance to stop the motion...WHAT a bloody mess......

I accidently hit the opening to the prepuice (sheath) on a lakeland once and it was horrible. Too much of a hurry and didn't change out the blades to do a clean belly and WAP hit it..... I couldn't even imagine how the dog felt. I got it to stop bleeding but it did not look good. The client was understanding and we just watched it for infection over the next week and it was fine. I will never make that mistake again.

[misscatahoula]

I've nicked a few ears, a tuckup( when the dog spun to bite me), and an armpit. I also cut a dog's pad once with my scissors. The worst one was when I cut the edge of a dog's ear leather; it bled a horrible amount and I was pretty upset and horrified over it. Nobody's ever needed stitches or vet attention (knock on wood), but now I'm extremely cautious with ears!

[Helly]

Oh, I've nicked ears, nicked elbows, nicked armpits. And they're all about as serious as a paper cut.

When I first started grooming, years and years ago, I had a matted old Shih I was working on. And to this day I don't know if I nicked him or if his skin was just really thin and delicate. But as I was working a mat away from the back of his ear, with just my fingers, the skin tore wide open. There was no blood. It took three sutures to close.

But the worst injury I remember, and I can't really say I did it, I was working on a Giant Schnauzer and he decided to jump. He brought the whole table over, and the edge of it landed on his foot, breaking two toes.

[SpikeyTheYorkie]

Small ear knicks, and then once when I first started grooming I did this tiny little teacup poodle, itty bitty thing, with mats of course, and learned from my mistake: I went straight down the stifle with a #7F and knicked a small hole in it...until the poodle sat down and it ripped open. 3 stitches later and she was good to go. I felt horrible. But I learned from it.

Tammy in Utah

[Dawn125]

I took a chunk out of a yorkies ear once. Lucky for me it was my own yorky.

[scullysmom]

Oh yes! I don't nick often but when I mess up - I mess up good!! Got an eyelid once (yes an eyelid) on a puppy shih tzu. That was 11 years ago, I still get nauseous when clippering puppy eyes and usually have someone either assist me with puppies, or have them clipper there!! That was the worst. Most of the others were small nicks on pads, tops of schn ears etc.

[Wisconsin]

I was scissoring the pads of an old, tempermental cocker (15 years) and nicked a hunk out of the pad. It was a good sized hunk that bled like crazy. Worst part of it was the owner was holding on to him to keep his stress level down. This was always our routine with the old guy. He bled all over the table, all over her coat. Another bad part was he wasn't acting up at all. I had freshly sharpened scissors and was gabbing away with the owner. I got distracted...what a dork!

Ultimately, I think I felt way worse about it than the owner and she knew I was upset. I offered her a complimentary bath and brush at the 4 wk mark as she was an every 8 week customer. I did it because it made me feel better. Thought it was the least I could do to compensate for blood on her coat. She refused to accept anything complimentary. I'm so lucky I have such great customers.

[cajuntank]

Those of you who say the dog needed stitches, who paid the vet bill, you or the owner?

[scullysmom]

The owner allways did or me if I was the owner. I allways offered though when I was an employee. It is only ethical.