No more bows for you, poor little doggie

[edderland]

Had a shih mix in today for a bath,brush and nails. Her owner said something about a scab on her ear from the bow; I felt it, and oh my god, She had a huge scab across her hear matted in the hair. She said the vet gave her some ointment for it and said he didn't need to shave it.
I made her stand there while I shaved off the scab with a 40 blade.
After the last groom, when the bows fell out, her 8 year old son put them back on around the ears. One ear is two thirds missing and this ear was cut part way thru front and back with a cut across the outside; she would have lost the whole ear if the vet hadn't removed the elastic band.
Why on earth the vet didn't even shave the ear, I will never know.
The owner was only concerned if the dog will still be able to hear ok.
I wanted to cry for the poor little thing.
Deidre

[petpalswi]

thats so sad. poor little dog. poor little boy.

[arlaede]

Oh My! I'm so sorry to hear this, it makes me cry. People (and apparently vets) sometimes have no idea.

Good for you for having her stay and see what was really going on. Smart on your part.

This is exactly why when we put bows in we should always put a comb between the band and scalp to make sure we haven't caught some piece of skin. We can do this over and over and never catch a piece of scalp - but one time and it's a huge issue.\

I groom one black dog that has a permanent scar and white spot, that grows white hair now (some areas of the scar don't grow hair, a few others grow white, it's not just a white spot) from where a groomer put a band in and killed the tissue on part of the scalp. I do realize this is a little different than your situation, but wanted to mention it for others.

[Smart-n-Pretty]

That pisses me off for the poor doggie.

[sittingpretty]

I've seen a shih tzu with only one ear...the other was surgically removed after the owners child put a bow on the ear,not on the hair. The dog has NO EAR on one side. She was eventually adopted by a fellow groomer who now styles her with a sort of "comb over".

The little dog has had the occasion to see the original owner and had no reaction what so ever when the woman spoke to her...wonder why....


sittingpretty

[borzoimom]

I have a client, she is a very elderly lady with an old poodle mix. I leave only a very short topknot as the hair is "floppy", no texture at all. I do however get a bow into the topknot. For whatever the reason, one time when the bow came out, the woman pet the bow on the dog's tail! It had been a natural, full tail, however the vet had to dock the tail VERY short after that episode. I now put the bow on the collar, and do this for dog's whose family include young children also. If the dog has no collar, then the dog gets a bandana instead of bow.

[4Sibes]

Good that you were on top of that Deidre. That mess might well have gotten infected and than who knows what would have happened...matching ear remnants?

I completely gave up on bows in ears 20 years ago after an adult client did that to her beautiful silver Toy Poo. She lost the bottom 1/2 of both ears.
Client took poochie to the vet because she "smelled bad" and client was convinced she had a "bad tooth".

I even refused to do bandannas 'til Parti told me to affix them w/ rubber bands. (Duh....ya think I could have figured that out on my own?)

[petgroomaustralia]

Thats exactly why I dont do bows. We had a dog come into the clinic the other day for desexing with bows matted into its ears from another groomer...UGH...I cut them out and threw them in the bin.

[Helly]

[QUOTE=arlaede;389022] People (and apparently vets) sometimes have no idea.

Well, has anyone ever told you what they call the guy who graduates at the bottom of his class at vet school?


DOCTOR!

There's always going to be good ones and bad ones. If we're lucky we don't run into too many of the bad ones.

[BarkNBubbles]

no more bows

I don't put too many bows in the ears or topknots either. Found an old rubber band in a shih tzu ear when I first went mobile. The owner thought it was mud and that her other dog licked it all the time....when I bathed it I was horrified to find it was a huge puss ball...and right in the middle, a rubber band..(I was seeing her for first time). I went straight in and showed the owner, so as not to have her think I cut the ear or anything like that.
Now, if the dog is wearing a collar, the bow goes there. No collar, big dogs get a bandana, some little dogs get a bandana, and if the dog is owned by a responsible person, I will do a ribbon collar with a nice bow on it, that is easily pulled to untie.
I believe some people were just not born with any common sense....LOL...poor lady was in tears when she realized she had left that rubber band in like that....

[Boxerfan]

I've seen a shih tzu with only one ear...the other was surgically removed after the owners child put a bow on the ear,not on the hair. The dog has NO EAR on one side. She was eventually adopted by a fellow groomer who now styles her with a sort of "comb over".

The little dog has had the occasion to see the original owner and had no reaction what so ever when the woman spoke to her...wonder why....


sittingpretty

In our shop we've seen an ADULT child put her moms shih tzus hair up in a top knot and caught part of the ear in it and yep, the ear rotted off. How on earth can someone do that and not know they've done it?

[Full_Groom]

How sad, and gross, and BLEH! Ick.

[perrypooh]

Ouch, poor dog! I decided I wanted to do bows at our shop but was paranoid because of stories like this.In the end I got a bowmaker and tie the bows (which look more like rosettes, our clients love em) with curling ribbon- no elastic at all, and we tie them to the collar.

[Kindredkiss]

Thats why I dont do bows anymore. I always tell clients not to leave them in, but most dont listen. So I stopped using them

[puppy love]

No bows here. I put bandanas on everyone that wants it and for the dogs with a top knot, I use baby scrunchies with curling ribbon attached on them. Found them at Wally World in the hair section. They are cute and hold the hair back, but without the dangers of rubberbands.