Cuts after grooming *UPDATE*

[BeckC]

We took our dog to be groomed today. She came home with two cuts. One on her left front elbow, and one on her left back... armpit (that flap of skin where her back left leg connects to her body). They didn't tell us about hte back cut, only the front. They said she flipped out. Well, no kidding. They also request that we give her Benadryl the next time we bring her in.

Her left elbow is still bleeding so I wrapped it in gauze but I can't get a good look at it. The back one is crusty around it but I can see that it looks like a good not quite dime sized flap of skin is gone. They don't seem to bother her walking but they do hurt to the touch.

Do you think this warrants a trip to the vet on Monday? Is there anything I should do in the meantime? I'm thinking try to gently clean it off with a damp washcloth, but I'm not sure if I should do anything else.

[PlayaMama]

i would never ever ever take her back to that groomer. that sounds awful!!! my mom groomed clients at home and i helped her quite a lot and she NEVER nicked a dog no matter how squirrely they were. a dime sized piece of skin missing is totally unacceptable and i would ask for your money back.

as far as would care goes, i would just let them heal, maybe a little neosporin or panalog but they should be fine. i don't think a vet trip is warranted.

those are really sensitive spots that are hard to groom. you have to be really careful and patient and it sounds like they weren't.

[BeckC]

No, I think you're right that it's not worth a vet trip. I have a tendency to get overanxious in the moment.

I won't ever take her back there, that's not a problem. And we didn't pay them anything. This was the second time she went there, the first time there was no problem. Our old groomer in Georgia was great with her. It took them all day long to groom her because they kept having to stop and hold her. She has a lot of anxiety and is absolutely terrified of clippers. I don't think this experience helped any.

She's laying in her bed on my desk now.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...100_1696-1.jpg

In a little bit I'm going to unwrap her and give her a rinse and neosporin and wrap it back up. I'm not sure how to wrap her back leg but I'll figure something out.

[PlayaMama]

she's so cute! i'm so sorry that happened poor little mite.

[BeckC]

Well the cuts weren't healing and were getting red so we took her to the vet today.

They were infected badly despite my cleaning and putting Neosporin on them. She needed stitches for both cuts and anesthesia so that they could clean out the areas and stitch them up. She's home now and groggy. She did have two cookies and a little bit of water by syringe.

My poor baby.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...y/100_1699.jpg

[greenmagick]

Im so sorry that happened...it doenst however mean the groomers were bad. It does happen pretty commonly unfortunately, especially when the dog is moving alot. I worked all kinds of groomers from beginner to over 20 years experience. They all at some point had nicked or cut a dog.

[PlayaMama]

Originally Posted by greenmagick

Im so sorry that happened...it doenst however mean the groomers were bad. It does happen pretty commonly unfortunately, especially when the dog is moving alot. I worked all kinds of groomers from beginner to over 20 years experience. They all at some point had nicked or cut a dog.

a nick is not the same as a dime sized piece of skin missing. that's really unconscionable. my mom had never nicked a dog in all the time i helped her groom, she was patient and took her time, she once took several hours to do a puppy so that it was a pleasant experience and the dog would not be freaked out by grooming.

i myself have once nicked a dog on the inner elbow, a tricky spot with lots of loose skin, but it happened because i was moving too fast.

if the dog was moving too much to be gently groomed the groomer should have called the owner and asked if they wanted to bring her back with some meds on board or do it at home themselves.

there is no excuse to traumatize a dog like that.

op- i am SO sorry that the wounds became infected! i would be asking the groomer to reimburse you for the vet bill.

[BeckC]

Well, the groomer has agreed to pay half because she says that my husband signed a waiver because the last time we brought her in (in the Spring) she had mats. She didn't this time so I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, and when I asked the owner said that she's hard to groom so there's a waiver. DH doesn't remember signing anything (which doesn't mean anything, he has a terrible memory). I asked her for a copy of the waiver because I want to see what it says, and then we'll figure out how to proceed. Right now we're still hoping to recover all of our money.

[greenmagick]

If they are matted, the skin is pulled while clipping and can get nicked much easier. However, we ALWAYS paid the vet bills if there was an injury.

Also, I maybe missed this. Is the dime sized chunk in her armpit? I saw those several times as the skin is very thin and streched there....if it gets nicked, it tends to open up.

Again, OP....I am not saying that this is not very traumatic for you and you dog. And, obviously, I do not know the groomer. I am just saying when cuts and nicks happen it does not automatically mean the groomer is a bad groomer, impatient, uncaring, etc.

[PlayaMama]

i think the dime sized one was on the back leg. i'm imagining it at the point where the stifle joins the body? which is also a tricky spot but i still think a dime sized cut is extensive, especially on such a little dog.

i should add that my mom groomed part-time for years but she was never the full-time groomer and i occasionally helped her on weekends so i wasn't full-time either.

i just know that it _is_ possible to trim a frightened skittish dog without nicking them.

i hope the groomer agrees to the full amount, especially if she didn't have any mats. mats do make it extra hard and time consuming.

[BeckC]

To clarify, they were both about dime sized chunks of skin missing. One is on her left front elbow, and the other is on her left back armpit. The one on her front was longer than it was wide, sort of oval shaped. The one on the back was rounded. They were absolutely not nicks.

I understand that nicks and cuts happen, but IMO it never should have happened with my dog, especially twice. When DH picked her up they said that she was very nervous and jumping around the whole time. They should have called us then and told us that they couldn't groom her safely and this would have never happened. THEN (and this is what really infuriates me) they cut her once and KEPT GOING. So now she has two large wounds (well, sewn up now). They are both about 3/4 of an inch long (the front one is a smidge shorter than the back, but it's hard to measure exactly).

This was the conversation with the owner of the salon.

Me: My name is BeckC. My husband and I dropped our dog off on Saturday to be groomed. She received two fairly serious wounds which required sedation, stitches, and medication.
Owner: Yes, I remember that. (Which means that she knew about both cuts and didn't tell us. Remember, they only told us about the one that was bleeding at the time. I was also told that she works Saturdays so she was probably there at the time although I don't know for sure.)
Me: And a pretty large vet bill.
Owner: Ok...
Me: Because she was injured at your establishment, my husband and I both feel that [name of business] is responsible for the vet bill.
Owner: Well what we do in this situation is pay half the bill because you signed a waiver. (She didn't have to look it up, she knew this off the top of her head which to me means that she had already checked in anticipation of having to be responsible for a vet bill.)
Me: I never signed a waiver.
Owner: Your husband signed a waiver the first time he brought her in because she was tightly matted to the skin.
Me: Ok, but she wasn't matted this time so what does that have to do with anything?
Owner: She's hard to groom.
Me: Ok, I still don't see what that has to do with a waiver from last time or the vet bill. Can you please mail me a copy of the waiver?

[PlayaMama]

yeah, i think that's pretty underhanded, especially since she'd already checked for the waiver.

nicks don't require stitches and i think two wounds that size indicate that they'd lost patience and were just trying to get it done rather than thinking of what was best for the dog. :

i wonder if you can file a complaint with the better business bureau.

[greenmagick]

yeah, that is weird.

Like I said, we had injuries....but always told the owner and if they were bad enough to require stitches etc we immediately called the owner and took the dog to the vet for them if the preferred that and again, paid all costs associated with the injury.

I guess I just want others reading this to know that really good, patient groomers can injure dogs...unfortunately sharp tools and dogs are not a good mix. However, this situation was handled really poorly.

OP, I hope your dog is feeling better

eta: oh, and we had waivers too, but they were saying that because the dog was matted, the cut may not be what they want etc. Nothing about if we injure your dog, we are not paying!

[Sailor]

That sounds scary! I'd definitely ask them to pay for all of it - especially if the waiver was specific to the last visit, and not this one.

I groom my dog myself ... mainly because I don't trust strangers. However, I don't have a dog that requires any shaving or clipping. It's just brushing, washing, and nail trimming for me.

Do you think your dog would be more comfortable with you doing it?

[phatchristy]

Originally Posted by greenmagick

If they are matted, the skin is pulled while clipping and can get nicked much easier. However, we ALWAYS paid the vet bills if there was an injury.

Also, I maybe missed this. Is the dime sized chunk in her armpit? I saw those several times as the skin is very thin and streched there....if it gets nicked, it tends to open up.

Again, OP....I am not saying that this is not very traumatic for you and you dog. And, obviously, I do not know the groomer. I am just saying when cuts and nicks happen it does not automatically mean the groomer is a bad groomer, impatient, uncaring, etc.

Yeah, I'd have to say that I've nicked a few cats when I've shaved them. I am super careful. The vast majority of times they don't get nicked, but it does happen. I often will only shave for a short while at a time. If they start to get squirmy I stop. Unfortunately, certain areas have very thin, stretchy skin that's not attatched to anything really underneath. And, if they move quickly while you're doing it, it's very possible to nick them like that. I'm most definitely very careful and patient and I've nicked cats.

These are my own cats, and I can say the same thing, a tiny nick in an area where there is ample loose and strechy--'thin' skin as I'd call it can open up and look huge. This happened to me about a year ago, when I clipped part of the keek down. She got nicked on her inner thigh, and it opened up...probably was even larger than the size of a dime. I flushed it out, let it heal on its own. I was initially afraid that the skin would not heal right, as it was so open, but it healed up just fine. I just watched it. Looked for excessive swelling, hard areas, other unusual signs.

[phatchristy]

If other groomers here paid for it in full, most definitely they should do the same. And, if they don't file a complaint with the BBB, etc. Or take it to a news station or something that reports on that kind of stuff. I'd bet they would cover it. Ours has those kind of stories on all the time--'consumer watch' type stories'.

[phatchristy]

Oh, as another thought, if you're going to get her groomed in the future, maybe something like acepromazine--a mild tranquilizer. Something like that would be better to get.

And, personally, have you thought about investing in a really good quality set of clippers and doing her yourself? I don't know what the cost of grooming is...I've learned everything here through show grooming (I have persians). And, one time at a charity auction I won a cat package, which also included a cat grooming. I took one of mine just to see what it was like, and honestly they did a horrible job in comparison to what I do!