Itchy and scratchy
August 25th, 2008 by ktula
Mango has been scratching himself since he arrival home the first time on July 19th. I could not figure out what is causing him to scratch. Initially, i thought it was the Rosemary plants in the backyard. On the first few days home, Mango was going in and out of the Rosemary bushes. Even after fencing off the Rosemary plants, Mango was still scratching himself.
About two weeks ago, Mango started to shed his puppy coat. He appeared to be scratching himself quite a bit more than usual. So i decided to have Mango bathed on the Friday when i was working from home. I called around all the nearby Pet grooming places but they were all booked up. Finally, i gave up and decided to bathe him myself. I found a nearby do-it-yourself bathhouse for pets called The Wash Dog. At this facility, shampoo, bath towels and the very important power dryer.
Mango looking wary before being bathed (picture taken with my iPhone camera).
Oh boy…there is no escape (picture taken with my iPhone camera).
This was the first time that i have given Mango a bath. He had been bathed by the breeder in the past but the breeder was not able to give him a bath during his daycare that week. Surprisingly, Mango did not put up a fight when he was being sprayed with luke warm water.
Mango almost completely soaked (picture taken with my iPhone camera).
Get me outta here! (picture taken with my iPhone camera)
The next thing i did was to massage some shampoo into his wet hair. The breeder told me in order to loosen a Shiba’s shed hair, the massaging process is important. Then i attempted to express Mango’s anal glands. I was not sure if i did it correctly. What expelled out of Mango’s anus did not seem to be like what i saw when the breeder was demonstrating a bath to me.
Mango after being rinsed (picture taken with my iPhone camera).
After rinsing the lather off Mango, i placed Mango back on the grooming table and used the pretty powerful dryer to blow dry him. Because Shibas are doubly-coated with the outer coat being stiff and straight and the undercoat soft and thick, i was informed that a normal blow dryer is not powerful enough get the loose hair out. I was not sure how much loose hair i got rid off but when i got done, i could feel Mango’s hair all over me.
Looking good and smelling clean after the bath (picture taken with my iPhone camera).
The bath did not seem to help with Mango’s scratching. In fact, it may have gotten worse. On the following Monday, Smelly took Mango to the vet to have his scratching problem looked at. His stool analysis came back negative - no parasite was found. The vet gave Mango an unknown shot and told Smelly to give Mango half a table of Benadryl every 12 hours.
Something in my backyard must be causing him to scratch. I am still going through the process of elimination to find out what is the culprit.
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