A little water in the bottom of the tub helps to soak the dirt from her toes. I use the shower head to soak her down. She gets scrubbed from head to toe with a flea/tick shampoo that makes her smell so fresh and clean. (Brian always get to scrub down the DMZ.)
She gets hosed down again. It never ceases to amaze me how much dirt comes out with the rinse water. We heave her on to the towels and try to quickly cover her before she shakes off all the water. Usually we win. She always gets a little crazy about now. She runs in tiny circles and rubs her face in the towels....almost like she's trying to find some new dirt to cover herself in.
Next is the salon-like blowdrying treatment. She used to try to gulp the air from the blowdryer. Now she's not so interested in the blowdryer, because she's found that Brian's hand works as a neat little treat dispenser about this time. He slowly feeds her treats while I dry and fluff her. She comes out like a beauty queen.
Today we had a bit of a shock while drying her. Brian was rubbing her belly and found a tick under her neck. We've never had that happen before! It was evil looking, brown and fat, probably about 2 mm. She gets Advantix once monthly for fleas/ticks, so I hope the tick was dead. But I tell you what, that bugger was really difficult to extract from her skin. Brian did his best to hold her still when I pulled at the tick with the tweezers. I wanted to cry for Maggie because I'm sure it hurt and she was scared from being held down. It wasn't until later that I remembered the trick about touching the tick with a hot match, but that wouldn't have worked if the tick was dead anyway. Now she's clean and tickless, for the moment. I'll have to think twice before I let her in our bed tonight.
5 comments:
Poor baby. At least you know you're buying the meds for a good reason.
Frodo rolled in fresh bird poo today. I shot him with cold hose water. No treats, no towel. He hates getting wet. Maybe he'll learn not to roll in poop. You are clearly a better doggie mommy than me!
Sounds like the same sunday we had here...
I even purchased a new shower head with a hose attachment because the big gulp cups weren't cutting it anymore.
Our little white cutie was all mangy and gray from rolling in dirt all weekend with her 60 pound lab friend Chloe!! She's 12 pounds of white fluff now! :)
ps-Baylie misses Maggie
There's this thing we got called a "tick lasso" or something. It was really cheap, but works great. The "touch a match to the tick" thing isn't a great idea (we've never gotten it to work and it could be dangerous to the dog) although since Maggie's fur is a lot shorter than Scout's, it might work better.
Oh poor Mags, I feel sorry for her. I'm glad you found the tick before letting her up on your bed! Should you spray your yard with a recommended deterrent just in case? It's been so long since we've had a dog and had to concern ourselves with such things. There is a mangie but very gentle Golden REtriever mix that walks around our yard every day. I thought twice before letting her in because she really needs a bath and brushing and who knows what else!
We have to wipe down KitKat with powder frequently since she's been allowed outside. She definitely loves the high grasses. Chuck had to "ground" her the other day because she stayed out way passed curfew (she roamed in around midnight!) We realize there are some dangers after dark with her partially declawed. And, since she's "technically" Jeffreys cat! we do our best to keep her safe.
I remember the first time we found ticks on Cayman, I felt the same way about it hurting her. Luckily since we have moved up here she has not gotten any, maybe that's because we usually get her shaved for the summer...just dawned on me.
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