Pet Grooming In Parkville, MO

Grooming your pet isn’t just about having your dog look and smell nice. It’s also about making your pet more comfortable, happy, and healthy.

How often to bathe a dog is a matter of opinion. Bathing too frequently can dry out and damage the coat and skin. Occasional baths are helpful to remove dirt and debris, eliminate the “doggy smell,” remove dead hair, and make the coat soft and shiny. Most pet dogs are bathed no more than once every few months.

Regular grooming is important to a dog’s overall health, comfort, and well-being. Dogs are not naturally as fastidious as cats and need help from their human companions in the care-taking area — especially if they are a long-haired or thick-coated breed and need regular skin care. There are 4 general areas of a dog that need routine attention: the coat, nails, ears, and anal glands.

Bathing

Your dog should have regular, but not frequent, baths, depending on the breed and coat of your dog. Too frequent washing removes natural oils and causes the coat to become dry and harsh.

Nail Trimming

Nails must be kept short for the feet to remain healthy. Long nails interfere with the dog’s gait, making walking awkward or painful. They can also break easily. This usually happens at the base of the nail, where blood vessels and nerves are located, and precipitates a trip to the veterinarian. If you can hear the nails clicking on the floor, they’re too long.

Ear Cleaning

You should clean your dog’s ears once a month, more if he’s prone to ear problems.

Eye Cleaning

Clean, slight discharges with a moist cotton ball. Do not put anything irritating in your dog’s eyes.

Anal Glands

Anal glands are located on each side of your dog’s anus. They are glands that exude scent when your dog has a bowel movement. If you notice your dog scooting along on his rear or licking or scratching his anus, he may have impacted or infected anal glands.

Our Feline Grooming Services include:

• Lion cut (includes bath, comb out, and nail trim)
• Bath (includes comb out and nail trim)

Cats are naturally fastidious and one of the most well-groomed and cleanest mammals. Most cats groom themselves several hours each day unless injured or otherwise not feeling well. Nevertheless, domestic cats can still use a little help from their human companions in the care-taking area. Four basic things need attention when people groom their cats: coat, skin, nails, and ears. A regular grooming program is important to a cat’s overall health, comfort, and well-being. Fortunately, most cats actually like being groomed—especially if they are groomed regularly when they are young kittens.

Prevent Mats from Developing

Long-haired kitties should be groomed regularly with a firm, long-bristled, or wire brush. A metal comb with rounded teeth to prevent damage to a cat’s sensitive and fragile skin should also be used from time to time. Cats with thick, long, fine fur, such as Himalayas and Persians, are extremely prone to developing hair mats, especially under their legs (in the armpit area) and around their ears.

These mats almost always develop if these cats aren’t groomed on a regular basis. Sometimes, they need to be brushed or combed every day. They say that “prevention is the best medicine.” Certainly, in our domestic cats, prevention is the key to mat control. Left unattended, hair mats can actually involve tender skin, which is extremely painful for the animal.

Regular brushing and combing of long-haired cats will prevent mats from developing. Even though it sounds like a lot of work, it really isn’t. You can groom your cat when he is curled up on your lap, and you are watching television or chatting on the phone with a friend. Doing this every few days is much less trouble than having to deal with nasty hair mats.

Nails (Outdoor vs. Indoor)

Most outdoor cats and some indoor-outdoor cats keep their nails well-maintained by scratching on trees, logs, fence posts, and other rough materials. Cats that are kept strictly indoors will need help from their owners to keep their nails in tip-top shape, especially their front nails.

Indoor cats should be provided with one or more scratching posts, which they can be trained to use to keep their front claws worn down and to remove the older outer nail sheaths as new sheaths grow in. However, even if an indoor cat uses its scratching posts, they probably still will need to have its front nails trimmed to keep them tidy and to “take the edge off.” This will not only help protect furniture, but it is also essential to prevent injury to people and other pets.

Most outdoor cats won’t need this attention until they are older or arthritic, in which case they may not be active enough to keep their nails in shape. Outdoor cats also need their nails to be razor-sharp to defend themselves from other animals. Cats that have extra toes need special nail attention because their nails tend to grow around and into their foot pads if not trimmed regularly.