My dog is an American Eskimo and of course they have an undercoat and a longer coat and if you don’t groom them often they can get matted up pretty quick, they also shed like crazy. You should never have them clipped because they don’t grow back right. I knew this from reading the book I bought when I got him, but decided to have him clipped anyhow a few years back because it was so hot.

He loved it and pranced around like a little puppy, but like the book said his fur has never been the same since. It looks like corn rows all down his back and it doesn’t matter how often I brush him it still separates. I’ve mentioned my dogs several times in other posts and I always use a small bitmap image of Shadow as my icon in the address bar encase you ever wondered what that was. I actually use the same image on all of my blogs.

My Shadow recently had an ear infection and the vet gave me a cleaning solution and an antibiotic which cost 33 dollars and recently I was checking to see if there are any home remedy solutions and found that you can use vinegar to clean the ears, but make sure you thoroughly dry them afterwards. If there is an infection marigold or a small amount of tea tree oil can effectively kill the bacteria, rosemary extracts will also help build up immunity of the ear.

I always have a problem with his nails so I bought one of those pedi paws which I like, but if you still clip them and happen to cut it and make it bleed be sure to put some baby powder on it to help stop the bleeding and help prevent infection from entering the nail. I actually tried having him clipped at the vets and there were several people trying to hold him and even they couldn’t trim them. I still have a problem holding him when I try using the pedi paw, but I’m hoping it will get easier with each use.

Some dogs simply have a weird odor when they’ve been outside and come back in. I know that always happens with Sadie and it’s horrible. I bought some dog perfume oil at the pet store and if you put a drop at the base of their neck between the shoulder blades it’s suppose to penetrate the body and help mask those odors, but yuck it’s so strong and if you have asthma it can trigger an attack so I’ve found that if I take a used fabric softener sheet and run that over her it works just as well.

If you have home remedies that you use for your pets I’d love to hear about them.