Caring for Your Cairn

Home

Is your Cairn itching like crazy?

First, make sure he doesn't have fleas. If not, start "stripping" his fur.

I say that because many veterinarians assume an allergy and prescribe some heavy duty medications, like steroids. They also suggest frequent bathing. But most vets aren't experts on every breed, and Cairns are special in this regard. Most Cairns itch like crazy if you never strip them. Also, breed experts say to bathe Cairns only when necessary. When your Cairn needs stripping, these allergy treatments do no good, though steroids may seem to give slight relief.

So, try stripping first. You may be amazed at the results. And they are immediate! Start with the fur he's biting and scratching at, and pull it out! He will love you for it!

Why? Because a Cairn has two coats. The hairs of the hard outer coat die but don't fall out of the skin receptacles they grew from. Such a receptacle is called a follicle. The old, dead fur in it blocks the growth of a new one. This is a source of severe irritation. How severe? So, severe the dog may jump and run away as if he thinks he's being nipped at from behind by an invisible attacker. The dirty, old, dead fur can also be a source of infection in the follicle. In either case, he's miserable and needs relief. Though there is no rash, he will scratch his skin bloody raw. And there can be serious consequences to that.

Squeamish about pulling your dog's fur out? Been there. But, sooner or later, his itching will drive you both crazy enough to make you try it.

The easiest way is to use a special tool called a "stripping knife." It's a looped blade with tiny saw-teeth on one edge that makes it a kind of brush. As you brush the dog with it, the teeth catch the furs of the hard outer coat and pull the dead ones out. It doesn't work as well as hand stripping, but if you use it every few weeks, you'll seldom need to pull much fur by hand.

Gigi on her Throne

Her favorite place. Somebody had to make sure them thar squirrels in that tree behaved. If you look close, you can make out the section of fence I put inside the screen to make sure them naughty squirrels didn't make her claw her way through it to discipline them.

The first time you hand strip, he may act suspicious of your intentions. I know that Pierre's rescuer had stripped him, but I had been too squeamish till after I had him over a year. So I guess that's why he reacted to my first attempt by riveting his eyes on the fur I was about to pull and acting like, "I don't think I like the looks of what you're doing. You don't really think you're going to pull that fur out of me, do you?"

So I made it seem like no big deal. I turned on the TV and called him on my lap. Then I just calmly started pulling furs. He watched for me to make a wrong move at first. But within a minute he was looking at me to say, "Oh! Ecstasy! Oh! that feels good! More! More!"

This is a slow process, because you can take only a very few hairs at a time. Just a few between your thumb and forefinger. Pull the direction they grow so they come out of the follicles easier. Don't jerk them out. Pull by steadily, but quickly, increasing the force of your pull till some furs come out. It takes more force than you like to use, but you'll be surprised to find that it doesn't hurt your dog. After you do this a few times, you know how much force it takes and gain confidence. You can use the fingers of your other hand to hold his skin in place. Just press them against his skin to hold it down on either side of the hairs you pull. I don't need to do this when pulling hairs from Pierre's back. But I always do it where the skin is loose and in tender areas.

The great thing about stripping first is that it is diagnostic. It either cures your dog or it doesn't, and you know the results immediately. It takes hours to strip a whole dog though. So neither of you will have enough patience to do it in one sitting. Instead, work on an area that particularly bothers him for as long as you can. If you don't see that stripping this area has brought him relief, take him to a vet. In that case his problem may well be an allergy.

Another great thing about stripping is that a beautiful new coat appears!

Stripping a Cairn removes the dirt in his fur, so you almost never need to bathe him. Since Cairns have very senitive skin that easily dries out, being able to avoid baths is another plus in stripping.

If you cut or shave a Cairn's coat, the hard outer coat dies. This does no harm to a house dog, of course. When I had Gigi I didn't know about stripping, so I took her to a groomer and said, "Groom her." I had no idea why her fur got softer and softer. By a few years later, her summer itching stopped. You get a shaggier dog that way, one that needs baths. So most people think its best to strip your Cairn. I strip Pierre and really like the results. He does too.

Here are a few tips:

The dog is most uncomfortable in the summer, though a dog that needs stripping scratche till the dead of winter. In contrast, allergies go away at the first hard frost.

Strip at least every year, twice a year is best. If you don't, every year the problem gets worse.

If your dog is actually biting and pulling at fur, pulling some of it out himself, it is quite likely that stripping is what he needs.

If your dog has fleas, you should find some of them with a flea comb. You also should find a rash from flea bites.

Cairns have such thick fur that it is sometimes hard to see the skin well enough to distinguish between a rash and skin broken by furious scratching. But there is a difference. A rash is a skin eruption. Not an abrasion.

A rash can be caused by an allergy or flea bites. If you find a rash and have recently changed his food, suspect that he is allergic to some ingredient in that new food.

Resources

Colonel Potter's Cairn Rescue Network: Grooming Your Cairn.

Rose Croft Show Team: Grooming Illustrated.

© 2002 - 2007, Kathy Krajco - all rights reserved.
The URL of this Web page is http://www.cairn-terrier.operationdoubles.com/caring_for_cairn_terrier.htm
It was last updated on 5/6/2007.
Email a friend about this site.
SITEMAP