[nvnvgirl]

Last night I gave Madison a bath b/c I knew it would be awhile before he can have another one, and for the first time I noticed his fur is all matted right up against his skin!

I've bathed him several times before and didn't notice this, but it can't just have happened. His fur is always kind of wonky....it looks really good right after a bath, but one or two days later, it sort of sticks out away from his body. It's quite thin and fine, but feels coarse after a day or so.

As I said, it's thin, so when it starts sort of clumping the way it does when it starts sticking out, you can actually see his skin.

I've never seen anything like this before and I'm not sure if his hair has been matted like that all this time (since I got him in March) and maybe that's why it's so thin (like, maybe if it wasn't all matted, his hair would grow better?). Or, he has a habit of rubbing his body all over the carpeting and rugs (like if your back itched and you were trying to scratch it). and now I wonder if maybe that's what causes the mats, OR, if he's doing that b/c the Mats are bugging him?

When I bathed him, I used a hair conditioner, but it doesn't seem to have helped much. I can comb the mats out somewhat, but it's like almost his entire body is like that right at the skin. It doesn't seem to hurt him (I tried to be very gentle, but his skin is thin too, and the mats are so close to it, that it's difficult to hold onto them so I don't pull his skin.

I know that maybe the best thing to do would be to shave his body...only his hair is so sparse, I'm afraid that he'll just be totally hairless.

Has anyone else encountered this? If I did shave him, do you think his hair would grow back better? I'll be taking him to be professionally groomed as soon as I can after his surgery, but I want to know what I should do first! Is there anything I can use to try to get those mats out?

It's so weird, b/c if you looked at him, you'd never even know he had those mats and when I brushed him everyday, the brush must have just gone over them but not into them.