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Originally Posted by KazzyK810  I've always heard the same thing too! I use scissors whenever there is a mat. You just have to start near the skin and cut away from the skin, down the hair. It's been my method for over 20 years without a cut or nip to the dog and was shown how by a professional groomer. It's a way to get a mat out with very little damage to the long coat....clippers are drastic. |
It all depends on the situation and experience you have. As a groomer, when I find a single mat somewhere that I want to remove without making a "hole" in the coat i use thinning shears to break it up and then brush it out. If its a bad mat I have also used my clippers with a short blade to slice the mat in half and then brush out. I've also used scissor to cut them out.
People with common sense would know to cut away from the skin and not across the skin (trying to scissor between the mat and the skin) but I've seen a lot of accidents from lack of common sense.
I remember one holiday I was working in the emergency department and someone brought their long haired bunny in because she "nicked" him with the scissors when trying to cut out a mat.
well that "nick" turned out to be a chunk of hair and tissue from his genital area. It was not pretty once I had him sedated and the area cleaned up. Poor thing had to be euthanized because of the "nick" she made all while scissoring out a mat.
Anyway, I just shudder a little every time I see someone publicly say its ok to scissor out mats without a word of caution or direction. Some people reading it may lack what we think is common sense in the proper way to do it. Thats all.
