Risky Business
It’s a rare groomer indeed who has never had to deal with fleas or ticks. For most of us, finding fleas and ticks on a client’s pet is an all too common occurrence. Unfortunately, many pet parents seem oblivious to the fact that their pets need protection from these nasty blood-sucking, disease-carrying creatures.
The majority of my clients are wonderful blessings; dear people that are the back bone of my business and allow me to support my family. And then there is my hemorrhoid, Ms. B., a preverbal pain in my rear, whom even after liberal medical treatment just seems to pop back up at the worst time.
Next to “explosive diarrhea” and “matted doodle,” burnout is one of the most feared phrases in a groomer’s vocabulary. Yet, at some point in their career, all groomers must deal with burnout.
We feel it coming on. At first, we just feel tired. Then, we notice that the little things start to bother us.
Little Sammy Jo was one of my favorites, and I had been grooming her since she was a puppy. When she came in ‘that day’ I felt marble-like lumps in her throat area that were never there before.
Many of us have seen “bad skin” come through our shop at one time or another and have been frustrated by the lack of improvement. I interviewed seven veterinarians and asked them about the most common skin issues they see. The unanimous answer was secondary bacterial infections resulting from scratching. They also stated that 95% of all visits for allergies were merely extremely dry skin.
How do we deal with stress? Or maybe the question should be, can we eliminate stress from our lives? Well, of course not…stress is all around us. How we handle that stress is vital to our well-being. Before we can deal with stress, we need to look at what leads us into that state of frustration. Recognizing when we are reaching an emotional breakdown is critical to our response.
It may seem baffling to you that veterinarians will emphasize and re-emphasize flea bite prevention for pets when neither you nor the owners have ever noted the presence of fleas or “flea dirt.” It is sometimes difficult to convince pet owners to consider flea bite allergy as the primary trigger for their dog’s itching and hairloss on the rump or tail when owners insist that “My pet doesn’t have fleas!”