Mats in face fur help

[Sparky04]

Ava’s had a rough couple months and about 3 weeks ago, she had to get her eye removed. Its finally healing up and she doesn’t seem to be in pain anymore, so I wanna tackle grooming her face. Over the few weeks of her recovery, her face has gotten very messy and matted between the medicine, critical care, and such. She’s never been very patient with grooming so its always been slow going, but her face needs some serious work. To make things harder, she’s much more skittish about me touching her face right now because I was the one who was flushing out the socket, giving meds and injections and such after her surgery. She’s a lionhead mix so she has longer fur. I’ve thought about trying to shave her face but I really don’t wanna accidentally cut her whiskers since she needs those more than ever. What kind of brush would you suggest is best for her face? Should I just try to shave out the mats and risk her whiskers?

 

[Meg]

No need to shave – cutting the skin (or whiskers as you point out) is a concern.  You might have some luck with just a bit of warm water (in small amounts, just to spot-clean) and massaging the mats with your fingers.  I confess I’ve used haircutting scissors to cut away the more stubborn mats a couple of times, but only when the bun is nice and calm and you can do it precisely.  Mine has never tolerated brushing/combing, but if I bring him up on the bed he can sometimes be surprisingly tolerant of a little of this type of hand-grooming, especially the more you can make your movements feel a bit more like a bunny’s grooming movements.

[LBJ10]

Yes, sometimes if you use your fingers to pick at the mats, they just think you’re grooming their face (like another rabbit would).

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