Think I overgroomed!

[Binkles]

Ack!

I was grooming Little-Bit with the furminator tonight and nearly had a heart attack when I saw that an area I had been focusing on had lost ALL of its undercoat!! You can’t really tell at first glance, you have to lift her coat up to see, but her skin is visible underneath when you lift her top coat!!

Is this something that happens sometimes? Does ALL of the undercoat fall out in some places?

Ohh, I really really hope I didn’t groom her raw. :{ It doesn’t seem irritated or anything yet, and she doesn’t seem to be bothered by it. All that fluffy white undercoat was just coming out so easilly! Not REALLY easilly, but it SEEMED like it just kept wanting to come out! The furminator just  kept catching on it. How do you know when to stop? I was always under the impression that when a bunny is in a shed, anything the brush catches on can be groomed out if it comes easily.

I know I’ve been warned about overgrooming with the furminator. I hope I haven’t done it.

[MimzMum]

It’s hard to tell by what you’ve described. Do you have a picture?
I have seen Pip pull her fur till there’s nothing left but skin, usually when she was stressed or had eaten somethign that didn’t agree with her. She doesn’t do it anymore, but it would scare me terribly to see her skin showing like that. >.<
You can overgroom with the furminator. But if the fur is naturally falling away, I don’t think that constitutes overgrooming. Fiver’s fur really comes out en masse when he sheds…and in strange patterns. It begins to look really terrible and then suddenly it turns around and looks better. (He’s still kind of scruffy looking right now though, as I haven’t really been able to groom him for a bit, he keeps trying to bite or box my hands.)
Can you get one of those “Love Gloves” from your supermarket to use on her instead for awhile, just till you are sure it’s not the furminator? I think those are much easier on a bunny’s pelt when it is already thin.
And what breed is Little Bit? I know she has that “Siamese” look to her…but does she have a fur type that’s naturally thin like the mini-rex?

[Binkles]

I have the love gloves, but she doesn’t like them because they’re not my bare hands. :/ (She’s REALLY weird…no joke, she nearly had a panic attack once when she was younger because my feet were wearing shoes…) But I guess I could try to coerce her into accepting them, especially under the circumstances.

Little-Bit is actually a…uh….well…I think she’s supposed to be lionhead. So she’s moderately long-haired, but not as long as Pip probably is. She’s a little shorter, more like a fuzzy lop really.

But yeah, she always sheds in weird patterns too. >< The first half of her body always sheds quickly and gracefully, but then when it gets to the rear sides, back, and ESPECIALLY her skirt it just all goes bonkers. The area in question is on her flank, almost to her skirt, so there's all that long hair in there.

PS. That particular area that I was working on wasn’t exactly ‘falling out’ like some of the rest of her fur. Most of it probably would not have come off with just the love glove -it was more ‘plucking’ material. But it certainly wasn’t hard to get off.

[MimzMum]

I think my three started blowing their coats about a month and a half ago, and I am STILL pulling tufts out of Mimzy’s butt. >_<
The skirt area is the worst I think. It takes the longest to get all grown out. Maybe, if she has no problem with just your hands, you could just tug the loose bits off?

lolz…”my feet were wearing shoes”…lolz. That’s a cute way to put it. Can’t say I’ve ever heard that before. ^_^
Pip went nuts over my socks when I was in the xpen. Kept chewing holes in them to get to my feet. She does not like socks, Sam I am. xD

[wendyzski]

My bun sheds down to velvet in places when she blows her coat, and I have a friend whose rabbit molts to bald patches.  I’d be careful, but it may just be normal

[Binkles]

Is there anything I should watch out for? Infection? Rash?

[MimzMum]

Definitely keep an eye out for any red or irritated spots on the skin you can see. Or if she’s scratching the bare spot in any way you’d consider to be excessively, I think it would be a good idea to talk to your vet. Have her nails been trimmed lately?
Most likely it’ll come back in okay. My buns are going through a little more full body shedding too, and since it’s starting to get warm here, my guess is the weather is causing them to want to lose some of that winter fur coat.

[BinkyBunny]

OHHH! That furminator! YES, it can overgroom. I have furminated our cat’s back almost bald by accident! – and he was lovin’ every second of it.

The furminator works great, but you do have to stop yourself as it just seems to keep on grooming and grooming and before you OR the bunny know it, too much hair has been taken off. I stopped using it on the bunnies for that reason.

Note: When that did happen, their hair grew back, there was no irritatation or anything, but of course, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on it just in case.

Don’t feel bad though – I think this has happened to all first time furminator users – you get so excited that it’s just doing such a good job, taking off so much fur, and even the animals don’t seem to be bothered by it.  It’s a very strange grooming tool

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