YIKES! My dm lionhead spins his wool not into sweaters but into clotted mats 3″ long!

[lashkay]

I have a problem with Dustor I thought you might have with your own bunnies. This is a long email because I have many different ideas about this from my research.  He develops long, thick some about 3″ mats that stick out like branches from his body. He seems to whir sections of his fur into knotted clumps when he grooms himself. Do your bunnies do this? 
 
I don’t use slicker brushes as they’re just too stressful and harsh on the skin. I dread cutting them off and leaving bald patches as the mats go right up against the skin. I’ve been using a rather soft nylon pet brush to smooth his coat as much as possible followed by a hairbuster comb. I know if I really applied the hairbuster comb thoroughly it would pick up a lot of hair but any excessive brushing or combing is met with the bunny dashing away into his hidey hole. He will let me do relatively little grooming as long as I pet his forehead with my other hand, which leaves it unavailable to hold the hair away from his body as I comb.
 
I give him dried papaya bits which he enjoys to keep his hair moving through his digestive tract. I also give about a tablespoon of raw oats a day as a treat.  His poops are not stringy usually.  Show breeder Barbi Brown ( barbibrownsbunnies.com) recommends adding 1/4 teaspoon plain meat tenderizer to the water to dissolve potential wool block in the digestive tract while they’re shedding.  Do you do this?  

 
I’m also considering getting a human’s thinning comb with a blade built in for thinning out his hair. Sable points’ fur seems to be very wooly.
 
What do you think and what do you do to keep your bunnies’ coats under control and mat-free?  Do you do your own grooming or do you take them to a groomer?  Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!  Thanks!
 

[jerseygirl]

The meat tenderizer is a powdered form of the enzyme found in pineapple and or papaya. Personally I’m not a fan of adding anything to their water because it’d just make it go bad quicker. Plus, the rabbit might avoid drinking if they sense something is in it. Your better off using papaya, pineapple or papaya tablets. Hay and water are the best things for keeping hair moving thru the tract.

When mats have already gotten bad, you’re probably better off cutting those ones out. A vet or professional groomer might be able to do that. I have a pair or round ended scissors I sometimes use myself. Then use a small tooth comb in the areas that matt badly to try keep it under control. I had heard to massage 1-2 drops of mineral oil into matts and leave overnight then comb out. I really don’t know if it works or not. If you do use oil, take care as it is a laxative.You can get food grade or medicinal mineral oil fairly easily  (liquid paraffin).

[lashkay]

Jerseygirl, Yes, I’m hesitant to use the meat tenderizer for the same reasons you are, don’t want to tamper with their water. I think and hope the papaya bits are helpful, I’d heard from a breeder in England that he’s never had wool block problems with his rabbits since using papaya. I tried papaya tablets but he showed no interest in them so I’ll take them myself.lol He seems to be getting adequate hay and he drinks a lot of water. I don’t change the water daily because I understand that if you let tap water stand overnight, it becomes like distilled water which is healthier than tap water. I guess you can get the same result by boiling the tap water, then letting it stand? I guess I’ll get a pair of round ended scissors too, that way maybe I can cut some of the mats off. I’m afraid a trip to a groomer would stress the bunny from the experience, if he balks at when I groom him in his pen. I also have some edible grade organic cornstarch baby powder with the only other ingredient, oil of French lavender, on order from Australia – your homeland! It’s called Aroma Baby Powder. French lavender wasn’t on any poisonous plant lists I could find. They also had one that was edible grade cornstarch with the only other ingredient oil of chamomile but it also contained oatstarch which I was unsure about. Dana Krempels recommended grocery store cornstarch baby powder to lubricate fur mats but the kind my grocery stores sell say if swallowed, call poison control, so I researched and found the edible grade one in Australia. Thank you, I’m going to try the edible grade mineral oil, 1 or two drops at a time shouldn’t create a laxative effect I should think. I’ll bear that in mind though. Don’t want to mess with his poops (pardon the pun) lol

[bunnytowne]

Hmm.   How often do you brush?   When Ruby Ravishing grooms herself  her hair sticks out in little clumps.  Guess cause it is damp from her tongue.

I brush her everyday sometimes I skip a day .  When I do skip a day I notice hair in her  poop.  

To get tangles out I start from the ends of the hair. The hair furthest from the body.  She has little tangles on her cheek and dewlap hair.  Lucky if I can get her dewlap hair.  Oh I move her dewlap hair to the side of her face and brush it from there. Works pretty good.

Your buns clump sounds like this grooming method wont work.  It sounds like the clumped hair is on the behind.  On her underside there I trim that hair to keep stuff from sticking in it and causing a problrm.

If you  are too nervous about cutting it out yourself you can let me do it.    lol  Too far away for you? lol   Naaa  I would let the vet do it since I am too far away.

However I do use a  comb to de tangle and then the hairbuster then the slicker.  These reach to the skin and get all the hair taken care of.

ON their underside the urine can be on the hair and mess things up along with cecals. 

When you groom her put her on a table or counter she is more likely to cooperate for a longer amount of time.

[lashkay]

Thanks, Bunnytowne, for the tips. San Francisco to Florida is a bit of a stretch, so I may let the vet clip out his mat, but thanks for offering, I’m sure you do an excellent job so how I wish we were closer. I’d pay you to groom him every couple days or so, because I know your expertise from Princess Ruby Ravishing…boy, is she! The main clump we’re contending with hangs off the side of his neck. It even flops from one side to the other. I have a wide toothed comb with rotating rounded tines so that shows you just how seriously I’ve been tackling this problem. I brush him everyday, sometimes twice a day a little. I will work on setting up a table or elevated surface, just scared he’ll wildly try to jump off. I can see where that would help with longer grooming sessions. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to have any problems on his butt or around his privates because I use carefresh litter that stays dry to the touch. I just bought some edible mineral oil for applying 1 or 2 drops to the mat and letting it sit overnight, as Jersey mentioned. Even that I’m such a fraidy cat about, so we’ll see… Thanks for the tip about tackling the mat at the ends first, and your other tips.. SIGH I wish we were roommates!

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