Grooming your dog is about more than making him look more attractive. While that’s an obvious benefit, regular grooming offers many health benefits as well. For starters, it reduces the grease level in your dog’s fur. When grease builds up too much, it blocks pores and can cause your dog to develop cysts. Brushing his coat often also helps to improve the proper circulation of blood.

Many dogs shed, leaving loose hair all over the house and their own bodies. Unfortunately, the loose hair can also cause your dog to develop mats. This pulls the skin down and can cause significant skin problems. When mats develop between your dog’s paw pads, it makes it difficult for her to walk comfortably because of the accumulation of grease and dirt.

Although your dog might protest your grooming efforts initially, he will come to accept it if you’re persistent and offer lots of praise. He will also enjoy the extra attention from you. This is just one way that you can deepen the bond you have with your dog.

Tools for Home Grooming

You will naturally complete some grooming tasks more than others. For example, you might brush your dog daily and clip her nails once a month. We encourage you to establish a schedule for grooming to encourage your dog to get used to it and to keep these items in a central location:

• Coarse metal comb
• Ear and eye wipes
• Fine comb
• Non-slip rubber mat
• Shampoo made especially for his breed
• Soft slicker brush

You can bathe smaller breed dogs with shampoo and a damp washcloth, but larger breeds will need to go in the bathtub or you can use a hose outside. This bathing process loosens your dog’s fur and makes it easier to comb. We recommend purchasing a grooming comb based on whether your dog has coarse, curly, straight, or thick fur.

Trimming the nails is the most challenging part of home grooming for many dog owners. In fact, some skip this task altogether and schedule an appointment with our grooming salon instead.

You will need to use a hypo-allergenic wipe to clean your dog’s ears and eyes. This is better than using a Q-tip for the ears because you may push dirt and wax further into his ear canal. Dogs typically don’t require ear drops unless they have a diagnosed infection.

If you don’t have the grooming supplies you need at home, check out the skin and coat category in our online store. You can even set up automated shipments so you never run out.

Professional Grooming is Also Important

Regular professional appointments help to complement the care you give your dog at home. Our groomers will let you know about specific concerns and can also work with you go achieve better cooperation from your dog when it comes to home grooming. Please don’t hesitate to contact us in Grantsburg, Wisconsin at 715-463-2536 or Pine City, Minnesota at 320-629-7474 if you have additional questions.

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Back in 2015, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an official warning for pet owners to exercise caution when ordering veterinary medication from an online pharmacy. That is because it had received multiple complaints about some online businesses dispensing medication for animals without the necessary qualifications to do so. This resulted in pet owners receiving expired drugs, counterfeit drugs, the wrong dose, medication for the wrong species of pet, and several other complaints. One way that online veterinary companies attracted customers was by claiming they could receive medication for their pet without a prescription.

Federal Law Requires Veterinarians to Examine a Pet Personally Before Writing a Prescription

Although the FDA requires all veterinarians to personally examine an animal before writing a prescription and dispensing medication, some online pharmacies have found a way around this requirement. The people who own these websites often have no training in veterinary medicine at all. Because of this, they ask the pet owner to complete a health history form and claim they will evaluate the animal that way. This might offer a false sense of security for pet owners, but the illegal online pharmacy owners usually don’t even read these forms. That is what causes so many dispensing errors in the first place.

Another typical complaint received by the FDA is that these online pharmacies send non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or heartworm medications without the benefit of a prescription. This is crucial since animals taking an NSAID or receiving heartworm treatment require careful monitoring from an actual veterinarian. Additionally, a veterinarian needs to obtain a blood sample from an animal before starting him on either of these medications.

Keep Your Pet Safe and Get Your Prescriptions from Us

When you bring your sick or injured pet to Grantsburg Animal Hospital or Wild River Veterinary Clinic, a veterinarian will personally examine her and hand you a prescription for medication if she needs it. You can then get the prescription filled by us. Should you need refills or maintenance medication, you can obtain them from our licensed online store MyVetStoreOnline. We offer manufacturer-guaranteed products for pain management, preventive care and several other categories.

In addition to FDA approval, all medications we offer in our online store come with a quality guarantee from the manufacturer. Ordering from an unlicensed online veterinary pharmacy may save money upfront, but the risk to your pet’s health is too great a cost to pay. Feel free to contact us if you have additional questions about how we write prescriptions or dispense medication at either of our hospitals.

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