Clipper Burn - Am I overreacting?

H

heaven91

New member
I picked up my dog from the groomer yesterday and upon getting home, I realized her chest and both armpits were covered in scratches/burns/sores. It looks like burns from the clippers. I texted the groomer today VERY politely saying I understand mistakes happen, I appreciated her service, and asked what happened and was told "there is always scrap risk with removing matting". But, she apologized and offered for me to bring the dog back in and have her give her an antiseptic bath. I declined since she lives further out and I don't want to re-traumatize my dog.

For background information, my dog is 8 years old and has been groomed hundreds of times in her lifetime since I got her at 8 weeks and this has never happened. She is VERY easy to groom, lets you do whatever. Every groomer I've used comments how sweet and easy she is. She did have some slight matting on her chest and armpit area from her harness / wet hair, which I was upfront about when dropping her off. She is a spaniel and we live on the coast so she swims a good bit and it's not uncommon for her to get these mats from time to time, especially if she is swimming for multiple days in a row.

Last night, I noticed her being more skittish than normal, holding her front legs weird and she wouldn't lay down completely. She was very worked up the entire car ride home as well. I guess I'm more so upset nothing was said to me when I picked her up and I have a hard time believing my dog wouldn't have been freaking out with this happening. I just feel that regardless of her matting, she used way too close of a clipper setting to manage the matts. Those cuts are so unnecessary and I can't understand how THAT many happened without being seen. :(

Am I overreacting for being this upset? Would it be wild of me to ask for a refund?

2/29 Update for everyone:

I texted the groomer back yesterday at 2:05PM and again at 3:45PM asking for a refund, with no response Texted again this morning around 10AM and called / left VM at 12:00pm. It is now nearly 2:00PM, still no response or acknowledgement. I'm going to give the full 24 hours before I post a review, but this is just WILDLY unprofessional. 😭😭😭

https://preview.redd.it/40x6gzjvwdl...bp&s=f3ad6db9d5761a8a3796903ace7e0feb0a473a8d

https://preview.redd.it/iwq0z9vxwdl...bp&s=398a4356415904e8f0f93dcf26f4d57e727d7952

https://preview.redd.it/jbj9be7pxdl...bp&s=804f4ee9373cd0b6ff541072482aa8d28159b59b
 
@weepingwillow422 I was reading it and I was like a littler clipper burn from matting is normal. And then I saw the pictures OMG. She looks like she used a 30 and she DUG at this poor dog. This is HORRIBLE. I would be crying as a groomer if I did 1 of these cuts. She just kept going. Yeah no. The way these cuts are, she went perpendicular to the skin (straight into it) that's what causes it to do little puncture holes. This is entirely a skill issue, not a matting issue, using a 30 was unnessesary, a 10 works on pretty much every dog I've ever done, especially if I loosen and blow out the matting in the bath (I leave the too tight Matt's on til after the bath, and work them a bit from the skin to get a 10 under). Never ever go back, leave a terrible review and don't accept a refund to take down the review either.
 
@heaven91 Clipper “burn” isn’t a burn, it’s scratches from poor blade handling. The groomer dug too far into the dog when they shaved her, usually this happens when they are rushing or the dog is super wiggly and there’s matting. There’s zero excuse for brushing this off, it should have been mentioned at pick up. One, maybe two marks at armpits and between back legs/belly can be normal with matting or a squirmer, but that’s NOT normal and not okay. Was that groomer new? That’s the only time I’ve seen this happen, they’re digging the blade into the dog and scooping, and badly. It’s poor clipper handling skills and probably poor dog handling skills.
 
@baotoan No, she wasn't new :( I've been using her every month or two for almost a year now which is why I am so shocked about this. My dog isn't super squirmy I've personally groomed her a couple of times, but I can't imagine she wasn't freaking out??
 
Tacking on, some of those scratches could also be from a too sharp back toe nail or badly trimmed nails and the dog scratching herself, which still begs the question of why she would be so itchy now after the groom.
 
@baotoan Blow up the photo, this is clipper not nails. You can see the holes where the skin got pinched in the blade.

I wonder if the groomer was trying to use a skip tooth and just sucks at clipper handling. This is gougey.
 
@eurombrem one time I was trying to shave spiderweb mats off a dog's sanitary with a regular 10 blade. The dog was really heavy and leaning on me and my blade angle was weird...it made a cut just like this. This groomer was REALLY hacking into this dog and not looking.
 
@eurombrem That was my thought too, the marks are evenly spaced in every instance, but I doubted myself because they’re so wide, like in the first photo near the armpit. Maybe a brand new wide blade? But still, how are they chewing up that much skin repeatedly.
 
@baotoan Not stretching the skin, not laying the blade flat, and a skip tooth blade is my best guess. It is wide, but with how wrinkly that dog is in that area, if they weren't stretching the skin it could have grabbed the width...but folded skin. So when it's on its back and stretched it looks alot wider.

However totally could be some wonky wide blade. There's some borderline novelty blades or there that are wildly impractical but some groomer somewhere has it.
 
@heaven91 Holy crap that is REALLY bad. Even if the matting was tight she should have been honest and referred you out to a vet or someone else who could do it. I would honestly not be going back and leaving a review to warn others. That is horrible.
 
@steveo I am the least confrontational person ever / people pleaser to my core, so this has just made me so upset. I also think if it were my other dog who is a little more wild, I could understand how this would happen? But it's my calmest dog. I've also never asked for money back or posted a bad review about anything, but thank you for validating me that I'm not crazy for being upset about this.
 
@heaven91 Please post a review. And this is SO PAINFUL for your dog. If you can please go to the vet and get an ointment for it. It will help her immensely. It's all rubbing when she walks and it hurts her that's why she's walking oddly. If you want there's some rescue creams that can be used OTC, but honestly I'd be worried about infection.
 
@stanley_4 Thank you, I'm giving it a full 24 hours for her to provide me a refund or at least acknowledge her wrongdoing then I'm posting a review on Google and Facebook. I am so distraught over this whole experience.

I'm also taking her to the vet this afternoon
 
@heaven91 In my 5 years of grooming this happened 1 time and 1 time only. I thought my 10 blade was on and it was a 30 and I did 1 of those cuts on the dog. I felt awful, told the owners too. I have no clue why she kept going at it
 
@steveo I agree. This is bad. Even when I’m dematting a dog and I know some type of rednesses isn’t from me I take photos, do a medicated bath, and inform the owners.
 
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