So upset, why don't owners listen?

[tyronasmith]

I groomed this gorgeous girl and their other dog for around 7 years. They started off getting them groomed every 4-6 weeks and then they had kids.

The dogs were put outside, fed terrible cheap rubbish and grooming was pushed back 3-4 months, I only continued to groom them as I loved the dogs so much. She was the only schnauzer that didn't try kill me when she was being groomed.

I had been telling the owners for years they needed a dental check and this one desperately needed to lose weight, I researched food for them and gave so much advice. I last groomed them early last year (stopped grooming due to injury), and she weighed around 16kg (35lb).

Owners messaged me yesterday to say she passed away from a suspected heart attack.

All photos except for the last one are from her last groom with me last year, the last photo is from 2019 before they had kids

https://preview.redd.it/yh9c674iy43...bp&s=c6e106cc5f9641bf0c96502bb7b0ca5aa5d94317

https://preview.redd.it/4c4u6m1iy43...bp&s=716093055c9cf9d1d74e6fbd4680f772bba7ea55

https://preview.redd.it/73oc7m1iy43...bp&s=ee0363a4c354f0621274977c5f864696c07a0454

https://preview.redd.it/g1jjkn1iy43...bp&s=57c858fa46967941aaa45133ef96a096ddfdd2e3

https://preview.redd.it/4u0fa4xjy43...bp&s=cccfc335a99a918a1e469c85b1dfe43d986e2a56

https://preview.redd.it/ww57mifky43...bp&s=1626deaea9f286c4fe815dcb058da9888c226bfe

 

[thewingsoftruth]

@tyronasmith That’s awful. I’m so sorry.

 

[tyronasmith]

@thewingsoftruth In all my years I never had a dog pass away from neglect, but I truly believe thats what happened

 

[nhouse9]

@tyronasmith You are likely correct. Think of how you did the absolute best for the fellah. He had a better life because of you. A groomer has a terrible
Burden to bear that should not exist. You can’t control how owners treat their pets. Again. You did everything right.

 

[chaz1821]

@tyronasmith I don’t know how it is with dogs but IIRC correct they found a correlation between poor dental hygiene and cardiovascular diseases in humans. Either way I’m sorry you had to witness that, even if somewhat removed from it.

 

[tyronasmith]

@chaz1821 It is absolutely the same with dogs, I always expressed the importance of dental health to my clients.
Thank you

 

[chaz1821]

@tyronasmith I appreciate you responding. I’ve always wanted a dog but I don’t have the time at this point in my life, and I live alone and travel a fair amount, so I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about dogs in the next year or two to prepare to adopt one.

 

[tyronasmith]

@chaz1821 You are doing the right thing by doing your research and not committing to one until you know you are ready. I applaud you for this

I will never be able to travel (at least while I have my 2 current monsters), one has severe separation anxiety so could never leave him with anyone else, and the other is a creature of habit and I know she will be too worried staying somewhere else.

 

[chaz1821]

@tyronasmith Yeah, I feel like I could own a dog and travel sporadically bc people with dogs do that and I have close friends that are dog owners and would take great care of it, but there are still some long term trips I want to take for work and I don’t think it’d be fair to leave a dog for that long.

 

[cherrychops]

@chaz1821 I am an LVT and can tell you that dental health is extremely important in not only people, but your pets as well. Not only dogs, but cats, rabbits, ferrets etc. At zoos they even do dentals.

 

[harlonbc]

@tyronasmith I'm so sorry. It's hard to explain to people how much it hurts losing a dog that "wasn't yours" (in the traditional sense).

You were one of her people though and she liked seeing and being with you. Good for you trying to get her proper care, it's unethical when people don't advocate for animals. You're a good person for doing it.

(On a lighter note - I think I have something in my blood that 99% of terriers don't like me, you have me thinking because they're great for some people but not so much others.)

 

[tyronasmith]

@harlonbc Thank you so much. I wass trying to explain it to my brother and why I give my dogs the best of everything.

I swear out of maybe 10 schnauzers that I groomed, she was the only one that never tried to bite me.

 

[folkie]

@tyronasmith I used to groom a miniature pinscher. I had talked to them about him weight before, and they insisted that they weren't over-feeding him, and they said they'd get his thyroid checked. This dog was already super obese. He had shelves of fat on his bum and shoulders. His tummy sagged and bowed his back. Almost a year went by on thyroid meds, and nothing changed. He seems to be getting worse. He couldn't clean himself at all and would regularly have poop caked on his behind. I weighed him one day, and he was 33 lbs.

One day, they were asking for clarification on why I wasn't able to check his anal glands. I delicately told them that because of his weight, I couldn't feel his glands at all. I shit you not, she said, " Well, maybe we'll cut the hotdogs in half and give him only one a day instead of two." I had such a hard time keeping a poker face. I asked her why he was getting any hotdogs at all, and she said, "That's how we give him his thyroid pills."

I marched her ass over to the pill-pockets on the shelves, and explained how to use them (she was already dumb enough to give him 2 full hotdogs a day for years, so I wanted to make this as easy as possible for her). She said, "I don't know they're expensive." I assured her that she only needed to use enough of the treat to cover the pill.

A year or so later, she called me to tell me that the dog was diagnosed with diabetes, and they didn't want to pay for treatment, so they had him put down 2 days later. I almost came unglued on the phone. I wanted to scream YOU FUCKING DID THIS TO HIM! AND NOW YOU KILL HIM BECAUSE ITS INCONVENIENT TO PAY THE CONSEQUENCES?

They could have managed the diabetes. They could have gotten serious about him losing weight, and kept up on bloodwork to tweak the thyroid meds as needed. That dog lived a life of pain because they fed him garbage and didn't care enough to help him. I'm confident that the only reason they got him groomed every 6 weeks was because they hated his shedding.

It's been years, but I'm still so mad about it.

 

[stanley_4]

@folkie I think the worst is when they start off with you as puppies and they just get bigger and bigger each time you see them. It's like the worst thing ever. And you try to educate and people DO NOT LISTEN.

 

[jo858]

@stanley_4 As well as being a dog groomer, I worked as a veterinary receptionist for a while. One day there was a middle-aged couple in the consulting room with their young but already severely overweight lab. This room adjoined the reception area, so I could hear the consultation, and the vet gave them a very clear, concise and sympathetic explanation of why being that fat was bad for the dog, what they could do about it, and pretty much gave them a diet plan free of charge. Come the end of the consultation, as the vet was ushering them out of the room, the woman said, "Oh, aren't you going to give her any treats, then?"