Exfoliating with the Scrubba Scrubba Bath Mitt

One of the slightly perverse pleasures I derive from fostering is that many foster dogs come with their own minor health issues. The shelter provides whatever medication and follow-up care they need to heal, and as long as the dog is not a disaster when it comes to pill-taking--like our little friend Pager--it's an opportunity for me to learn about dog health and medicine. 

Blue came to me with some sort of skin rash. A few days ago it was a red, pimply rash covering her belly. 

Reminded me of when I was a kid and had chicken pox, but she didn't seem to be that itchy. 












I took her in to the shelter to see the vet tech, but she wasn't sure what it was! Didn't look to be a staph infection, certainly not mange, and it didn't glow in the black light she shone on it like you'd expect with ringworm. So she gave me some chlorhexidine shampoo and some cephalexin, which is the same combination that worked like a charm on Pager's staph infection. 

Two days later, Blue is looking much better! The red bumps are gone and now there are just these little dry bald spots from where the bumps used to be. 

She's still not very itchy, but since she loves to be rubbed I thought she might enjoy it if I broke out my newest grooming toy and gave it a whirl.





One of Florian's finest qualities is that he loves to check out the pet departments of his favorite stores when he is in-between teaching ballet classes during the day, and buy his girlfriend little dog-related gadgets. His latest find? The I Love Pet Head Scrubba Scrubba Massaging Bath Mitt. Yes, it's really called that.

So Scrubba Scrubba we did, and Blue loved it. We rubbed and scrubbed all over that little bitty flaky belly and removed a nice little quantity of dead skin and fur. 














The bath mitt was thoroughly pleasurable to use for both dog and human. 

See pile of dander in lower left.

And we had ourselves a nice little pile of dander to show for it. 



I can thoroughly believe the rumor that household dust is largely dead skin cells, 










especially if you happen to have a dog around with flaky bald spots.

What's YOUR favorite dander-removal strategy?