limp, thin coat

[Guest]

Hello all- We have adopted two Cairns in the last two months. the male has a gorgerous thick coat but the female, a "red" has a very limp, thin coat, very fine hair that makes her look greasy and not very attractive and her dander level is very high. Makes it very hard to have her near us and she is so lovable. There does not seem to be very much coarse hair. Any suggestions? We are in Maine if anyone knows a good groomer or breeder we could check with. Pat

[Guest]

I'm not sure what you mean by dander. Does she have flakey skin?

Sounds like she needs some major grooming. If she has thin soft hair, she's probably never been stripped, so you should do that right away. Strip her all the way down to her soft undercoat. It make take several full strippings before her coat grows in nice and coarse, but it's worth the effort.

Take her to the vet and have him make sure she doesn't have an ongoing skin infection that needs to be treated with antibiotics. If her skin is flakey, you might need a medicated shampoo like Allerseb-T or something else you can get from the vet. Don't use very hot water when you bathe her. That will only irritate her skin worse.

Take care! Susan