# Cleaning mud-matted fur on underside of a dog



## GoldieMad (Mar 10, 2006)

One of my male golden retrievers seems to have fur that is a mud magnet on his underside - my other two goldies have different fur which, despite being about the same length, just won't attract mud! 

The guy with the mud-matted underside has many small clumps of mud-matted fur which I can't seem to brush or wash out. The only two options seem to be cutting each mat out individually (which would quite literally takes hours!) or shaving his underside (which seems a little excessive!). I suppose if the mud was 100% dry it would be possible to break it up and get rid of it that way, but that's difficult to achieve in winter.

Can anyone suggest a more workable solution to getting the mud mats out and perhaps even to prevent it from occurring?

Thanks


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## GoldensGirl (Aug 2, 2010)

I don't have an answer for you, but I'm posting to bump this up the list in hopes that someone with good information will respond.


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## Brave (Oct 26, 2012)

When you bath him, are you using conditioner? I find that hair tends to loosen up in conditioner. 

I assume the mud mats are little chunks of frozen or hard clumps matted in the fur? I imagine enough warm water rinsing an agitation would get the mud out at least and then conditioner and brushing in the tub would help get rid of the mats. 

Worst case scenario, you can do a belly trim so the hair is only about 2" long and uniform. I have heard of some dogs who routinely work in muck and bramble getting their bellies trimmed to prevent some of the burrs and what-not from getting stuck. 

I believe, Megora (a member here) sees tons of sticks and bramble in her two boys on a near daily basis. She swears by a slicker brush, if I remember correctly. 


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## Jessie'sGirl (Aug 30, 2010)

You wouldn't believe what Jess gets in his fur. I find using a seam ripper an easy way to break up mats. Make sure you are going away from the skin.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Those sound more like mats than like simple mud. You can use a dematting comb like this one to work through things like that fairly quickly without creating a chopped look to the fur. It's a comb with blades on one side of the tines and rounded tips. It's pretty good for getting behind a matted area and sawing through it.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

When you give the dogs a bath really work the soap and warm water into the fur. Take your time. Repeat and rinse. There are some people out there who claim that using something like Dawn dish soap for cleaning out really filthy coats. That may be another option?

Slicker brushes should help as well if it's just a matter of breaking apart clumps and brushing them out. If you are talking about just simple dirty coat - you can let it dry and brush out what hasn't already wicked away. 

I'm also a brainwashed believer (LOL) in using dryers to blow out loose undercoat. It was crazy how much fur came off both dogs the first time I used a dryer post-bath on them.


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

I had a collie and I shaved his underside regularly. I decided I had better things to do. With Casper, my husband rinses him off before he comes I the house if he's really dirty. What a nice guy, he carries out buckets of warm water! All that said, we did roll over at dog tricks class, and Casper rolled over and was covered in mud. How embarrassing!


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## GoldieMad (Mar 10, 2006)

Thanks very much for all of the info and suggestions. 

Regarding one question - they are mats, yes - but they are mud mats, so are small matted clumps of fur with mud in each mat so making it hard to comb out and/or wash. If I could only get them REALLY dry I could easily break them up, but with the weather we've been having over the past few months that's impossible.

One of my late goldies used to have the exact same problem and we never found a viable solution for him either, short of cutting out the really bad mud matted clumps.

They don't worry the dog and don't cause him any problems so that's one good thing.


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## JayBen (Aug 30, 2012)

GoldieMad said:


> If I could only get them REALLY dry I could easily break them up


You may want to look into getting a dog dryer then. Or just spend more time with whatever your using now and really get the underside of your dog dry.


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