Alice - new chin

[nibblesmama]

I have a new rescue Chin. Alice is about 7 or 8 months old. She's a wild child - at least compared to my guys. She's matted, missing the last inch of her tail, has a hole in her ear and her ears are crusty. She also has nicotine in her fur - probably causing the matting. She's fur chewing too. So she's isolated (and ticked off) and we have a vet check in a few days.
What can I do about the crusty ears? It's on the outside. The insides look fine. The scab on the hole I'm leaving be. She's eating pellets and drinking fine, poops look fine. She won't touch hay. She about took my hand off for a shredded wheat. :thumbsup:
I gave her a dust bath and she just kinda looked at it. Then stuck her face in it and did the dusting herself with her hands, but she didn't get in and roll around. I'm going to give her a few more days to chill and then comb her out and rub her down with dust. I'm afraid to hold her by the tail since she's missing the end of it.
Can I use my cat's comb to comb her out and get the mats worked out? I don't want to use the brush - it's got those needle things. But I have a comb that is rounded that I use on my long haired maine coons.
Do I go with the fur or against? My cats don't care either way, but I don't want to hurt or traumatize this poor thing anymore than she already is.

Thanks!

 

[Sesame]

Are her ears scaly? Are there any red bumps visible? It might be ringworm. I would be very cautious to make sure you don't spread the ringworm to your other animals (cat and chins).

If it just looks dry, then it's just dry skin. Some bag balm or vitamin E oil will help with the dryness.

I would keep a different set of combs for each type of animal, imo. If you use the search function, there are a few threads about grooming chinchillas (ie: http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10846 Posted a video link that's pretty useful). Grooming chinchillas is different from grooming a cat. I'm no expert on grooming, but this is how I've done it: You need to hold the chin by the base of the tail (never hold the tip of the tail!!!). Using a fine-toothed comb (like a flea comb or a chinchilla grooming comb), start at the rump of the chin (base of the tail) and work your way towards the head, in short flicking strokes from tail to head (against the grain). I've only done it a few times and my chin hates it.

If there's some matting, you could gently pull the fur out sometimes to encourage it to slip out.

For the dusting, maybe she's not used to getting dust baths or she's just being cautious about dusting since she's in a new environment. Give her time to adjust. Maybe she isn't comfortable dusting with anyone watching her at this time. If her fur is extremely oily, you can always sprinkle/rub some on top of her.

 

[Riven]

Unless your chin has very fine fur you'll never get through it with any flea comb I've seen.

I would gentley tug the mats out and manually dust her. My thought is wild or not, you need to be able to handle your chin. I see so many people who don't handle their chins and then if something happens or they need to get them quickly it's a run around.

Congrats on the new girl sounded like she needed you!