[Jason Carlton]

My Australian Shepherd / Beagle mix is about 7 months old now, and about 4 months into recovery from red mange. When I found him, he had lost most of his fur, and his face was SOOOO scratched up.

Now, his body looks good, and his face looks good unless you know what to look for. If you look closely, you can see that his whiskers are straight and firm like they should be; they're weak, they either hang down or are a little curly, and they don't feel as thick as they should. And even though his face looks normal at first glance, if you look at a picture then you can see a lot of area where the skin shows through. My guess is that these are scars from the deeper cuts from before.

These issues don't seem to be bothering him at all, they just make him not as attractive as he could be. Is there anything I can do (like, a topical solution or vitamin, or cleaning technique) to help strengthen his whiskers, and to help promote fur growth in those scarred areas?

 

[railNtrailcowgrl]

Some will say it's a big no-no (I guess more for a cat than a dog) but when Pebs 'injured' her wiskers from her jail break attempts. I just shaved 'em off with clippers and let her grow new ones. If not your just going to have to wait until they fall out and re-grow on their own. I'd say by week 5-6 you couldn't even tell that I shaved them off, they just looked odd b/c they were short. I believe that vitamin E is good for scars and hair growth. Just get the liquid from your health store or pharmacy and massage his nose a little each night. The vitamins combined with the massage will stimulate blood flow and re-growth.

 

[sizzledog]

I'd just leave them alone - dog whiskers are different than cat whiskers, they aren't as stiff in many cases.

My dogs don't have whiskers (they're shaved off every week) and they've suffered no ill effects. But if the dog isn't a show dog and you don't mind the whiskers, I'd just leave them alone.

 

[Jason Carlton]

I hate to say it like this, but the poor little guy will probably never be a show dog, unless the scars in his face heal. I think he's adorable, though, and that's all that matters!

I might just let them go and see if they fall out and regrow better on their own. I'm in no rush, and I wouldn't want to make him uncomfortable. I wasn't really sure if whiskers would fall out on their own. My other dog (a 12 year old Chihuahua mix) has long, firm whiskers, and to my knowledge they've never fallen out.

I'm really more concerned about the scarring on his face, really. The more you look at him, the more you can tell. When I first got him, my few friends didn't want to touch him for fear of him having something contagious (he didn't, they were just being overly cautious), and I really don't want him to have that look for the rest of his life!