Many stray and neglected dogs are left unattended, causing them inconvenience as their fur becomes tangled and matted. But grooming can make a big difference. That was the case recently after a dog with extremely matted fur received a makeover that gave him a new lease on life. On July 16, the South Plains SPCA shared a post about the “worst case of dog neglect we have ever found.” A 6 year old dog was covered in extremely matted and thick fur and was in poor condition.
“The dog has areas of rotted skin, the matted fur is so bad it is embedded in the skin, the nails are 2 inches long,” the SPCA reported. “His hair was matted for about five years,” Kim Moyers, president of the South Plains SPCA, told KLBK-TV. “It’s terrible that he was probably seen in different places and overlooked. I don’t understand how they didn’t see him wandering around in that state. I’ve never seen anything like him. It was shocking.” The South Plains SPCA took him in and named him Matt, after his matted fur. Despite the terrible condition they found him in, they were committed to caring for him and giving him a second chance. Matt reportedly whimpered in pain whenever they tried to trim his fur, so they had to sedate him.
They cut through a collar and leash that had grown into his fur and sheared off a staggering three pounds of fur, the result of five years of neglect. “There were thousands of burrs, sticks, grass and even matted beetles in his fur. He has severe bruising on his body due to his fur being stuck to his skin,” the SPCA wrote. The dog was anemic and was medicated, although he tested negative for heartworms and free of tick-borne diseases (since the ticks could not have gotten through his thick fur). Matt still has a long road to recovery and will require dental work once his blood work is completed. But with all that nasty fur removed, Matt’s life has already changed dramatically and he looks like a completely new dog.
