Pet Shampoo Myths

[Horsefeathers!]

Taken from [url=http://www.transformationpetcenter.com/articles/pet_shampoo_myths.html]Transformation Pet Center[/url].

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Myth - "a widely held but false notion" (Readers Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder)
"an ill-founded belief held uncritically, esp. by an interested group" (Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary)

Myth #1 - The pH of pet shampoos is different from that of human shampoos.
Absolutely not true. The pH range of pet skin is different from the pH range of human skin (pet=6.2-7.2pH; human=5.2-6.2pH), but the pH range of the shampoo products is pretty much the same, with most products being in the 6.0-7.5 range. In our G-TNT test, the pet products actually covered a wider spectrum of pH than did the human products tested. Dawn dish soap tests at 7.0 pH which is the absolute neutral point. "Balanced pH" on a label usually means the pH is neutral, 7.0, considered the balance point between the acidic side and the basic side of the pH scale. It does not mean that the pH has been adjusted to the pH of pet skin.

Myth #2 - Pet shampoo products are tested and proven on dogs and cats.
Simply not true. The cost of scientifically valid animal trials is astronomical, and there is no requirement that manufacturers do so. If you think about it, we probably would not want animal testing to be a part of shampoo development, although it might provide jobs for bathers.

Myth #3 - The ingredients in pet shampoos are different than those in human shampoos.
NOT. Pet and human shampoo manufacturers are shopping and mixing from the same pool of available ingredients. The same surfactants, emulsifiers, foaming agents, and preservatives show up in human and pet products in various combinations. The similarities are far greater than the differences. The biggest difference is that human products are required to show the ingredients on the label. If pet shampoos listed the ingredients, you would not be able to identify the differences.

Myth #4 - Pet shampoo manufacturers will back up a groomer in a legal dispute if a product harms a pet.
Not likely. More likely is that the company will blame the groomer for not following directions or improper application of the product. They will not accept the blame in an "isolated instance". They will not pay medical bills, or legal fees, nor will they stand by your side in front of Judge Wapner.

Where do these myths come from? Part of what makes a myth is that the source cannot be identified, so the belief is accepted as truth. Onee source of these myths are the pet shampoo manufacturers, especially their sales reps, who are targeting our market. They want consumers to feel comfortable using their products and one technique of sales is to make the consumer uncomfortable about other choices. They throw out just enough technical information, such as "pH balanced" to make us bow to their knowledgeable authority. Their purpose is to narrow our choices and they prey upon our ignorance. They sell to our desire to appear professional.

Being professional means making informed, responsible choices. Excercising blind faith based on myth and sales pitch is not my idea of being professional. Nor is accepting something just because it is written on the Internet, by the way - or even said at a seminar. As professionals we are responsible for making choices of the products we use on the pets in our care. Personally, I like to have a wide spectrum of choices, based upon my knowledge and experience, and the body of experience in our field that I draw from through my connection to a network of my colleagues.

Barbara Bird

[imported_Cassie]

Great article....this is some thing we have been debating at the grooming shop for quite some time. We are finding that our own "home made" shampoo (yes, the one we make from palmolive dish soap) works alot better on sensitive skin for dogs than most of the expensive shampoo's we buy! :wink:
We have one customer with a sheltie which had HORRIBLE skin problems...at first the groomer thought we were not getting the shampoo out, so she bathed the dog herself...no improvement...she then switched from an oatmeal shampoo to furstaid shampoo...no good...the owner is the one who brought us in the home made recipe...and we only use this on her sheltie; and what wonderful results...the dogs skin is improving...and does not break out after a groom. :wink:
I only use the home made shampoo on all of my dogs....and they have wonderful skin and coats.
The groomer I work for is beginning to loose faith in dog shampoo's...I'll give this to her. :wink:
Thanks HF

[Horsefeathers!]

Any time, Cassie. 8)

I know the pH debate comes up here from time to time, so I thought it would be good food for thought. I know the recipe you're talking about. If there's such a thing, it would have to be the perfect shampoo. If Dawn dish soap is the "perfect" pH balance (or Palmolive), that's quite an eye opener.

While I do keep a wide array of pet products in my professional arsenal, I rarely use pet products at home on my own dogs, some of which are allergy dogs. On my Poodles, one of which I'm growing into a show trim (you know how much hair that is?? ack!), I have been using Pantene shampoo AND conditioner (human shampoo here). I use Pink spray for brushouts (a product found in the African American hair section in most stores) or Infusium23 (human leave in conditioner) mixed 50/50 with water in a spray bottle. I've also used Dove (for people) shampoo and conditioner on some of my dogs only because I like the smell. It hasn't hurt any of them, including Devin who has horrible allergies. I do still primarily use pet products at work just because people are more comfortable with it, though I do use quite a bit of non traditional things. I'm just leaning more toward companies that are forthcoming with their ingredients (Eqyss, for example).

I can speak of myth #4 from personal experience. I was using a shampoo labeled as tearless from a company. I carelessly got some in a little Schnauzer's eye and he did get a corneal ulcer. I contacted the company and they told me a dozen different ways that the shampoo IS tearless and that I had apparently used it wrong. Only after relaying information I gathered from other groomers who had similar problems with the same shampoo did the company begrudgingly reimburse me the money I spent in vet bills and that was only because the company's reputation was being ruined on some internet groomer's boards. They also pulled the "tearless" label off that shampoo. It also taught me a valuable lesson in being more careful around eyes no matter what the label says (have to admit I still take any new bottle of a tearless shampoo I open and dab some in my eyes just because... :oops: ). I was still pretty new then and really wasn't worried one bit about just slathering a tearless shampoo all over a dog's face. Now, I don't care what it is, I'm VERY, VERY careful around eyes.

Anyway, I hope your boss can use the information. It's probably only basically validating what she's felt all along. :wink:

[courtnek]

[quote]We are finding that our own "home made" shampoo (yes, the one we make from palmolive dish soap)[/quote]

remember the old Palmolive commercials? Rosie the nail beautician always soaked her clients nails in it....I have washed my dogs with
Palmolive, because it is very gentle to skin. I used it to wash dishes for years before I got a dishwasher....and it does leave a nice luster on fur...in fact I have washed my hair with it when I ran out of shampoo and was too lazy to go out and get some....

I am curious though as to what you mix it with? I have mixed it with eggs
to bathe the dogs, and my hair...

[science_doc]

HF, THANKS for the :o
I am usually the biggest skeptic in the world about people products, I never thought that carefully about dog shampoo being exactly the same as people shampoo, but I should have known that :oops: So far Hailey's skin and coat seem to be doing really well with the frequency of washes and the shampoo I picked for its nice "clean" sent :oops: I guess I'll stick with that until I see any type of problem with her skin and hair. People are always asking me if she is a puppy, and how wonderfully soft and shiny her fur is, so I guess I have been doing something right! Thanks much for the tip about rinsing carefully, funny you should mention that (in the other thread), but when I washed her last Tuesday, I paid extra special attention to the rinse. I know that soap can make a GREAT growing ground for bacteria once it gets dry and crusty on skin and I was wondering if that is where the doggy odor comes from with Hailey? Well see in the next couple of weeks if the rinse was the problem.

[imported_Cassie]

HF, The groomer I work for really liked this article!!! it does validate what she has thought for years...she is also very anal about working around the dogs eyes...she has had a couple of bad experiences herself with tearless shampoo's and had to rush the dog up to the vet upstairs to have the eyes flushed (the dogs eyes where squinty etc.) she mentioned to me that when she trained to be a groomer about 20 years ago they used to put mineral oil in the dogs eyes...she is not comfortable with this as she feels that too many dogs suffer from allergies now a days and she doesnt want to put any foreign materials in the dogs eyes which may cause a problem. Perhaps you have some more information on this...?

Court, the recipe for our home made shampoo is:
1/3 cup Glycerin
1 cup Palmolive (or whichever dish soap you perfer)
1 cup white vinegar
1 quart of water.

science_doc, when I am rinsing dogs at the shop...I rinse and rinse...and then rinse once again! :wink: I rinse until the water runs clear...no bubbles..then I go from head to tail just one more time before taking the dog out of the tub. With the Newfoundland dogs I go over the ruff and areas of the dog where there is alot more coat. If you go over the dog after the bath and they feel greasy then this could indicate you have left shampoo in the dogs coat...of course with some dogs they have a larger amount of oils in their coat...so its hard to judge that way.
One more thing...make sure you rinse the arm pits (commonly missed spot) the front of the legs (also some times missed) I put cotton balls in the dogs ears so when I am rinsing the head I am not as worried about water getting in the ears...of course you always cover up the ear canal with your fingers to prevent any water from going in...some times dogs with floppy ears the underside of the ear gets missed in the rinse.

[science_doc]

:o :o :o :o
Cassie, your post about rinsing under the ears made me realize something about the way I bathe Hailey :oops:

I don't really "shampoo" and rinse her head. I have alwyas been worried about getting soap/water in her ears and eyes. So I just usually get a wash cloth wet, put some soap on it, "wipe" her head, then rinse off the wash cloth and repeat the "wiping". I wonder if her head gets smelly because i'm not really cleaning the fur there????

All my book learning is definately deleting some common sense, LOL!

[mouseatthebusstop]

good article thanks Hf

[imported_Cassie]

Kiwi,
The groomer I work for used to use Bio-groom products at one time...she no longer uses them. I am not sure if its due to them not being a Canadian shampoo and the cost of getting American shampoo over the border is outrageous...I'll have to ask her on Tuesday what she thought of the product...or HF will be able to tell you what she thinks. Currently we use groomers edge, top performance, A-1 all systems....we used to use
e-z groom products as well...

One more thing I meant to mention about our home made shampoo...well, not really "ours" :lol: we found it kills fleas....we ran out of a citrus shampoo for fleas (the company had it on back order) so we were using the home made shampoo (we use this for a first shampoo) my boss left it on for a few minutes while she drank her coffee..the fleas were dropping off this dog :o (we had advantage to put on the dog after the groom...the owner always brings it in for us to apply :wink: ) we found it gets rid of bad odors on the dog without leaving a perfume smell behind...alot of customers are very scent sensitive...and, if you add baking soda to the home made shampoo you have instant skunk shampoo! :wink: of course, don't add the baking soda to the shampoo until just before putting it on the dog...the shampoo has a long shelf life...but, if baking soda is added the remaining shampoo must be thrown out.

[Horsefeathers!]

[quote name='Cassie']Kiwi,
The groomer I work for used to use Bio-groom products at one time...she no longer uses them. I am not sure if its due to them not being a Canadian shampoo and the cost of getting American shampoo over the border is outrageous...I'll have to ask her on Tuesday what she thought of the product...or HF will be able to tell you what she thinks. Currently we use groomers edge, top performance, A-1 all systems....we used to use
e-z groom products as well...[/quote]

I've not really used Bio Groom enough to have much of an opinion on it. I mean, I've never heard anything really bad about it. I just never used it much. I also use some Groomer's Edge (Oatmella and ReFurbish), #1 All Systems and Nature's Specialties. Their Aloe Remo ROCKS and I like the Plum Silky as a basic shampoo, but it foams a bit too thickly for my bathing system sometimes. Some other favorites I've used in the past, but am not currently using are Pet Silk products. I'm basically hooked on their scents. :oops:

I've heard wonderful things about Eqyss products and am currently using them. I like that the company is forthcoming with their ingredients and that it's a clean rinsing, no residue product. This could probably become my staple provider of shampoos/conditioners as I like just about everything about them. It's quite pricey, though.

I'll have to dig up her "Beyond Scents And Suds" article and post it. It explains why too much lather and sudsing is actually not a good thing. We've been conditioned to believe that the more sudsing and lather, the better the cleaning qualities. Not true. As a matter of fact, too much foaming action can hinder the cleaning process. There is actually a scientific explanation for all of this. Maybe I am too easily entertained, but I find it all fascinating. Knowledge is power! Some of the shampoos I'm using now aren't as "sudsy" as others I have used and they do seem to do a better job in a bathing system (I have a recirculating system) and my pump doesn't get choked down by suds. I know it's HARD to give up the suds... I still love that "rich, luxurious lather" on my own head or in my own bath. It just FEELS good. Still, we don't need it. It's not what cleans.



[quote]One more thing I meant to mention about our home made shampoo...well, not really "ours" :lol: we found it kills fleas....we ran out of a citrus shampoo for fleas (the company had it on back order) so we were using the home made shampoo (we use this for a first shampoo) my boss left it on for a few minutes while she drank her coffee..the fleas were dropping off this dog :o (we had advantage to put on the dog after the groom...the owner always brings it in for us to apply :wink: ) we found it gets rid of bad odors on the dog without leaving a perfume smell behind...alot of customers are very scent sensitive...and, if you add baking soda to the home made shampoo you have instant skunk shampoo! :wink: of course, don't add the baking soda to the shampoo until just before putting it on the dog...the shampoo has a long shelf life...but, if baking soda is added the remaining shampoo must be thrown out.[/quote]

Cassie, before the use of Capstar tablets (owner consent, of course), I was using plain Dawn dishwashing liquid as a deflea shampoo, followed by a good conditioning rinse. I have not bought a flea shampoo since I first got out of grooming school. I do not like constant exposure to permethrins and pyrethrins (I also don't use dips!). The popular alternative is citrus products, but I've read of too many problems small dogs have had with citrus. I'm just too paranoid, I guess. Dishwashing liquid is THE BEST deflea shampoo I've ever seen and is still a favorite among "old timers."

Have you ever added a capful or two of plain mouthwash to your bath (I'm not sure what kind of bathing system you use)? I use it sometimes on dogs with smelly allergy skin (Devin gets it twice a week) and it's also great on those crusty, smelly Cocker feet. Not good, of course, for raw, open sores (at least, I'm too chicken to try it). This is debatable, but I've also used it to help flush out raw (but not oozing) ears, followed, of course, by traditional ear cleaning. The vet here has been pleased with the results and I've never had an ear complaint. The "to flush or not to flush ears" debate has been around the grooming boards forever. I'm a flusher. :oops:

[courtnek]

Cassie, please explain "plain mouthwash" - like Listerine with out the
"peppermint taste", something like that?

also, what's the best/easiest way to flush? Laurel's ears are infected, and she is now on topical antibiotics, would flushing regularly help prevent that?

I have been cleaning them with a vet solution and cotton balls....and it's not helping....


I may be doing it wrong though...I've never had to clean a dogs ears before, none of them were quite as long and floppy as Laurel's...

[imported_Cassie]

HF, excellent suggestions...thank you. As for the listerine, I know my boss keeps a bottle of it around the shop...I wasnt sure what she was using it for...I'm sure she is not using it in the dogs ears...but, I think she mentioned some thing about it neutralizing skunk odors...at certain times of the year it seems we have thousands of dogs which have been skunked. :o
[quote]Have you ever added a capful or two of plain mouthwash to your bath (I'm not sure what kind of bathing system you use)? I use it sometimes on dogs with smelly allergy skin (Devin gets it twice a week) and it's also great on those crusty, smelly Cocker feet. Not good, of course, for raw, open sores (at least, I'm too chicken to try it). This is debatable, but I've also used it to help flush out raw (but not oozing) ears, followed, of course, by traditional ear cleaning.[/quote]
This is very interesting and I will let my boss read your post...it's too bad she hates computers and refuses to own one! :lol:
I do remember my boss telling me about a Standard Poodle she owned a few years ago...it had horrible ear problems. The vet she was going to was running around in circles trying to help get rid of the ear problems with little success...she finally advised her about a old time remedy of pouring sugar or some thing in the dogs ears...this I will find out from my boss on Tuesday (never thought about this til now...and I can't fully remember what it was they used...but, it was some thing very weird) any way, my boss was desperate...tried it...and presto...no more ear infection!
[quote]The popular alternative is citrus products, but I've read of too many problems small dogs have had with citrus[/quote]
Interesting, I will also pass this along to my boss as well...she has used the citrus shampoo on small dogs...its good to be aware of these hazzards. We do not have capstar on hand at the shop...we usually depend on our customers to bring in their advantage for us to apply...most of our customers have their dogs on flea prevention programs....at the vet clinic upstairs they will use capstar when a dog comes in polluted with fleas...it kills them so quickly.
[quote]I've heard wonderful things about Eqyss products and am currently using them. I like that the company is forthcoming with their ingredients and that it's a clean rinsing, no residue product.[/quote]
This sounds wonderful....its amazing how many shampoos will leave a residue..we just had a horrible experience with a shampoo we were using...made by top performance the austrialian shampoo...great on small dogs, it has a built in conditioner in it...we loved the product and the results...until we used it on 4 Newfoundland dogs...all 4 of the dogs broke out within one week after we used this product....my boss had only used #1 all systems on these dogs prior to this or alexanders own shampoo...it has been a horrible experience for us...the owner of the dogs is not upset (she breeds the dogs and shows them) she is the one who got this shampoo for us in the first place....but, it has been a learning experience...the dogs had to be redone in the proper shampoo and they are clearing up...this is another case of our thinking that perhaps we had left shampoo in the dogs coat...which could very easily happen with a big coated Newfoundland dog....but, there are 3 of us, my boss bathed 2, I bathed 1, and the other girl bathed the other....so, it would be a rather BIG coinsidence that all 3 of us left soap in the coat...we realize now that it was the shampoo and the residue from it caused problems for the dogs coats....not a great learning experience. :-?