This is Buster, a very sad story indeed. He is a 3 year old Shih Tzu that my Vet called me back to see while he was in surgery. He had apparently been adopted by a very sweet young gal, sight unseen, from a farm in Montana. The reason he was in the clinic was because he was in such horrible shape. Someone had tried to cut some of the mats with scissors and had cut about 3/4 of an inch of his tail tip off. There was also a slice in the back leg. He had skin infections on all 4 feet from wet, stool filled mats between the toes and from almost all of his nails growing back into his pads. Both ears were infected as well as a broken K9 tooth that was abscessing. His skin was in horrible shape. When I saw him he was sedated and being stitched up by my vet. He looks at me and asks if I think there is a dog under all the mats and stool. Once he had woken up from the sedation I got started. There was no chance of saving any of the coat, it was all in mats the size of my fist. I shaved him with a #10 and occasionally a #30 to get under all the felted coat. He then got 4 baths, some medicated, some conditioning and soothing to help his skin. He was with me for the whole day, he had never seen a groomer and was scared to death. The chances of hurting him were high since he would just blow up and start flinging himself all over. So I would work on him for 15-20 minutes or so then let him rest. He looks pretty funny with just the little poof on his head, but now he is a happy sweet little baby that I groom every 6 weeks. After about 3 grooms he is a perfectly behaved little boy. The best part was that we were able to apply for some $$ from a non-profit group to help the new owner pay for all of the medical care Buster needed to get started on his new life.