Meet Holland, a very matted dog who was dropped off at a shelter in Chicago looking definitively worse for wear. The shelter quickly called in reinforcements from the Trio Animal Foundation.
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"The width of the matted fur on her legs was over 2-3 inches thick. A shell like casing of matted fur covered most of her back and it looked like an exoskeleton from behind. Holland's matted ears dragged the ground and were at least 6 inches long … they should have been more like 2," the Trio Animal Foundation wrote in a post about Holland. "The wet matted tendrils on her face wreaked and she rubbed her face incessantly trying to itch her irritated skin."
The TAF workers spent two hours trying to cut through Holland's matted fur before they realized she needed more help than they could offer alone. They arranged to have her sedated and surgically groomed at the vet.
"Amazingly enough, Holland had no major health issues besides trauma to her skin. She was bruised, had cuts in many areas and some of her skin actually started to split because it was so thin from lack of cell turnover and circulation. Because of her new shape, Holland had a difficult time walking at first and she was in a tremendous amount of pain," TAF wrote. "She was started on antibiotics and pain medication to help keep her comfortable and heal from the inside out."
