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How to get sap out of dog fur: Our best tips

How to get sap out of dog fur: Our best tips

If there are two things dogs love it is the outdoors and rolling in things! If they can roll in something outside it’s even better! What’s fun for dogs, is a nightmare for dog owners. Especially if the beloved dog gets home full of tree sap! How to get sap out of dog fur is probably the one task that seems impossible!

But, don’t worry, put down the scissors, and don’t call your groomer. There is hope! With a few tips and tricks, we’re going to share with you getting sap out of dog fur will be a piece of cake!

Now, before we dive in, we’d like to remind you that we have many useful articles that will be of benefit for every dog owner:

How to get sap out of dog fur?

In order to remove sap out of your dog’s fur, you will need a few things. Now, you should also know that removing sap won’t be easy, it will take some time, but you will be able to get it out.

How to get sap out of dog fur
Getting sap out of your dog’s fur doesn’t have to be so difficult

Sap from trees can actually be removed in different ways and using different items. As a matter of fact, some of the ingredients for removing tree sap out of dog fur you probably already have in your pantry!

Pantry staples

Even though it kind of sounds contradictory, but you can remove sticky stuff with other sticky stuff! That’s right!

For you to remove sap out of dog fur you can use pantry items like:

  • peanut butter
  • olive oil
  • mayonaisse
  • butter

That’s right, you can use all of the above-mentioned pantry items to remove sap out of your dog’s fur. Here’s how!

What you need to do

Get the remedies of your choice and saturate the area where the sap is. You will also have to rub it in a little bit. It will take time, and you really have to be careful and gentle. If you pull and rub too hard or too much there is the risk of you hurting your dog. This will make cleaning their fur much harder. Also, note that these remedies will work great if the sap is fresh.

If the sap is fresh you can also use vodka! The alcohol in the vodka will dissolve the tree sap. But please, don’t let your dog lick the treated area.

However, if the sap has dried out a little bit it’s best that you use a blow dryer on a low setting and heat the area a little bit. This will make the sap soft again and it will be much easier to remove it.

Get your comb

Whichever remedy you choose the process will be the same. To make things easier we will take olive oil as an example.

In order to remove tree sap from your dog’s fur you will have to heavily saturate the area with olive oil and rub it in gently, as we’ve already explained.

How to get sap out of dog fur
You will have to brush out the sap from your dog’s fur

Now, after that, you want to leave the olive oil for a bit to sit on your dog’s fur. Then, use a wide-tooth comb and gently start brushing the sap out of your dog’s fur. Do this step slowly and gently, you don’t want to pull your dog’s fur too much. There will be a lot of residues left on your comb. So keep a paper towel or wet cloth next to you so you can wipe the comb.

Know that you won’t be able to remove all of the sap on the first go. You will have to repeat this procedure a few times.

Bath time

The last step in removing sap out of your dog’s fur is a bath! You will have to give your dog a good bath, and preferably use a degreasing dog safe shampoo.

Apply a good amount of shampoo to your dog’s wet fur and massage it gently into it. It would be great if you could massage it 2-3 minutes. This way you make sure you will remove all of the sap and grease from the live oil. Rinse your dog’s fur thoroughly You may need to repeat this process multiple times. 

My name is Jackie and I am a veterinarian with a degree in veterinary medicine. With extensive experience in treating various animals, I am known for my compassionate and personalized approach to animal care.