Have really wrecked a sheepskin

[JanaOfTheJungle]

My daughter was given a sheepskin by my dad and slept on it at night. She accidentally wee'd on it and I just stuck it in the washing machine and dried it over the banister. Now it is hard as a rock and she is very very sad. I suck.

Can I rescue it?

Following.. identical situation here, wet sheep don't go rock hard do they?!

hand wash in shampoo.

You will have to air-dry on the line, fairly quickly, as the skin is dead meat and will stink when it rots.

I did this. It is recoverable. I can't actually remember what I did as it was a few years ago, not to the skin bit. The wool bit I did brush a lot.

If it is a sheepsking intendend for babies or bedbound people to prevent bedsores, you can wash & dry it in machine. My kids have sheepskins that have been with them for 9 years, through many cycles of washing & drying. Wool cycle on machine, dry on regular setting, good as new!

I guess it wasn't treated or whatever, because it was NOT okay being washed in the machine and line dried. Am softening it in the bath with wool detergent now. We'll see.

The leather needs to be a bit oily to keep it soft. Shampoo, and dry hair conditioners, prevent your hair being too dry so are better than ordinary detergents that strip away grease. I don't know if there is another common cleaner that would add oil back. Ordinary leather dressings could be applied to the back surface to soften it. Possibly skin cream would do it but I've never tried.

I spray my hide gardening gloves with WD40 to soften them after washing, but it smells a bit funny.

I've oiled it with olive oil now and stuck it on the line. Let's see!

It has worked! Wow! It wasn't drying fast so I popped it in the dryer for half an hour on a wool setting and it came out nearly dry but still very soft.

So happy. And so is my daughter! Thank you all!

Hello
I just came across this post. I have a similar problem.
My sheepskin has just got really hard and knotted. I gave it to a dry cleaner 6 months ago, and never bother to check it then. Today I realised that it's in such a terrible condition and I could not tell if the dry cleaner ruined it or the humidity at my house. Is there anyway I can revive it? The skin has become really hard.

Apparently adding a table spoon of glycerine in the wash works too - I think you put it in where the conditioner goes.