Cat grooming advice needed, please.

[Bertha Venation]

We have a long-haired ginger tom named Moose. He has two impressive mats in the fur on his back. They are too close to the skin to get with scissors. Any idea how to excise these things before they start pulling and breaking his skin?

Thanks!

[asdjrocky]

1. Velcro.

[TZ]

2. Probably you will need to shave him.

Thats whats happened with my little sister's long haired kitty when the mats got bad..
Like this:

[Bertha Venation]

4. That's my fear.

Oh, that poor baby! He looks furious.

Who can afford to denude a poor cat, anyway? Grr.

[TZ]

5. Its not that expensive I believe.

Now when I saw my sister's cat Precious, she was a bit upset but they get used to it..Now in summer I bet it would feel good actually...Believe me her fur was a matted mess...I think after a while she was relieved....

[kiva]

24. Honestly, my two girls love it in the summer.

My older kitty struts around like she owns the house after she gets her lion cut...I think she's really a short-haired cat stuck in a long-haired body. I get them done in the spring and mid- to late summer (we live in southern Nevada), and they do much better in the heat. A word of warning, though - make sure you tell anyone who will see the newly-clipped kitty that THEY CANNOT LAUGH! They must say complimentary things only while in hearing range of said kitty...tell them they must go into the other room before they burst into laughter.

[HopeHoops]

3. DUCT TAPE!

Lots of it.

[Highway61]

6. I have a long hair as well

Two people. Hold kitty steady while the other cuts away MOST of mat (don't go close to the skin..I actually left some behind)Brush with a regular brush. Eventually that mat will grow out enough to cut it away. Now here's my life saver. I heard about the "Furminator". Pet stores have it for $45 - $50. No way. I found the generic in WalMart for $14. What a genious that came up with this! Amazing tool. I mean amazing. I brush her now once a week with this tool very carefully. Finish her with a regular brushing. My God, you'll never believe how much hair comes out. Not nearly the shedding I used to have and no more mats! Best $15 dollars I ever spent.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. I got one of those, too.

The groomer I went to doesn't like them, much, though. She said you really shouldn't use it on longhaired cats because, she said, it tends to pull and tear their skin, but it's ok for shorthairs. It really works nicely on my shorthaired tabby, buy now I'm hesitant to use it on the two longish-haired cats.

[Highway61]

19. I use it ever so carefully

I am aware of what you said. But like I said, if used carefully and slowly it does make a huge difference. No more mats and no more clumps of hair on the floor. With the heat and humidity, she appears so much more comfortable.

[Demoiselle]

23. Highway's got a good idea...

If you can cut into the middle of the mat, you can pull it apart a bit, do a bit of combing through it...eventually it will grow far enough away from the skin or fall apart. It just takes patience. I've done this with my Great Pyrenees and their mats. (Of course, they're a lot more patient than the average cat.)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I had to take my kitty to a groomer.

She had developed some mats like that, and she wouldn't let me try to do anything about them. It cost about $50 to get her cleaned up -- the groomer didn't shave all her fur off, but did have to shave the backs of her legs and her armpit area where the mats had gotten too thick. She deserved every nickel of her fee, too; the cat was NOT cooperative, to put it mildly. She did say that you shouldn't even try to use a scissors where mats are close to the skin, and that shaving is the only thing you can do; when the mats get too thick you can't comb them out.

[SoxFan]

16. "How much is a brazillian?"

:yoiks:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. Huh?

[SoxFan]

18. The infamous Lounge brazillian joke...

Never mind.

[Roon]

8. I used to have a cat that got huge mats all the time..

Normally I was pretty much able to stay on top of them,but one time it got away from me and I had to take him to the vet to get shaved.

Then one day his mats started just peeling off to the point where he didn't get mats anymore. Something changed on his skin probably from old age.

[Dogtown]

9. Hello, Bertha Venation!

Use scissors to snip the matt halfway down. That will cause it to lose integrety and unravel somewhat.

Follow up in a day or so by clipping 1/2 again &/or try teasing it out w/ a comb once it loosens.

A smidge of olive oil will help it loosen, also.


:hi:

[Blue Diadem]

10. That's what we used to do.

It worked with even some of the really thick mats.

[MineralMan]

12. I have an idiotic Maine Coon that gets those...

Actually, you can do it with good scissors. I use barber shears. What you do is pull the mat up and just snip at the edges, carefully. It's a slow process, but I haven't cut her yet, and she mats up like crazy every summer. It's safer than trying to shave the cat. As an alternative, a pet groomer can shear them off if they'll work with a cat.

Still, I'm going to buy a pair of manual shears and shave her back and sides next year. She won't tolerate a power trimmer, but the old manual ones should work OK.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Your cat must be much more docile than mine.

Mine made it very clear to me that under NO circumstances would she allow me to get anywhere near her with a comb or a brush, let alone a scissors. This attitude was why the session with the groomer was so... interesting.

[MineralMan]

15. Not more docile. Just more stupid.

I get my wife to distract it by scratching its head while I work on the mats. It isn't intelligent enough to understand that two things are happening at once. A true moran of a kitty. If it could post, it would be a Freeper.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. Many pet stores carry matt combs...

which are essentially combs with blades that will cutt the matt away.
Here's a pic of one variety:

[davsand]

20. Get a seam ripper.

Works great on long haired cats and dogs. I first learned this trick from a buddy of mine that managed a local Humane Society shelter. They didn't have the cash to hire groomers, so staff had to learn all the little tricks.


Start up next to the skin and work up and AWAY from the animal. It will cut thru the matt and keep you from having to cut the entire thing out. You can just pull all the little crossways hairs out and leave some of the longer vertical hairs in place.




Good luck!


Laura

[Bertha Venation]

21. I've known about seam rippers all my life, but that's the first

time one of them ever looked like an implement of torture to me! Yipes! But it's a great idea.

[Dogtown]

22. I'll try that too, davsand

Tx for the tip.