My Cat Needs A Haircut!

[AmourDesign 10]

I think she loves me but everytime i get the scissors out she goes mental.

 

Can anyone recommend a good cat hair dresser with bigger balls than me?

[medusa 16]

Start getting her used to being groomed- don't just get the scissors out.

 

Apart from anything else, cats' skin is so hard to tell apart from the bottom of the coat that scissors frequently end up cutting them, which is a deeply important reason why scissors should only be used for trimming coat if you've got a good technique with getting a comb underneath the coat and running the scissors along the outside of the comb.

 

To start getting your cat used to being groomed, start off with just a rubber glove. Stroke her in short strokes whilst wearing a rubber glove and that will fetch lots and lots of loose coat out. From there you could move on to something like a Zoom Groom, which is made of soft silicone fingers that do exactly the same just getting further down into the coat. Both of these should be done as part of a warm and snuggling cuddle, done when your cat is happy to be petted and stopping when she's had enough.

 

When you've had a few weeks of getting her used to that you can try moving on to a simple coat comb, but start only on bits where there are no lugs or knots which are likely to hurt her. You need to understand that if grooming is a forced activity, or she sees it as always hurting, then she will shred anybody that is doing it in order to get away from the pain. The aim is for her to see it as a normal part of everyday life, along with her human feeding her. I encourage people to start with kittens as mummy stops grooming them, so that although they don't need to be OK with being groomed as a small kitten, it is a normal and non-threatening part of life when they're all grown up and they do need grooming.

 

What is it about her coat that needs cutting? Does she have knots? What is her coat like?

 

If she really can't be persuaded to cope with being groomed but she's getting knots then your vet would be able to cut out knots under sedation, but this is expensive and traumatic, and if you can teach her that it's not scary to be groomed then this is the long term solution.

 

I was the groomer at the Sheffield Cats Shelter for 10 years so I have had my share of grooming cats when there is no time to ask them politely to allow it, and believe me, if you can go with the friendly route that is much less dreadful for both cat and groomer

[mc55 10]

what about a furminator Medusa ??

[mounts 10]

pet stop stocksbridge 0114 2882390 does cat grooming take mine everytime fantastic people

[medusa 16]

what about a furminator Medusa ??

 

Furminators are great but:

 

 

1. The cat will be as freaked out at being combed with a furminator as they would be with anything else if they are not used to being groomed, so that just increases the bill without achieving anything. Cats take a lot longer to learn to cope with new things than dogs do, and often it's a simple case of taking it slowly and teaching the cat that being groomed is OK, and
   
2. If the cat has a double long coat, or there are significant matts already in the coat then a furminator is not what is needed. They can damage double coats by cutting out guard hairs which are meant to be maintained and I know a lot of people who have double coated GSDs, for instance, who won't use a furminator and who prefer to hand strip to protect the guard hairs. If the coat is matted then it needs the matts addressing using a matt splitter, clippers or (very safely used) scissors on top of a comb to reduce the risk of cutting the skin, then the cat needs to be taught that being groomed is OK so that the OP can prevent them from recurring.
   

[*Peaches* 10]

I do mine myself, and I have 2 elderly persians. The trick for hose scared of scissors is little and often, thats how I got mine used to them x

[katkin 10]

I do mine myself, and I have 2 elderly persians. The trick for hose scared of scissors is little and often, thats how I got mine used to them x

 

Ditto. even trimming claws- better to get one at a time when your cat is feeling calm than to stress it out trying to do the lot in one go. Some of ours are OK being groomed and trimmed - the Bengal is a loony and likes to be hovered! but we've got a couple that are NOT at all happy when the combs and clippers come out. Our ex streetcat Fluffy ( the name is a clue) is a longhaired all black girl who loathes being groomed - I even bought a pair of official pet gauntlets (the rabies ones with the added padding on the fingers) just to get near her. Bribing with Dreamies sometimes works, lol

[medusa 16]

Absolutely. One should never expect to get all of the grooming done in one go with a cat, even a cat that is happy to be groomed. You start off with something that they love and then try to sneak in a little of what they aren't too keen on, then go back to something they love and if they won't let you sneak in any more bits that they aren't happy with then you try again tomorrow.

 

I did quite a lot of my grooming at the Shelter wearing gauntlets katkin If they have been living rough before they come in then it's sometimes an emergency to get their coat seen to. I've seen cats that can no longer walk because the matts have their legs bound up and I've seen a huge number of cats that have lumps that have something sharp in them which has bored through the skin and is causing an abscess. In both of those cases it was either me with a helper and gauntlets or a trip to the vets, and if I could do it then it was all over much sooner. The stress levels of a trip to the vet aren't kind to cats who are already struggling and 10 minutes of unpleasantness to enable a wound to be treated or a leg to move is worth pushing through.

 

I once fostered a long haired pregnant cat who was so matted that she was pooing and weeing into the matts around her back end- the smell was indescribable- and her tummy was completely covered in a big matt. There was no way that she could give birth or suckle her babies without it all being dealt with so I got my OH to restrain her really effectively (thankfully heavily pregnant cats are a lot less bendy than most cats!) and I got out the clippers and shaved her poor sore skin underneath then gave her a bath to soothe the skin. I don't care at all about the aesthetics of this sort of stuff- that can all wait until after the babies and she's under the anaesthetic being spayed.