#matted fur

[geoxx-carrboro]

The Skunk Ape – By Geox

“The Beast That Smells Like a Lawsuit” Or: Florida’s Bigfoot, After Several Bad Decisions and a Decade in a Bass Pro Shop Parking Lot You don’t go looking for the Skunk Ape. Not unless you’ve lost your sense of smell, your sense of direction, and most of your better judgment. He doesn’t stalk like Bigfoot. He doesn’t whisper through trees or glance over his shoulder in wistful silhouette. He…

The Skunk Ape – By Geox

[bonefall]

ive kinda been wondering abt mats and knots and how wc handles them. how would the cats even deal with them?? grooming would probably make them more painful and possibly worse, even with their specialized tongues

It's hard to overstate how important it would be to any cat medical society to prevent mats from forming, and quickly eliminate any knots before they form a mat.

In fact this would be treated as a medical problem, not just a matter of bad grooming.

Health Concerns of Matted Fur

A mat can become filthy. Parasites, dirt, dandruff all get trapped inside... these things would stink to their denmates.

Pain. Mats pull on the skin and can cause it to become very thin, having one tugged would hurt.

Infection. Because of the above, these are prone to causing real, actual sickness that could kill the cat, especially if they are an elder.

It's important to prevent and treat them as efficiently as possible.

Prevention

The best medicine!

First of all, elders would do a lot of allogrooming. Someone needs to be able to lick their lower back-- a spot they can no longer reach. It's a shame that "Sharing Tongues" died in the books, because this is both important for physical and social health.

Second of all, a cat who is showing signs of anxiety or depression would get extra attention as a matter of their fur becoming dirty. A cat who stops grooming is an unhappy cat. This would be a bigger cause of concern in a more realistic 'intelligent cat society'.

Mat Elimination

Ok so you still ended up with a mat. How are we gonna get rid of this bad boy?

Remember that a mat is not just one tangle. It's a solid complex of knots, dirt, shed fur, and whatever other gross gack got wrapped up in there, pulling painfully on the skin below.

For a small mat, flaxseed oil is the best treatment the majority of Clans would have access to, unless your Clan is somewhere that has access to olive oil. The oil would be massaged into the mat and left to sit for thirty minutes. From there, as much of the mat would be brushed out as possible.

The mat can be brushed with claws, teeth, or a comb if your clans have the capability to carve bone or wood.

When the mat is too large, or the oil doesn't work, it will need to be shaved out.

Shaving can be done with a sharpened clamshell, a stone blade, or, if possible, flint specifically. It is VERY important that this shaving is slow; going too fast could cause damage to the sensitive skin below.

[taurens]

My warrior cat oc for @elliewilliams interests.

[clatterbane]

The cat groomer rescheduled, and was indeed here a little while ago. Our place is oddly difficult to find from GPS directions, but she finally found us after Mr. C went outside to wave her down.

She was remarkably quick with those clippers, while Mr. C held the victim. Experience definitely made a big difference there--along with the professional equipment, most likely. I felt like a fifth wheel, just watching from the doorway to the hall. (And also hoping to grab Mr. Fluffy Britches if he tried to make a run for it, tbh.)

Mirrors stayed calmer than I expected for the whole time! On particularly good behavior with strange humans, like he tends to be at the vet's.

Thankfully, that sort of experience doesn't tend to freak him out. The poor boy obviously didn't enjoy getting clipped, but he wasn't even really struggling to get away at any point.

She was only here for like 35-45 minutes altogether, with a couple of short breaks in the barbering. And including the time spent paying her by bank transfer at the end. She was that quick with it. (And only wanted £70! I had been expecting more, tbqh. She said it would have been considerably more if he hadn't been such a doll to work with.)

We also got to hear some eccentric ideas about feline nutrition, which in this case involved feeding them only one particular brand of standard supermarket cat food. ("It's all protein! It's very natural! It's all British!!!") Nutritional problems were supposedly why he even matted up in the first place, and it's particularly important for older cats!

At least she did work fast, and wasn't trying to sell us essential oils on the side or anything, is all I can say. 🙄 It could have been a lot worse. She seemed nice enough--and was very good working with the kitty. Which is the really important part!

Anyway, on to the carnage. After Mr. C had already thrown away one big dustpan full of fur:

It probably looked like more in person. At least enough to make a couple more cats.

And the results on Mr. Mirrors!

He came into the kitchen, and wanted attention from me pretty soon after the groomer left.

(Please ignore the background mess in there. That's what I've been doing recently! )

Looking pretty normal from the front, unless he lifts his head in the right way so you can see a shaved place under his chin.

...And then he turns around! 😾

Mr. Fluffy Britches is one of the least appropriate names for him right now. 😅

Probably as close to a lion cut as he's ever going to get. We hope it won't be necessary again, at least! She was actually trying to take as little off him as possible, with the winter weather and all. He was just that matted.

Someone was glad for treats, though!

Besides plenty of getting loved on, after that experience. 😿 He's still acting pretty needy, and I'm not that surprised.

(I also petted on him gently with some unscented baby wipes, to help clean his skin off some in as low stress a way as possible. Getting some of the little hair clippings and skin flakes off will probably help him feel better, too. He couldn't really groom himself too well for a while, with the matting.)

But, hopefully he'll be feeling better and way more comfortable now, with those damned mats finally gone! There are still a few small ones left around the edges, but those should be totally manageable the usual way. (I.e., me sneaking in for a couple of quick snips with manicure scissors while he's super relaxed and getting petted.)

The few small ones left shouldn't be pulling on his skin as he moves or anything in the meantime, at least. Just leaving them alone until at least tomorrow. Same with trying him with that little fleecy sweater, though it looks more like the poor cat needs some warm trousers right now! 😊

[pentakillmaven]

Cat side of tumblr, help!!

My fiancé's family's cat is long-haired and she's gotten pretty badly matted on her lower back and a couple small spots on her cheeks. I have been trying to gently brush out the mats a little bit at a time every time I see her, but she's not used to being groomed so she will only stay still for a few minutes at a time--not long enough to make any headway. I will hold onto the mat at the base to try to avoid pulling as much as possible, but she still freaks out. She won't even let me try to brush near her face. She has hairball problems and I think she is having trouble reaching her back for some reason.

Does anyone have tips for how to keep this cat contented long enough to get some serious brushing done? She's never really gotten any treats, she's more love/play motivated than food motivated, so I am worried that trying to keep her occupied with a you would only make it harder to brush her out. And I don't think a brushing glove or other soft silicone brush would detangle her hair well enough to reduce the matting. It's mostly near the skin that it's matted, the ends of the fur aren't nearly as tangled.

(Before I get any anon hate over "animal abuse/mistreatment", my fiancé is not the primary caregiver for this cat and his parents keep putting off taking her to the vet. His mother wanted to try to take household scissors to cut the mats out and I shut that down immediately. My fiancé and I are planning to take the cat with us when we get married and he moves out--when we do so, we're going to get her fully checked out by the vet and probably get her fur trimmed. She's a 100% indoor cat so she doesn't have any issues with getting into brush or anything.)

[dog-groomer-diaries]

Yesterday I learned the bribery works, no matter how small the amount 😂 this is the mat I shaved off of a cat's chest yesterday. I explained that the reason for his hair loss behind his ears is from the constant matting and that his skin is raw and that his body is covered in scars, also from matting. I told him if he scheduled a follow up appointment for 10 weeks from yesterday and actually showed up, I would give him back the $5 I charged him for matting. He excitedly scheduled 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

[dog-groomer-diaries]

Perhaps not the easiest for someone who doesn't groom dogs to see, but in these photos I am blowing out this dog's coat to loosen it up so I can get a 5 blade under his mats. 5 is still short, but it's a step longer than the shortest blade we use on the body (7) so he's not bald. I split his mats and then brushed them out to the best of my ability before doing this, so they don't look as bad as they were! De-matting is painful for a dog. Even shaving down under the matting is painful for them, as sometimes we have to work to get under without catching the skin.

[carefuldogclipping]

In short furred cats what are the early signs to look for that a cats no longer able to clean themselves well? Signs that you can check for before they get mats in their fur.

I’ve been thinking about this question all day because it’s a bit hard to answer. Some cats will have no issues, my own personal cat has started getting what I call feather matting in her old age.

First she just seems extra greasy, then her fur with start to piece together. Think like an anime character- the chunks of pieced together hair. Or perhaps like bird feathers, sticking together. That’s when she gets brushed with a metal comb.

Most cat matting, if caught soon enough, can be brushed out with a comb. It’s actually really forgiving in that regard. Of course Haze yells and howls the whole time like she’s dying, but a good brush once a months keeps her tangle free c: