Herb Guide: Basic Hygiene
A quick aside for @kingmystrie who has a stinky Clanmate
[Image ID: sketch of a cat licking its outstretched leg]
For the most part, a healthy warrior can be expected to keep themselves perfectly clean. Cats have special tongues with ridges on them perfectly evolved to keep their coats shiny and healthy.
When a Clan cat is long-furred, sick or elderly, or displaying signs of mental distress, the Clan will give them special attention to keep them clean. This is not just a job for the medicine cat; allo-grooming is a social behavior, close to the heart of a collectivist cat culture.
Herbs only come into play when hygiene becomes a health problem. The two most common issues are Mats and Fleas.
Mats
Time to clear up a common misconception; a mat is not a knot. A mat is what happens when a knot tangles with a bunch of other knots, wrapping up dead skin, dirt, layers of shed fur, and other gross debris into a solid mass. If a mat has formed, there’s been a breakdown in proper care!
When they do form, they are likely to form where the cat has trouble reaching, like the lower back.
Not only are mats filthy, but they can also pose a health hazard by weakening and pulling painfully on the skin below, allowing infection to take root. Mats must be removed as quickly as possible, before they become too large. Taking care of mats can take several painful, time-consuming days.
Oil made from flax seeds can be use to lubricate and loosen them, if the mat is not too large to be a lost cause. Carefully brush with claws, teeth, or a bone comb, if your Clan is capable of simple carving.
The best treatment is to carefully shave the area. A sharpened mussel shell, or a flint or stone blade will do. Take care to not cut the skin below, which could be thin and sensitive from bearing a mat.
Fleas
Aside from ticks which are treated with the infamous canonical mouse bile, fleas are another concern to Clan cats. While they’re only annoying to adult cats, they can sicken elders and kill kittens if they become a camp-wide infestation.
Prevention
Fleas can’t be completely eliminated, but Clans go to great lengths to keep them at bay. Cedar chips are used as den flooring, especially in the nursery, producing a fresh pine smell that insects can’t stand.
Mint can be planted around the camp and rubbed into fur to repel fleas and prevent them from leaping onto a patrolling warrior; but this is kept away from the nursery as mint is extremely poisonous and babies have a bad habit of putting things in their mouths.
Treatment
“barkface what do if flea outbreak bad TIME SENSITIVE“ -Kestrelpaw, desperately texting StarClan
For a VERY bad flea infestation, an herbal bath is an easy but detested solution. A large clay bowl (or, in SkyClan, a stolen birdbath) is filled with water for soaking, vinegar for killing, and a blend of mint and lavender for repellent. From there, the unfortunate warrior is plunged in, usually yowling and crying, and forced to soak for an hour.
Repeat for every. Single. Infested warrior. Even if they are WAILING LIKE BABIES.
They must be prevented from licking clean after this bath. Licking the bathwater off will poison the Warrior from the mint. Since it’s only a repellent, the mint could be optional, but WILL be included if the camp is actively infested... in spite of the soaked warrior’s grumblings.
The number one flea-killer, bar none, the GOLDEN KING of bug eradication, is none other than SALT. In addition to being a seasoning, having as much salt as possible in the medicine cat den is invaluable for controlling flea breakouts. Salt will be added to the herbal bath when it’s available.
In the Forest Territories, there was no salt. In the Lake Territories, collecting salt takes a long journey to the beach, and a patrol capable of carrying it home. As far as the Clans are concerned, salt works miracles so these trips are scheduled visits.
