Grooming
All cats need to be groomed whether they are a pure bred long hair or domestic short hair cat. Grooming your cat helps to remove dead hair that they may ingest and end up having hair balls logged in their digestive system. Grooming helps to stimulate the oil glands and helps to keep their coat soft and shiny. Long haired cats need to be groomed more frequently, perhaps daily whereas short haired cats should be combed and brushed about once a week. Commence grooming as soon as your new cat has had a chance to get comfortable with you and with its new environment. Grooming reinforces your relationship with your cat. It allows you to bond with each other. This gives you a chance to check your pet's skin and coat and any other problems that may arise such as enflamed gums, bare patches on their coat and external parasites. It should be a pleasant experience for both you and your pet. Reward your pet with a special appropriate treat for good behavior once the grooming session has ended. Your cat will begin to understand soon enough, that after he/she gets combed, brushed, clipped and cleaned that a special reward will follow. Remember to be persistent. Find a time during the day or week when both of you are relaxed to begin the session. Cats are creatures of habit. They like routine. Anything that disrupts their routine disrupts them.
If by chance you waited a while before getting your cat used to the grooming routine, a lot of patience will be required on your part. You will have to start slowly and gently. Allow your cat to sniff and play with the brush and comb but exercise caution when doing so. A brush bristle or tooth of a comb can pierce or scrape the roof of the cat's mouth making the grooming session rather painful. Do a section per grooming session. Praise and reassure your cat often. Just let your cat know that you want to help not hurt.
There are a few areas to cover when grooming your cat.
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Their coat requires combing and brushing and possibly removal of knots in their fur
| Nails may require clipping if your cat is an indoor cat
| Teeth need to be checked and brushed
| Eyes, nose, ears and anus may require cleaning as well. |
The first things you should do and consider :
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PICK a location in which your dog will feel comfortable and can be restrained with relative ease
| WARM water is good but not HOT water
| INDOOR bathing or OUTDOOR bathing
| Plan for Escape Route for indoors
| Wet dogs will SHAKE Choosing Shampoo is important:
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If your dog has mats,
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Knotted hair that will not easily comb out-- you may have to reach for the scissors to cut them out.
| You must Be careful because mats usually occur behind the ears, between the toes, under the legs or in the "arm pits";
| All these areas that could be a bit tricky to trim. |
When washing your dog,
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Keep the water out of his ears and eyes as much as possible.
| If
you have to wash around these areas, just use a damp cloth, and keep the
soap to an absolute minimum. |
Rinsing
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The most important step of the bathing process.
| Make sure that all of the shampoo is rinsed out of the coat.
| Dogs
should smell like dogs, not perfumes or fruity fragrances. |
Pet's ear canals are longer than ours and typically produce more wax. Thus they tend to get infected more often, particularly in breeds with floppy and/or hairy ears.
To reduce the chance of ear infection beginning or reoccurring in your pet's ear please clean them on a regular basis with the cleansing agent prescribed by the doctor, as follows:
A bit of prevention goes a long way towards keeping your pet's ears clean and healthy. Please be diligent with your ear cleaning program, and incorporate it into a regular grooming process such as bathing.
