More than one way to shave a cat?

All right, here's the situation. I wrote about Max and his horrible mats. Well, thanks to the info on this forum, the hubby and I decided that the cat needs to be shaved.

Problem 1: in this small town, only ONE grooming place accepts cats, and only if they're well-behaved.

Problem 2: Whenever Max leaves the house, he turns into kitty-from-hell-death-with-pointy-ends. The vet need to bring out the leather gloves just to put him on the weight scale.

Problem 3: My vet clinic will do the shaving, but only if Max is put under anesthesia. Which means quite pricy, especially considering the mats are only on his hind end.


So, what to do? We decided to try and clip him ourselves at home. Max is a very mellow and amiable cat at the house, and we can do anything with him. I've used clippers and cut hair before, but never on a cat. I figure that because Max is a neutered, strictly indoor cat, he won't get upset about a bad haircut since he doesn't have a love life or a social life.

Anybody know how to clip a cat? Or, does anybody have any alternative ideas?

Catnip. And a reasonably full tummy Then have at it. Make sure you've got two people there, and keep a large towel handy as you may end up wrapping Max and just exposing him part by part and shaving him in sections, lol!

Make sure that your clipper and blade works well and will be able to get trough the very thick cat hair. You'll need to be 2 to get the job done one to hold the cat and the other to shave. Clip his nails down to above the quick so if he does try to scratch it won't hurt as much. When clipping him down, place him on a table all four paws down belly on the table and the person holding him down should hold firmly but gently onto the scruff part of the back of the cat neck so he can't turn around and bit the one clipping. Also with the other hand the one holding should hold the cat down on the back. With the clipper you should always got with the way the hair is growing, not against the grain. Find the mats and slowly start working your way under the mat until it's shaved away. If you notice your cat getting fussy and seems to be loosing patience with you then give him a brake and work on him later. It's best not to stress out the cat. Good luck with it all, hope it works out.

So how did it go? Story and pic at 11?

Giny described it beautifully. I too would like to see pics. Or at least hear the horror story.

this sounds like it could equal a trip to the emergency room. I would just try doing him section by section and have him wrapped in a towel.

Haven't done it yet. If all goes well, it'll be done tomorrow. First, I tried a couple of different options. Mission status as of now:

Comb and brush: failure-cat gave me evil look if I pulled a tad too hard
Scissors: failure-Max now has some scraggly-looking patches on him, but the mats are still there.
Fancy mat removal comb: failure-the bladed teeth of the comb didn't do a thing to the evil mats.

I think what I'm going to do is try something a little different. My mom has old-fashioned manual clippers. No noise, so nothing that would spook the cat. I shall try to have EMTs and my church priest standing by just in case.

make sure you have two extra people or one that knows how to restrain cats... grab the feet and lay him/her on the side and have at it after full tummy and sleep time... though they sometimes poop when stressed out... so you better think twice about full belly lol... anyway make sure if you have the feet held and him laying on the side you can do it yourself... LOL

I just had to shave my entire cat about 1 month ago because of an allergic reaction she was having to her cat food. Her entire back was one big mat. I shaved her myself with a pair of normal hair clippers and I had my mother come over to hold her. Personally, I had to use the clippers without any of the attachments on...so basically just with the blade. I know that people will not reccomend this, but we found that it was pulling too much the other way and she was screaming in pain, but as soon as we just used the metal blade she calmed right down. We personally did not have to hold onto her feet...my mom just kept her pointed frontwards and petted her while I shaved her from behind. Also, if the mats are pointed towards her back, I found it much easier to go against the growth of the fur because it cut much easier and she didn't seem to mind it as much...however take your time. In all it took me about 3 hours to completely shaved her (I didn't do her belly) and although she avoided me for about 2 days I could tell that she felt so much better.

no you can do that if you know wha tyou are doing suzy_99 there is nothing wrong with it you just have to know how... and what... you are doing